ATLANTA—The curtain rose, and female Chinese angels wearing long, flowing sleeves seemed to float across the stage amid an ancient heavenly panorama. For Charles Lehr, an IT consultant who was in the audience on Jan. 30, the dance segment “Water Sleeves” was a major reason for this being his seventh year seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The otherworldly backdrop that animated seamlessly with the dancers was another big reason, he told The Epoch Times in the lobby of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre after the performance. The flying Chinese superhero, the Monkey King, who launches himself from the stage into the sky, is a good example of this state-of-the-art theater special effect.

“Some of it is so fantastical that you really couldn’t do it with live people,” Lehr said. “You need to be able to show it [on the screen] and then bring them on stage for the dance.”

Shen Yun, whose dancers train in classical Chinese dance in New York, is “not pop culture,” he added. “It really strikes a chord because so much of it is positive and uplifting. It’s timeless. And I think that’s part of what makes it so wonderful.”

Now 20 years old, the dance company has been a dauntless champion for traditional Chinese values across the globe. Its mission is to revive “China before communism.” And a big part of this revival lies in Shen Yun’s almost transcendental beauty that seems to linger in the air long after the dancers have left the stage.

As a pastor, Mr. King said he is “still processing” Shen Yun’s spiritual message. China has always been a land steeped in religion, until that became suppressed under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in modern days. So belief in the divine is a theme woven throughout Shen Yun’s programs.

“It’s a little bit different than what I have experienced,” Cameron said. “But at the same time, I like to understand where they’re coming from.”

The show opens with a scene in Chinese heaven where the Creator leads an entourage of deities down to Earth, where they become players on the stage of China’s dynasties across 5,000 years of history. There are themes of divine intervention, as well as the principle that goodness will be rewarded and evil punished. The ancient morals are appealingly relatable in Shen Yun.

The reason Shen Yun can’t be seen in China is that its performers are Falun Gong believers, some of whom were even persecuted by the CCP for their faith. Nor can Shen Yun perform in China, since several of its dance segments portray CCP officials maiming Falun Gong practitioners and being punished by the divine as part of its revival.

Religious persecution, though, is something Cameron understands only too well.

“I also know that Christians are being persecuted in China as well,” he said. “That’s always a reminder of just the liberty that we have and to be thankful for that and also to hope for better days for China.”

He said he hopes that Shen Yun can one day “go back to their roots” in China and “take back their culture and their aesthetic,” to share with their fellow countrymen.