Worship Arts July August September 2022

Let your sacred movement transform you from the inside and in turn transform others from the inside.

The Jesus-centered phase W hen Jesus Christ is our center we do not need a dance instructor; we forget the crowd, and in a spontaneous moment of spiritual emotion we begin humbly expressing our spiritual fervency. 8 Our sacred dance becomes an extension of what Jesus Christ needs to bring to our remembrance through the movement. Our bodies take on words and music that become the Word of God-alive. This allows liturgical dance min isters and followers of Jesus to humble themselves, step out in faith with their inadequacies, and experi ence true freedom. The hul , the root word used most frequently in the Old Testament to refer to the whirl of the dance, implying highly active movement, becomes our affirmation of this medium of worship. 9 The people break loose and are empowered to engage and accept the unbridled praise to God with dancing. Consider the world today: influenced by mass media, worldly distractions, and denominational and multi-cultural flux. The great commission of Jesus Christ commands us to “Go out and make disciples.” 10 The youth and young adults outside our churches are yearning for a connection, for meaning. Sacred move ment may not be capable of expressing Christ’s truth fully if all the people who can inform that truth are not present and if we are not willing to go and receive them. Yes, it will be different at first and one church context to the next will create the sacred movement differ ently, but it will be worth the hearts that come back to Jesus Christ. The liturgical dance minister is capable of expressing through the human body the innermost emotions of the assembly at worship. The organized pattern of the ritual movement does, in fact, carry with it the learned cultural system of meaning. 11 Back to basics My hope in this article is to nudge the spirit of the liturgical dance minister, and our churches at large, back to the authentic purpose of liturgical dance, back to the essence of our true selves as God worshipers, unashamed, and unafraid. I have sought to lay out a practical process that brings us back to the basics and de-clutters years of ownership.

I have presented my authority and experience as a liturgical dance minister in the expression of sacred movement. I have offered you a way as a liturgical dance minister to see yourself in the reflection of Jesus Christ. You were introduced to three phases – the seed phase, the sacred movement phase, and the Jesus-centered phase. This is offered to refocus your inner desires back to imagining, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the creation of sacred movement. As liturgical dance minis ters we sacrifice our bodies to be seen. We must be seen appropriately in our sacred movement that strives to offer the Word of God to the people of God. NOTES 1 Coogan, Michael D. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with The Apocrypha. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.) 2 Ibid., John 14:16, p. 1906. 3 Krosnicki, Thomas A. 1987. “Dance within the liturgical act.” Worship 61, no. 4: 349-357. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed May 10, 2015), p. 352. 4 Coogan, Romans 12: 1, p. 1993. 5 Ibid., Psalm 150. 6, p. 894. 6 Ibid., Genesis. 7 Adams, Doug. 1986. “The Liturgy as Dance and the Liturgical Dancer.” Worship 60, no. 3: 272-273. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed May 10, 2015), p. 272. 8 Ibid., p. 5 9 Webber, Adrian, “The History of Dance in the Church,” accessed May 12, 2015, www.refinedundignified.com/the-history-of- dance-in-the-church. html, p. 3. 10 Coogan, p. 1791. 11 Webber, p. 6. NATASHA HARRELL is passionate about movement and writing. She began liturgical dancing at the age of eight. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater with minors of study in Dance and Child Develop ment from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. Reprinted from WorshipArts September-October 2015

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