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Liturgical dance webpage update: 2008
Anointed Joy: Liturgical Dance at St. Andrew’s
Anointed Joy is a Christian dance group, which prepares and presents worship dances to give praise, honour and glory to God.
Psalm 150- Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
The Gift to Dance by Kimberly Hartman
May I always remember it is Yours
Not nurtured talent or human creativity.
A gift from my Saviour
May I always praise You through dance,
To bring You glory worth Your name.
A gift to share, to show, to lead
Others before Your throne of grace
With hearts of worship, honour You
For all You’ve done and yet will do.
To bring them to that special place
Those moments cease life’s restless race.
That time with You
No other cares
To worship You
Is all I need or want to do
To dance forever
Praising You
Dance Plans & Invitations 2009
- Sunday Feb. 22/09, 9:30-10:30am & 11:00-12:00noon
St. Andrew’s Whitby: morning service of musical praise and worship
Theme: Celebrate God and the Wonders He has Done
- Saturday Feb. 28/09, 9:30am-1:00pm
St. Andrew’s Whitby
Liturgical Dance Workshop: “You turned my wailing into dancing”, Psalm 30:11
2 hour dance session, followed by lunch
To register, call the church (905-668-4022), or email sgeigl@sympatico.ca See the poster
by clicking here.
- Sunday Mar. 1/09, 10:30am
Brooklin United Church
Theme: Jesus Tempted by Satan
how we started In the year 2001, the liturgical dance group “Anointed Joy”, based at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Whitby, began with a folk dance at the SonRise service, on Easter morning. Since then, it has become an additional worship tool and has been utilised as a new and additional way to bring praises to God. But dance is an ancient form of worship, which was always used to celebrate and praise God.
Anointed Joy meets at least once a week and is comprised of a core team, which varies from four to eleven dedicated dancers from age fourteen to adult. We are privileged to have members from various denominations in Whitby, Oshawa and Toronto.
Raise the Praise (est. 2004) is a weekly group for dancers in Grades 5-8. The use of flags is introduced, as well as interpretive dance movements, in this worship dance time.
what we do During the week, we meet to practice dance technique, prepare dances used in worship services, fellowship together, encourage one another, plan our praises, and most important: bring our praise to God, for all of our blessings and trials.
The weekly meeting opens with prayer. We discuss any news, and make decisions for the groups. Then we warm up our muscles and work on steps and arm movements, which will be in the dance we want to offer during worship. The dance or project is practiced and then we close our evening with prayer.
Preparing dances takes teamwork. Because of the nature of this visual art form, we must be aware of the appearance of the movement, and dancing together as a singular unit. We have to dress in a respectful way, as we present our worship and have no intent to offend our fellow worshipers.
why we do it (by Patricia Browne) Liturgical dance is a physical expression of our desire to worship God. The Bible tells us to praise the Lord with our hearts, our minds, our souls and our bodies. Praise the Lord with harp and lute! Praise the Lord with dancing! The Liturgical Dance Team practices often, to bring an offering of movement to our worship, the gift of ability and movement that God has blessed us with. Liturgical dance is not meant to be looked upon as a performance, but more so, an offering to God. It is an act of praise using the whole body. Often we dance to spiritual songs and the movements of the dance reflect the message intended through the music. The Liturgical Dance Team has danced many songs representing celebration, good news, praise and even as an expression of sorrow and mourning, but always, as an offering of praise to God. Praise for His gifts, praise for His love and praise for His presence in our lives.
continuing education/connecting with others
We have attended worship dance workshops, to learn about historic dance methods and use of props, such as flags, ribbons and tambourine. This has also been a wonderful time of fellowship and connection with a greater family of Christian dancers.
In February 2005, we hosted our first dance/flag workshop. The flags were taught by Jennifer Burne. Since then, we have hosted and given dance workshops at St. Andrew’s and in the GTA. Again in 2008-9, we hope to host a workshop or two, dates to be finalized.
where we have danced : Anointed Joy and Raise the Praise have prepared many dances for worship services at churches in Durham Region and the GTA:
Reformation Sunday
Palm Sunday, Good Friday & Easter
Advent Sundays & Christmas Eve
Pentecost
The Presbytery of Durham Region worship services at St. Andrew’s
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Canada/Durham College (June 2004)
Womens’ conferences
Missionfest Toronto 2006
Whitby Mental Health Centre: ongoing worship partnership through Spiritual Care
God-A-Dance
In September of 2003, the God-A-Dance group was formed. The goal of this group was for all ages to come together to praise God, using dance and movement to Christian music. This group has attracted dancers from age 3 up to adult, and has also been a great mother-daughter evening. The children of God-A-Dance danced for the first time during a worship service on January 11, 2004.
God-A-Dance will meet about once a month in this dance season of 2008-9 for an evening of worship dancing, learning congregational dances based on the Messianic Folk Dance style. The meetings will be open to all who have a heart for dancing, and will open and close with prayer. Tuesdays, 7-8pm, dates to be announced.
"To Worship" by Kimberly Hartman
I’m free to dance
Bringing worship to Your name,
For Your honour, I’m ever changed,
To bring to You an endless praise
A tribute to Your loving ways
Seemingly such a small thing,
Compared to the glory You deserve
Yet You seek
Not those whose worship is equal
To Your glory
Else none could praise
You seek only those who come
To worship You in spirit and truth
That is the worship that You seek
May I be such a worshipper
Lead me Lord,
And keep me free to dance.
Bible references to dance:
Miriam led dancing, singing and praise - Exodus 15:20-21
Celebrating victory - 1 Samuel 18:6-7
David danced before the Ark of the Lord - 2 Samuel 6:14-23, 1 Chronicles 15, 16
Jephthah's daughter - Judges 11:34
Ladies dancing - Judges 21:21-23
Associated with joy and contrasted with mourning - Lamentations 5:15, Psalm 30:11, Ecclesiastes 3:4
Dancing (and joy) when Israel is restored - Jeremiah 31:4&13
We are to praise God with dancing - Psalm 150:4, Psalm 149:3
Children playing games - Matthew 11:17
The return of the prodigal son - Luke 15:25
Visit these links to discover more about liturgical dance:
For more information
Lucinda Coleman's thesis "Worship God in Dance"
www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal6/coleman.html
The Living Word: "Dance as a Language of Faith" by Kathleen Kline-Chesson
www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1106
The Dancing Reverend
www.geocities.com/dancingrev/
Sacred Dance Guild
www.sacreddanceguild.org
Spirit Wind Dance
www.spiritwinddance.com
Salt and Light Ministries/Jeff Smith
www.saltandlightmin.org
If you would like more information about Anointed Joy or Raise the Praise, please contact Sharon Geigl sgeigl@sympatico.ca All are welcome to dance.
For additional photos click here
“Praise His Name with dancing” (Psalm150)