The Fundamentals of the Dance Ministry - Kensington Temple



The Fundamentals of the Dance Ministry

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|Daniel Perez and Lisa Bevan lead the Dance |

|Ministry at KT |

To offer God praise and worship which is in “spirit and truth” and be a tool in His hands for the building of His kingdom.

The Scriptures identify certain principles which can be used to build a foundation for a dance ministry. We are developing a philosophy that looks to dance and the arts as a tool of communicating truth and defining it as a God-centred art form.

God’s creation and plan

In Isaiah 63:17-19we read that God has created us to rejoice and to be filled with joy from deep within ourselves and this is part of his divine plan for our lives. The Hebrew word GIL is often translated as JOY in most Bibles and such scriptures as Habakkuk 3:18carry the suggestion of dancing for joy. The verb originally meant to, ‘spin around with intense motion’. This puts to rest the idea that joy or rejoicing is only expressed through singing and the clapping of hands. Other scriptures such as Zephaniah 3:17declare God’s rejoicing over us with gladness and singing. The word ‘rejoice’, comes from the same verb.

This introduces us to a picture of God himself dancing. He is spinning around with intense motion over us. And so we begin to see that dance is a significant feature of God’s nature and self-expression as he rejoices over us and with us. And we are able, through the Holy Spirit, to partake in this same expressive nature.

Dance pleases Him!

Psalm 149:4teaches us that God takes pleasure in his people when they praise him with dance, song, the playing of the timbrel and the harp. We also know that there is tremendous power in praise. We, being led by the Holy Spirit, should want to bring glory and praise to Jesus and God the Father through all the means we can, as he has graciously blessed us with the abilities and talents that we possess. We also gain another example of this truth when we look at Matthew 14:6-7.Here the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod at his birthday celebration and gained such favour that he promised, with an oath, to grant her any request. Unfortunately, her request led to the death of John the Baptist. But looking at this story, we can easily compare the generosity of a human king to that of our Father and dare to believe for a great harvest of souls, which surely is our greatest desire before him. Jesus did something similar, in Matthew 7:11, to highlight the greatness of God’s riches and his willingness to bless us when we ask. He encourages us to think how much more he will give us, especially when we please him!

We want to show the work of redemption and reveal this truth through art

Part of the culture of the Bible

In 1 Samuel 18:6-7 we learn that it was common practise for women to dance, and especially to come out from all the cities of Israel to greet the king and army in celebration of a victory. The women, in particular, would play the tambourine, dance and sing in joy of the achievements of the king.Another occasion where we see this activity occurs is in Judges 11:34. Here Jephthah was returning home from a victory after a war with the people of Ammon, and his daughter came out to great him, dancing in the way that was the custom to greet the soldiers returning from war.

Also in Exodus 15:20, we read of Miriam and all the women who raised praise unto God for his great deliverance from the horses of Pharaoh. So from these scriptures we can see that dance had a significant role in the lives of many, if not every woman, and it was a strong feature of their culture. So we his church today, having been saved and delivered from the curse of the law and the wages of sin, having obtained the greatest victory in history, how much more should we give him the celebration he is due. Surely we should embrace this biblical culture as we seek to offer to God vibrant praise and worship.

The spirit of heaviness and the garment of praise

We read in Isaiah 61:3that one of the key tasks of ministry in the Spirit, as prophesied by Isaiah and later repeated by Jesus in the Gospels, is the work of restoration. In this ministry we can exchange our burdens, our heaviness and our discouragement for the joy and Spirit-filled life that he wants us to experience as he leads our lives. We receive from him the garment of praise and the oil of joy to enable us to live in this way. This is highly relevant to the dance ministry because through it we seek to be motivated and inspired by the Holy Spirit to fulfil this purpose. As we move under this anointing, we can experience God’s freedom, and be used by the Spirit to bring this work of restoration to anyone he pleases. Dance then opens up the way for ministry in the Spirit, whether it is in warfare or in healing, or in signs and wonders. As we tap into this prophetic calling and anointing, dance becomes such a powerful tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit.

A dancer is like clay in the potter’s hands. The Holy Spirit is the chief choreographer. Your development as a dancer is a visual echo of the development we experience as Christians

The spirit of the dance

One of the purposes of the Spirit of God is to refresh and ignite a passion for Jesus. The Holy Spirit motivates us to pursue Christ, and so if we ever find ourselves low and heavy laden, the Holy Spirit is there to pick us up. That is, of course, if we choose to let him do his work in us. Otherwise, we become lukewarm. God does not want us to be lukewarm; we are either hot or cold for him. We read in the book of Revelation 3:16that God will vomit us from his mouth if we are lukewarm. So if we find ourselves cold, heavy laden and discouraged, we are able to drink from his living waters, by the Holy Spirit and be renewed. The spirit of the dance is the Holy Spirit. He wants to fill us anew, to restore and lift us up, therefore, the dancer must seek the infilling of the Holy Spirit every day. The Spirit is there to lead our dance and bring glory to Jesus (John 16: 13-14). It is important that this requirement is established and carried out by the dancer, for in the absence of the Spirit, all sorts of malice and fleshly desires can enter into the dance and corrupt it.

Philosophy for Christian art and theatre

We want to use theatre to present a real message, that which the viewer can identify with, a message that is relevant and founded in and on biblical principles, and which reveals God to this world. Among some of the great dancers of all time, is Charles Weidman. Who wrote: “real art can never escape from real life. In historic terms illusions are not false impressions or misconceptions of reality. The world of illusion which the audience expects from the artists is in fact the world of their real selves, the image of their own world, the translation of their hopes and fear, their joys and sufferings into the magic of the stage”. He also believed that, “the artist must not run away from himself, from his centre of being. He is the bearer of a message, and it is his responsibility to tell it in whatever medium it may be”. And so with this attitude to the performing arts, we have the opportunity to fulfil the command of Matthew 28, as we deliver the message of salvation.

We want to draw a relationship between the dancer’s physical training, with its principles of discipline, and the training of ourselves as disciples before God

We who hold to a Christian faith also want to project truth – the truth of God. To portray the reality of the spiritual world and lead the viewers to a real Source, who would take their fears away and fill them with a new sense of hope.

Martha Graham a great innovator and originator in the medium of dance believed that, “the function of the dance is communication; the responsibility that the dance fulfils its function belongs to us who are dancing today”. She also believed that the message which was being communicated should be a relevant one. This belief was a key motivation, which led to the development of what is now known as modern dance. In our dance and creative communication ministries we are presenting theatre as a tool for communicating a godly message, and placing every aspect of this art into a biblical perspective. We are learning to present certain constant qualities within dance, and build a biblical foundation in order to transform the teaching and training of this discipline, into a disciple-making discipline, which is expressed in the most beautiful of ways - a godly art form.

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