Lessons from Dance lessons

[A reader submitted Word for this week’s reflection- DANCE]

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking” ― Agnes De Mille

At our 2010 wedding, only a few lessons.

My husband and I are taking dance lessons. He gave them to me as a gift, and we have kept it up as an opportunity to learn something new together. Talk about challenge.  It is an awesome challenge as we learn to Rumba, Foxtrot, Swing and Hustle.

First, I did not know my body could move some of the ways these dances require. Second, it is really about partnership. We joke about me letting my husband lead. He does, and I let him. He hopes it will rub off through the rest of our life. Three, both of us need to remember not to spend time beating oneself up, just stay flexible and in the fun.

“Dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire” ― Robert Frost (Yes, the poet Robert Frost)

Working together we keep each other going, learning and growing. (I wish I could say that it has shrunk us too, but that is not the case yet.) And still earl-ish in our life together, it helps build our bodily connection and chemistry (in public).

Besides a great date night connection and immense fun, dancing is teaching us about each other for our marriage. Ballroom dance is an art form of the twosome. We learn a true give and take. It is about building trust, teamwork and chemistry.  And it has a lot of fun twists and turns too.

                “Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”  Martha Graham

Another lesson I have taken from dance is that it is much like faith – a commitment to trust, giving and receiving, leading and following. You must be present and breathe. And you do feel alive. The Robert Frost quote aside, I do not fathom why dance has such a bad stigma in the world of faith. (Think “Footloose”)  In the Bible King David dances.  Nature dances and claps its hands in the Psalms. When filled with the Spirit, how can we keep from singing, or dancing?!

“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
    You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with

joy,
My soul must sing and not be silent, O God, and I will praise you forever!” Psalm 30:11-12 (NIV)

 We don’t look down on dancing in our church, but we do overlook it. Although occasionally you can catch my pastor moving to the music, sometimes off beat. Dancing is an outward expression of our inward experience. People filled with faith exude joy and thankfulness. These are people magnify the Spirit of life! We dance because we are loved. We work in trust and partnership because we are forgiven. We flow together with graceful movements. My prayer is that the Church never stifles this sense of God’s Spirit and Song. I pray we are swayed by the Spirit and continue the sacred celebration .

“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”  ― Merce Cunningham

 “Dancing is what you do when you arrive at where God wants you to be.”  Leonard Sweet

(Len is one of my favorite theologians. His statement here feels so true for my life today.)

KEEP DANCING!  Don't stop, even if the music does. Let the joy inside take over.