For the last few weeks, American audiences have watched the precision and grace of Chinese athletes competing in the Summer Olympics thousands of miles away.

Later this week, Abilene audiences can watch these kinds of performers from just a few feet away.

The Golden Dragon Acrobats from China on Saturday bring their show to the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St.

The show is part of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council's Children's Performing Arts Series.

The Golden Dragon Acrobats combine gymnastics, juggling, balancing acts, dancing and a number of other skills to create a performance that is less Barnum & Bailey and more Cirque de Soleil.

Acts include elaborate human pyramids, body-bending, ballet and a bicycle act that has to be seen to believed (check out YouTube for just a few of their favorite tricks).

While the group's program isn't quite what like what audiences saw in the Summer Olympics' gymnastics competitions or even during the elaborate opening ceremony, choreographer Angela Chang said she expects larger audience turnout for this season's Golden Dragon shows because of the Beijing Games.

"We know there will be stronger support," Chang said. "More people want to see of those skills."

Each Golden Dragon show consists of 20 to 25 performers who each graduated from a Chinese acrobatic school. Owner Danny Chang -- Angela's husband of 28 years -- goes to China each year to recruit new talent for the show.

Those Danny Chang selections relocate from China to Golden Dragon's American headquarters in Plano. Coincidentally, the city also houses the home gym of all-around gold medal gymnasts Nastia Liukin (2008) and Carly Patterson (2004). But Chang said her performers' only tie to the gymnasts is the extreme sense of culture shock the performers probably felt coming to such a different country.

Individual acts are constructed the exact opposite of how one might assume. Angela Chang first chooses the music for the act, and based on the mood it sets, choreographs an act around it.

Chang said this music-first approach helps her performers set an appropriate ambience.

"It's really a very long process," Chang said. "Understanding each other is very important. You have to trust each other, work with each other and make that act happen."