For Sharon Koomler, collections manager at the Shaker Museum, the approach is less anachronistic than it might first appear. Music and bodily movement, she notes, were integral to early Shaker worship, particularly in the late 18th century, when ecstatic religious expression was common across rural America. While the film’s choreography is more structured than what would have occurred historically, Koomler views it as a good-faith translation rather than an invention. “The early days saw worship in a much more chaotic way than we would expect,” she says, emphasizing that visceral response was central to spiritual life.