Dancing the Psalms - October 2009
We danced the psalms and experienced a time of spirituality and fun!
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Exercise/Dance
Do you exercise at all? You can take advice and exercise at home at any age or follow a DVD as a visual aid. It’s healthy for all of us. Beginning as children it’s fun and developes rythmn and musicality , good deportment and co-ordination, and a certain social sense in the group. There’s a time when young people tend to choose between dance or sport. Then for the elderly there are “Agewell” activities in the Hammersmith and Fulham Adult Education programmes, at reasonable prices. Part of the enjoyment of Dance is the music and there are so many different kinds from ballet to Hip Hop! There’s a public annual event at Olympia called “Move it” for a long weekend every March, when people can go and watch different kinds of dance or try a class. In the Boroughs there are Dance classes and community provision of Dance events, also for the less mobile, professional Groups give educational programmes and so many people have voiced their enjoyment of watching Dance on TV. London loves dance!
The key to good health is the harmony of our whole being. As Christians we need to take care of our bodies, minds and spiritual lives as they are linked together and we are taught in scripture that we ourselves are a “Temple of the Holy Spirit “ (1Cor.6 v19,20). In a Group there is meditative movement and a soothing of stresses or it can be lively with a glow of energy and enjoyment of fellowship. Joining of hands and moving as one to the music gives an inner warmth, strength, peace and uplifted feeling, holistically renewing. In our lives as worship we can thank God for the privilege of joining in the everlasting dance ------------ following Jesus His Son and worshipping our Creator God, “In whom we live and move and have our being”, (Acts.17 v28).
Diana Page - April 2009
Artistic Anniversaries 2009
A quartet of classical Greats have anniversaries this year. George Frederick Handel has the 250th anniversary of his death and his Oratorios remain a mainstay of the British Choral Tradition. Joseph Haydn has the 200th anniversary of his death and was a pioneer of the symphony as an important musical statement. Felix Mendelssohn has the 200th anniversary of his birth and his best works still lift the spirits. Henry Purcell has his 350th anniversary of his birth and is one of the greatest English composers and much praised for his musical setting of the English language. There are many concerts this year involving their compositions. Importantly also being acknowledged this year, is the centenary anniversary of the Ballet Russe, legendary company begun by the impresario Serge Diaghelev. They opened in Paris in 1909 with quite avant garde works for their time and toured to many countries including successfully to London but never to Russia.
Diaghelev attracted to his company many brilliant artists as composers, designers, and choreographers such as Fokine, Bakst, Niginsky, Benois, Cockteau, Picasso, Stravinsky and Prokoviev. The Rite of Spring was one of their famous productions. It’s wonderful that there are many performances planned this summer of ballets from their repertoire that have been handed down. Stravinsky wrote music for the ballet from 1910 to 1957 and all eleven of these compositions are being played at the RAH Prom concerts this summer, in celebration of the Ballet Russe centenary. They are all still worth hearing without the dance that brought them into being.
Diana Page - April 2009
Performance Praise
Israeli Folk Dancing
Folk dancing and singing is embedded in the culture of the Jewish people and has been enjoyed since Old Testament times where there are references to rejoicing in dance for processions; religious Festivals; gathering in the Harvest; for thanksgiving and praise and for returning victorious armies, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes led. To the early Jewish people dance was also a prayer accompanied by music, singing and beating of drums. Passing on songs and dances was also a way of handing down early Jewish history. It’s interesting the number of diverse root forms of dance that occur in the Hebrew language.
We are told that the rise and revival of current Israeli Dance began in 1944, before the State came into being, with their first of the Annual Dance Festivals. Current Israeli Folk dances are often based on Old Testament verses, usually in a circle and often accompanied by a song. These dances are sometimes taught at Christian Holiday Centres, such as Lee Abbey in Devon, as part of the recreation. The National dance of Israel is the Hora, danced in a circle. There is the term Circle Dancing taught in some of our Churches and it’s a lovely way to have fun, share in friendship and be aware of God’s presence through the source of the dance or music. Israeli dance is a living tradition as teachers continue to put traditional steps together with song after researching into their roots. The Institute in north London is where one can buy CDs and DVDs.
