Integrating Dance In The Liturgy

This article offers a rationale for incorporating dance in worship as well as guidance for understanding the purpose of various types of movement. If dance is to become an acceptable feature within a church service, then it must be integrated with and not just added to the celebration of the liturgy. If it is a mere decoration that neither deepens nor focuses devotion at the point where it takes place, then it should be excluded, since the accusation of gimmickry would be justified. In other words, liturgical dance must be protected from becoming the intruder that ballet once was in opera-when the pace seemed to be dropping and interest possibly flagging, a dancer or a troupe was introduced to enliven the proceedings; this added nothing to the opera and was a prostitution of ballet itself. This is certainly not what is needed in church. Dancing will be integrated with the Eucharist only when and if it corresponds with the nature of worship itself. When dance is an act of praise or …