liturgical dancing - advice/experience?

[princess lovers mom]

Our Church..and I guess by default me...is starting a liturgical dance program next week...we have 8-9 girls interested, ages 8-15 all with dance background...problem is we have not seen much of this before. Interest started when a group of girls from another Church came to perform during one of our services and many of the girls thought it looked like fun, but didn't really like what they saw the other group do (too simppl per them...)

wondering if any of you have this in your Churches...when do they dance during the service...beginning, end, as a part of something? Do they dance to more modern music or the organ? How is it received by the "elders" in the CHurch

any discussion appreciated....we hope to have something together for Pentacost

 

[WDWHound]

We have a dance ministry at our church, but I've never seen them perform. We have tradiotional and contemporary services, and they only dance for the contemporary. I understand that they tend to dance either at the opening of the service or during the special music portion (which takes place during the offering). I beleive they dance to taped music, but I don't know what style it is. Our church elders are just fine with it, but then our church has alway encouraged new forms of praise, so I wouldn't have anticipated a problem.

 

[disykat]

There will always be people that aren't crazy about it. We had a group in college and I didn't like it then, so I probably wouldn't like it now. However, churches meet the needs of more than just me. I think that Pentecost would be a really appropriate time to introduce it, because of the highly spiritual nature of dance, and make it easier for people like me to swallow.

 

[missypie]

Sorry, but it just makes me laugh...they always tend to wear these white dresses, like vestal virgins or something. It is so easy for something to go wrong with dance, and when it happens at church, it's doubly funny, which makes me feel guilty for laughing at them. Bottom line: It's a distraction.

Did you watch the Miss America Pageant when Heather Whitestone (the deaf woman) won? Her talent was liturgical dance to "Via Dolorosa" and it was quite good.

 

[princess lovers mom]

Thank-you for your opinions so far...we are thinking of starting with something during the opening hymn. The choir walks down the center aisle from the back during this hymn and if the dancers were before or after them it could be an addition to the celebration rather than a "performance" during the service...???

But...many of the girls want to do something to a more contemporary type of music to try an introduce that to the service...that wouldn't work unless we could find something the congregation could sing to...we have never had contemporary music as to date so maybe not too many new things at once would be better.....

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

My dd's school (1-8) had liturgical dancers - don't know if they still do since she graduated last year. If you'd like, I can put you in touch with the lady who did the choreography for them. They did a beautiful rendition of "God Bless America" - and I took 90 sec's of it on my camera - I can send it to you on a cd - just pm me your address or email me -- maryjo@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com.

We used to have this at our church, but the current pastor (I think) would rather we not. When we did have it - the liturgical dancers did a beautiful job for Thanksgiving.

Another church in Torrance, CA, still uses it -- during the procession, the liturgical dancer uses incense & precedes the cross -- it was very nice.