More Skinny Girls in Tights, Oh My!!!

In other words, liturgical dance.

The Catholic bishops of the USA are said to be discussing a position paper on liturgical dance when they meet in Dallas this weekend. This paper was written by a liturgical dance instructor in Ohio named Kathryn Mehelek. The American bishops (no doubt anxious to change the subject from... well, you know!) will give this their respectful attention, even though Rome has already determined, in authoritative statement entitled Dance in the Liturgy, that:

"Here [in western culture] dancing is tied with love, with diversion, with profaneness, with unbridling of the senses: such dancing, in general, is not pure.

"For that reason it cannot be introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever: that would be to inject into the liturgy one of the most desacralized and desacralizing elements; and so it would be equivalent to creating an atmosphere of profaneness which would easily recall to those present and to the participants in the celebration worldly places and situations."

They will also discuss this, even though the author of the position paper has already attempted to "perform" liturgical dance in a local church, over the initial objections of the local bishop, until Rome stepped in at the last minute and had it moved from the church to the auditorium (see first link above).

This particular issue, from what I have been able to determine, is generally debated between two diametrically opposed forces: the dancers themselves, who promote showing off in front of everybody as a form of "worship" (of themselves, most likely); and the "anti-dancers," (to coin a phrase), who think that all dance is a prelude to profane and evil thoughts and couldn't possibly lend itself to worship, never mind Christian worship.

Like a joke I once heard from some Mennonites: "Q: Why don't we believe in pre-marital sex? A: It could lead to dancing."

Neither side lends any real merit to the issue. To say this does not take issue with the Vatican statement, which correctly (if somewhat indelicately) presumes a role that dancing plays in western culture. It also presumes a particular definition of "dance."

Jewish worship has long had a place for dancing to celebrate its religious feasts, if only outside the temple. The Israelites danced for joy when the Red Sea destroyed the Pharoah's armies. King David wrote in the psalms of praising the Lord with music and dancing. To this day, many Jewish/Israeli dances have distinctly religious or biblical themes. One of my personal favorites is a simple dance done in a circle, to the tune with lyrics taken from the book of the prophet Nahum (2:1):

"Mana vu al he harim
Ra gale hamay va ser.
Ma sha mee ah ha yeshua,
Ma sha mee ha shalom."

("See, upon the mountains there advances the bearer of good news, announcing peace!")

In many countries, the traditional dancing of the commonfolk consists of little more than simple movement in a line or a circle. Often, men and women dance in separate lines or circles. One of the highlights of a Greek or Russian Orthodox wedding, is when the bride and groom are led by the priest in a procession around the icon table, in what is described as their "first dance" as a married couple. In one of the Eastern churches based in India (Malabar or Malankar, I forget which), the deacons are said to "dance" in procession. How this appears, I'm not sure. But it's probably not unlike the practice adopted by an Episcopal parish in California, namely Saint Gregory of Nyssa in (where else?) San Francisco, that takes a unique approach to worship:

"A deacon introduces the tripudium dance step -- three steps forward, one back. The Presider and Deacons lead the congregation, as we each put a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us, and sing one of the hymns on the insert in the music book. We process to the Altar Table for the Eucharist. The children bring the Gifts to the Table as the Tripudium begins, from the Kitchen..."

Hold on. This gets better.

"The lines of people wrap around the Table, and spiral in..."

My point (and I do have one), is that, like most dancing of the "folk" variety, such movement is meant for people who by general convention "can't dance." It is less about the dancers themselves, and more about that around which they are focusing their dance. The same goes for all action that constitutes worship, be it singing or speaking or praying or... whatever.

For the record, I don't exactly encourage Catholics to start doing a Greek line dance around the altar. But I do believe that, should the day ever come when dance in Christian worship is commonplace in the west (and that's a real big "IF"!), it will appear more like that of St Gregory's tripudium, and less like that of the Leaven Dance Company. (Sorry, kids!). Had such promoters of this artform taken the above into account in the context of Christian worship, they would have shifted the focus away from themselves, and toward that which is due our undivided attention.

You know: God.

Until then, as far as I'm concerned, we'll all just be... dancing around the issue.