Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage of Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater last week with classical Chinese dance, operatic solos, and a live orchestra.

“It’s excellent. It’s wonderful. I love it,“said Tom Esposito, senior VP of credit forecasting at Citi Bank. ”The beauty of the costumes, the beauty of the music and the dancing—its all excellent.”

“It’s absolutely beautiful, emotionally attached, spiritually attached, holistically attached, everything. It’s just beautiful,“ said John Cooper, author of the book ”Noble Street.“ ”To be able to be connected like that to a show, I’ve never been able to be connected at such a deep level.”

For thousands of years, the Chinese called their country the land of the divine. They believed that their arts were given to them by heavens as a way to bring the foster a divine culture on Earth. But today, the arts emerging from China are infused with culture of the Communist Party, which promotes atheism and battling with heaven.

New York-based Shen Yun seeks to revive the divine inspiration of China’s traditional culture through dance and music.

“It makes me cry when I think of how its gone, and how this is resurrecting it and how what is come to China now is just so sad that it’s destroyed such a wonderful beautiful people with such rich heritage, such beautiful love and caring and compassion for each other,” said Michael Castagno, former acting controller at Keating Building Company. “It was very, very touching.”

“Not many westerners really understand Chinese culture,” said Esposito. “And to me, this seems like a window through which I can see and understand better. So I liked that.”

“It really brings it into wonderful focus—and 5,000 years of beauty, tradition, elegance.” said John Frazier Hunt, an attorney at Hunt & Ayres, P.C.