ATLANTA — “On a dark winter day like today, the performance really lightened our evening,” said Steven Biegalski, a nuclear engineering professor at Georgia Tech, after attending Shen Yun.

On the evening of Jan. 31, Professor Biegalski, chair of Georgia Tech’s Nuclear Engineering Department, and his wife, Kendra Biegalski, attended the seventh Atlanta performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Mrs. Biegalski, a former award-winning professional Irish dancer, now runs a nuclear consulting company and serves as chair of the DeKalb County Republican Party.

Watching Shen Yun for the first time, Mrs. Biegalski said the experience had been long anticipated. “I’ve been wanting to see Shen Yun for many years now,” she said. “It’s taken us a while to get here, but I’m glad we finally made it. It was a wonderful evening.”

Professor Biegalski agreed, praising the vibrancy of the performance. “The color and the dance were just phenomenal,” he said. “On a dark winter day like today, the performance really lightened our evening.”

Mrs. Biegalski, who danced Irish dance for more than 20 years, said she was impressed by the dancers’ technical skill, precision, and synchronicity: “I really enjoyed just the technicality, the power, the precision of the placement that they achieved on the stage. The way they danced on the stage together as a group was really impressive.”

She also praised the orchestra. “The musicians were wonderful,” she said. “The lady who played the two-stringed instrument—that was utterly phenomenal. I can’t believe an instrument with two strings can do that.”

Shen Yun dancers are often praised for what appear to be “acrobatic” skills, but Classical Chinese dance encompasses a vast system of technical movements, many of which later influenced other art forms. Acrobatics and gymnastics borrowed from these techniques over time—a connection Professor Biegalski said he was delighted to learn through watching Shen Yun.

“Probably what most impressed me were what I would call gymnastics,” he said. “But as we learned in the show tonight, a lot of these very acrobatic aerial moves come from the history of Chinese dance. Some of the dancers were quite phenomenal in the amount of airtime they would get. They would jump and twirl and be suspended for a long time. The power and precision of their dance was very impressive.”

Beyond the artistry, the couple said they were also moved by the deeper message conveyed through the performance.

“I found it very inspirational, and I found a lot of power in what they did,” Professor Biegalski said. “You could tell that there was an energy that they had,” noting that the dances conveyed a strong sense of community and a powerful spirit.

Mrs. Biegalski noted the shared values reflected in the production. “We’re very faithful Christians, and I think there’s a lot of commonalities with the beliefs that were portrayed in the show,” she said. “The concepts of goodness, truthfulness, integrity, and salvation transcend ethnic boundaries and religious cultures, and those commonalities bind us together.”

Mrs. Biegalski agreed, adding that the performance offered a rich blend of artistry. “Beautiful dance, wonderful music, captivating stories and history,” she said. “It really had something for everyone. We enjoyed it so much.”