Diana Page
MOVEMENT SEEN AND UNSEEN: THE ENDLESS PILGRIMAGE
Movement is the essential affirmation of our being alive
A baby moves its body when it is born, and the parents are moved
We sit up, we crawl, we take our first steps and we feel good
We run down the pitch, kick the ball and score our first goal and we feel even better
We see someone we love, we move towards them and we feel safe. There we may rest until our human restlessness propels us on to the next adventure, the next pilgrimage
We all have our own individual pilgrimages; we move towards the things we like, the things we need, the things we don’t understand but are curious to experience. We move because we are confused, life is a mystery and we must keep searching for our spiritual home
So to leave the everyday routine of our lives, and take a new path, with new discoveries, always makes us feel more alive and spiritually awakened.
We may find God in physical movement when we can experience our clearest consciousness. We may find God in our dreams when our brains are racing through unknown territories, causing us to wake and wonder, and ask, is this a sign?
Pilgrimage is a beautiful and nourishing thing. It can be as short as a minute and as long as a life, but those on an endless pilgrimage are indeed the ones who live life to the full.
Pam Taylor
"Movement and Dance in Prayer and Worship" by Diana Page
I think of movement or dance in prayer and worship as just being demonstrative to God. It doesn’t have to be in public but privately at home. Do you ever find that when you’ve had some good news you want to throw your hands and arms in the air, do a twirl or give a little bounce or jump for joy? Why not in praise of God? If you have a prayer of pleading why not stretch out an arm for emphasis? If you have a prayer of loving why not circle your hands to your heart? Find peace and be refreshed as you stretch out your arms to greet the Lord. Perhaps change your prayer levels from kneeling, to sitting, to standing and processing. Just raising hands can lift our prayer in adoration or longing and can bring a moment of freedom of mind and heart, in a wholesome and open way. Sometimes we cant find the words. There is a lovely verse from Scripture, Eph. 2v10 calling us God’s “workmanship”, and Gen. 5 v1 “made in God’s likeness”, so there should not be any selfconsciousness about ourselves. God sees our heart and finds our worship beautiful.
Encouraging verses to look up -: Rom:12v1,2, 1Cor:6v19,20, Eph:5v19,20, 1 Cor:12v4-7, 1Cor:3v16, Phil:2v7, Phil:.2v13.
There are references to dance in the Psalms; and in Exodus Miriam led the women in dance as thanksgiving; in Samuel we are told that David danced before the Lord; in Timothy men lifted holy hands in worship; in Jeremiah there was rejoicing in dance and in Ecclesiastes there was “……..a time to dance”. Discover dance that is not worldly and self-centered but God-centered and as a new language.
When I was at Holy Trinity Brompton Church I ran a Dance Worship Group in the 1970s and 80s for nine years, doing much choreography and dancing in Services once a month when we mostly interpreted the songs of the Singing Group. Dance is most valuable as worship when everyone is involved combining words, song and music. I taught with others in monthly workshops and also for Israeli Folk Dancing with O.T. references. It was all prayerfully prepared and I believe it avoided a sense of “performance”. Our Group went out to other Churches and I’ve had the privilege of dancing at Westminster Abbey and Coventry Cathedral with anothers’Group. Coventry Cathedral has had it’s own Dance Group for many, many years as have other Churches.
Dance has been part of me from the age of 3yrs into my 50s both as a hobby and as a career after being a student at the Royal Ballet School. I joined St. Andrews in 1990 and am retired now. I would like to end with a favourite verse from a hymn -:
Fill every part of me with Praise,
Let all my being speak,
Of Thee and of Thy care dear Lord,
Poor though I be and weak.