Monday, March 19, 2012

Sacred Dances

So I always feel like when I get interviewed I wax all poetic about the work for someone else to write it up, and then remember....oh, yeah, I can write a blog about it, too, just in case it's not as lovingly recalled by the free lance writer hired to report on it ( who will probably do a better job from an objectivity standpoint).

However, with dances meant for worship, there always seems to be misunderstanding or mixed expectations. I find it hard to categorize these dances: they are sacred when I am dancing them. Modest costuming, along with craft and artistry, are what might be a little different from the “liturgical dance” some experience in teams across our city's vast array of church services Within the context of a sanctuary, there is a power and beauty that can often change the way you see a dance, or even how it transforms you! But now I am passing these dances onto another generation of dancers, who may or may not hold to the faith I have.... Interesting how making these dances grew my faith, and maybe of use to encourage others to grow and experience their own in deeper ways? That's the hope and the risk I take in utilizing dance in yet another way... Earthen Vessels likes to explore dance as a tool to educate, inspire beauty or celebrate life's experiences---but also as an instrument of worship!

Not unlike an icon, at which one gazes to be observant to stillness, subtle shifts in perspective, becoming one with an image, seared into your soul with unflinching depth. Dance has a way with your soul like that. I have often taken the familiar hymns and texts into churches where dance is foreign or considered with some suspicion as worldly, and tried to illuminate the lyrics, the theology, incarnate it with my body as the vessel. Ahh, the earthen vessel, (again!) that I hope doesn't distract from the essence, but reflects the power of God to do something with my frame, my art, my skill--- to show you a bit of Him.

The liturgical practice is part of my faith journey as I grew up a midwestern Catholic, learned my guitar from St. Louis Jesuits, and sang in and planned masses, and later offered dances for feast days in high school (Duchesne Academy, Omaha NE). This Lenten meditation in dance, is certainly steeped in much of that Catholic tradition, with the Nicene Creed, The Misa Criolla ( a mass sung in Spanish with candles and gloria, credo, sanctus, kyrie), a prayer penned by Cesar Chavez for the Farm Worker, and a St Louis Jesuits song. “Song of Mary” is a narrated dance to a collection of poems by Lucille Clifton, that together weave and foreshadow and offer retrospection by the Mother of Jesus, at different points in her life, that adds context to the picture.

Interspersed there will also be songs danced about the way of the cross, reflecting on its weight and intention(O Sacred Head), the wood (Behold the Wood of the Cross)and the shroud (Were You There?) with music ranging from the medieval to the hymnal to the negro spiritual. There will be the Passion on display in the solos, and bemoanings of ”Agony and Ecstasy” where dancer embodies stories leading to the crucifixion—Christ withholding judgement of the adulterous woman, healing of the lame and blind, the last supper and pain of the via de la rosa, to His rising from the tomb. There will be the glorious anticipation of resurrection with Judy Collins Amazing Grace. My hope is that “Sacred Dances” would assist your reflections on the traditions of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Mauday Thursday to the desolation of Good Friday, from anticipation to heightened joy of Easter ----all wrapped into one evening of dance.


Alongside these, are some reprisals of dances choreographed to the renderings of local Episcopal priest, composer and rock star, Kemper Crabb (St John the Divine Contemporary Service)--one a wedding duet( which was danced at mine!), and another “Be Thou My Vision” which I have choreographed at least three versions in my life! These are danced in tribute to the churches past and present, and its people, singles, couple, small groups---- that have supported and watched the journey of the dance from sunday school classes to concert stages that is my vocation. I happen to be a founding member of Christ Evangelical Church, whose Christ in the Arts Festival has opened its door to the arts in amazing generosity as a venue! Thanks BJ! It is with great joy, we bring this expression of dance to their sanctuary. I will have singers and many in the audience from City of Refuge, a multicultural Presbyterian church at which I serve as a deacon...I am grateful to them for their unswerving support as well.