Liturgical dance: the centuries-old partnership of dance and religion remains vital during this holiday season

Dance Magazine, Dec, 1996 by Linda Kent, Joanne Tucker

When and where did dance begin? Was it the earliest form of communication--in use before humans had a common language? One can make the case that dance was the first religious practice. Today many people enter into prayer through dance. Ritual movement has been created through the ages to help with the forces of nature (rain dances, harvest celebrations), life transitions (coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings), and preservation of history and culture (berong dance of Bali, Native American storytelling, Nativity pageants). Dance and religion have always been intertwined. In some denominations dance is banned altogether, while in others formalized movement gestures and processional choreography are essential. In still others contemporary choreography is used to enhance worship.

One of the legacies of our modern dance forebears, in addition to their development of new movement vocabulary, was a return to religious themes of conflict and passion and the use of dance in the church service. Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis championed sacred dance. In 1917 Shawn choreographed an entire workshop service for a San Francisco church. In 1934 St. Denis performed one of her Madonna pieces before the altar at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Manhattan. Other examples include Helen Tamiris's Negro Spirituals, Doris Humphrey's Shakers, Jose Limon's There Is a Time and Missa Brevis, and Martha Graham's Seraphic Dialogue and Judith. This long list includes Lamp Unto My Feet, a Sunday morning program on CBS-TV that featured choreography by Mary Anthony, Pearl Lang, and John Butler, among others. The present-day list includes Alvin Ailey's Revelations, still the signature work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

How is the legacy continuing today? This question mattered to us since we have both been involved in liturgical dance since childhood. When noted dancewear retailer and philanthropist, the late Estelle Sommers, introduced us in 1989, we enthusiastically shared our common interest by creating an interfaith project which included workshops and original choreography. Wanting to know more about what others were doing, we created a survey and mailed it to more than eight hundred people. The survey included questions about participation, training, fees, religious affiliations, processes, and a checklist of information that would be helpful. Nearly three hundred respondents generously shared information, including brochures, videotapes, and press clippings. Nearly 70 percent indicated that they too wanted to know what others are doing. Liturgical dance is a huge quilt covering the United States from coast to coast, and we've just begun to peek under a few folds.

From elephants to flying angels, from toddlers frolicking to nuns remembering a slain colleague, 2,221 events were described to us as dance performances in a worship setting. Here is a sample of the abundant offerings and companies.

* Earth Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York City). Each October the Paul Winter Consort, the Omega Liturgical Dance Company, and a long procession of people and their pets observe the blessing of the animals by celebrating the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Omega Founder Carla DeSola will often lead a congregation of several thousand in arm gestures. Large banners are held aloft by leaping dancers traversing the aisles.

* Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove, California). An annual pageant performed since 1980 reenacts the Nativity story with a cast of two hundred performers, including flying angels and various animals. Choreographer Dorie Lee Mattson, who runs a yearly audition ad in Dance Magazine, has worked with members of American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, and Kirov Ballet. The story is told with spectacular special effects, ballet, pantomime, and glorious Christmas music.

* Children's Dance Group at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church (New York City). Approximately fifteen children, ages six to eighteen, participate in services three times a year. Led by Julie Ross, who has a BFA in ballet from Texas Christian University, the children create dances to music ranging from classical to hard rock.

* Memorial Service for Sister Dorothy Kazel (Cleveland). Sister Patricia Rickard and her colleagues from Hosanna Dancers (formerly Christian Life Dancers) honored one of the nuns slain in El Salvador.

* Shabbat Service (Scarsdale, New York). Before Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Richard Jacobs leads parents and young children in circular and linking movements to celebrate the communal cycle of the New Year.

* Ballet Magnificat (Jackson, Mississippi). Founded in 1986 by Kathy Thibodeaux, a silver medalist at the second USA International Ballet Competition (1982), this fulltime professional Christian ballet company annually gives more than a hundred performances throughout the U.S. Ballet Magnificat also runs a school, a junior company, and summer workshops.

* Interfaith Ash Wednesday Retreat (New York City). Students and staff at Union Theological Seminary, led by the coauthors of this article, Linda Kent and Dr. JoAnne Tucker, created a dance prayer to Judy Chicago's poem "And Then." The program, developed jointly by UTS and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, also explored first-century themes in performance.