NEWARK, N.J.—Shen Yun Performing Arts left Renata Horstmann, a retired Asian-antiques store owner, with a sense of peace. “It’s very relaxing, it’s beautiful music, it’s very melodic, everything is nice,” she said after watching the New York-based company perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

She compared the experience to meditation.

Shen Yun revives 5,000 years of Chinese culture, a culture believed to be divinely inspired. It’s a culture imbued with the principles of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, explains the Shen Yun website. Horstmann grew up in Beijing, and she found the culture presented by Shen Yun to be very diverse and interesting.

Represented on stage are the unique features of many of China’s over 50 ethnic groups, and the different characteristics of dynasties throughout the ages. Shen Yun’s website states: “Because each dynasty was unique, it left behind a rich array of cultures for posterity to admire.”

Saturday’s performance took the audience through a Yao village and through a Mongolian gathering with a traditional chopstick dance. A digital backdrop opens the stage to these colorful and idyllic scenes, as well as to grand, impressive dynastic courts, and the heavens.

“We thought it was charming,” Ms. Horstmann said. Even the liveliness of dances such as the chopstick dance did not disturb the calm, she said. “Because I think also the music has a lot to do with it. It’s not loud, it’s just very soft music, sort of meditation. The costumes are lovely, the movements are soft.”

Reporting by Ivan Pentchoukov and Tara MacIsaac

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.