I was first exposed to sacred dance at the American College Dance Festival in 1995. It was an amazing experience for me, because I had never thought to combine my deep spirituality with my life-long love of dance - even though the Book of Romans exhorts each Christian to bring his or her own gifts unto the Lord in worship. The church I attended throughout college, St. Paul's Lutheran, encouraged my new passion and I performed several liturgical dances for the congregation and others. I also explored the concept of sacred dance in my Dramatic Arts classes, where I wrote the paper, "Moved by the Spirit." The following excerpt of the paper was printed in the St. Paul newsletter, "The Epistle," in 1996. "Moved by the Spirit" is (c) by me, 1995. If you would like to use it to spread the word about sacred dance, please email me at dawnbick@yahoo.com and I will gladly grant permission to use all or part of the complete text, with proper credit given. Thank you.Mozart's Requiem, Michaelangelo's Creation of the World, Dante's Divine Comedy, Bach's Sleepers Wake, Da Vinci's The Last Supper, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. What do these works have in common? Each is a Masterpiece, and each is also an ideal amalgam of art and religion. And yet in this list of great religious works -- music and painting, poetry and prose -- one art form is missing. In 1923, Havelock Ellis wrote, "Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself." Yet dance is the only major art form shunned by most Christian denominations.
Dance and religion have gone hand in hand since the dawn of humanity. Reverend W.O.E. Oesterley, in his 1923 text Sacred Dance wrote, "All dancing was originally religious and was performed for religious purposes." Sacred dance has existed for over a thousand years. Dance is often cited in the Bible. It appears as a form of worship in Psalm 149 verse 3: "Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourine and harp." Psalm 150 verse 4 states: "Praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and the flute." And II Samuel Chapter 6 verse 14 reports that: "David danced before the Lord." These are examples of dance as worship, but dance even appears as a direct command from God in the book of Jeremiah: "The Lord appeared to us in the past saying...'Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful...Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.'"
Although dance played a major role in the early Christian Church, it was banished in the Middle Ages, when the corporal nature of the art form was associated with sins of the flesh. And, of course, the history from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 14, did little to allay the suspicion of dance. After all, dance was the means by which Salome enticed King Herod into beheading John the Baptist -- not exactly a sterling testimonial to the sacredness of the art form. Despite the official removal of dance from the Church, some vestiges remained. In northern Spain, a group of altar boys recreate a 15th century liturgical dance each year as part of an Easter festival, and in South America and Africa, traditional liturgical dance has been absorbed into the folk dancing of the region as a means of preserving it. Sacred themes have even found their way into the theatrical dance world. The ballet, The Prodigal Son by George Balanchine was adapted from Jesus' parable in the 15th Chapter of the Book of Luke. Modern choreographer Jose Limon created There is a Time, based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The experience of religion is viewed in Doris Humphrey's The Shakers and Alvin Ailey's Revelations, both theatrical classics playing on the theme of sacred dance.
So sacred dance existed a thousand years ago and can occasionally be found on the theatrical stage. What does that have to do with the contemporary church? A lot. Sacred dance is making a major comeback as people realize what they have been missing. The rise of Christian rock in the MTV era has helped, with the music video reuniting dance with sacred music and ritual. Many churches are beginning to incorporate sacred dance into their own religious life. These include St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in North Huntingdon, PA, which support several sacred dance concerts each year, as well as the Paintertown Mimers, from Paintertown Evangelical Lutheran Church in Paintertown, PA. This group, an offshoot of the youth group for 9-16 year olds, incorporates pantomime, sign language, drill team maneuvers and basic dance steps to traditional hymns and contemporary Christian music to enhance worship on certain church festivals.
Pennsylvania is not the only place experiencing the new rise in sacred dance. According to Kent State University professor of dance Andrea Shearer, sacred dance is gaining in popularity across the nation among all denominations, from Baptist to Methodist to Roman Catholic. Professor Shearer, herself a noted sacred dancer and choreographer in Ohio, has presented lectures and classes on the topic throughout the eastern United States, including one at the 1995 American College Dance Festival at Cornell University.
So the next time you hear Mozart's Requiem or Bach's Sleepers Wake, think also of George Balanchine's Prodigal Son or Alvin Ailey's Revelations. After all, they've finally let Terpsichore back into worship, and she may be coming soon to a church near you.
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