”
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are
great because of their passion. Dance is the hidden language of the
soul, of the body.
”
– Martha Graham (1894-1994) U.S. dancer, choreographer.
“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.” – Martha Graham (1894-1994) U.S. dancer, choreographer.
I watch the lithe woman before me as she slowly turns, moves back and forth and raises her arms high as if to embrace the sun, then lowers them and places her hands over her heart. Looking much younger than her years, she moves with supple grace down the church aisle as “How Great Thou Art” is being sung.
The dancer, Grace Randall, tells me, “Sacred dance has become the medium which allows me to fully express in worship settings the love of God, Christ’s church and his people. My experience has led me to believe that it would be a wonderful part of the worship experience in our churches.”
“Sacred or liturgical (as it is sometimes called) dance enables me to express my emotions to words and music. I believe that natural dance lets the sunshine in on our soul’s cells and frees us from the ice-like rigidity that prevents us from experiencing true freedom of the spirit. Sacred dance enables us to find another way of experiencing joyousness.”
Grace has always loved to dance. “A young WWII veteran home after the war taught me how to do the swing,” she says. “At social dances, we whirled and laughed, or danced quietly to the romantic strains of popular music.”
“Not long after learning the swing together, we were married and danced through 41 years of marriage until he was taken away by lung cancer.”
Without her partner, Grace gave up dancing. But she says, “My love affair with dance began again several years ago when I attended a workshop in creativity (writing, music, gourd-painting, poetry, etc.) led by artist and author, Beverly Shamana.
At the close of the event, Grace asked Shamana to explain why dance was not included. “I believe creative dance is part of our spiritual nature,” Grace argued. Shamana agreed.
During the closing moments of the workshop, the participants were singing a hymn unfamiliar to Grace. “Suddenly, Shamana asked me to dance,” she recalls. “She opened the door, and encouraged by the spirit, I stepped through that door.”
Later on, at the annual United Methodist Women’s Retreat held in the Santa Cruz mountains, 200 women were singing the age-old favorite hymn, “In the Garden.” “Responding to the spirit, I stepped into the aisle and began to flow with the words to the music.
“Later, a young woman came up to me with tears in her eyes and revealed her emotions about having lost her father. And then widows with eyes filled with tears came to talk to me.
“Many other experiences have followed for me. It is a media for worship, a sacred uplifting and releasing experience. In my imagination, the spirit is represented by the rainbow, a musical staff, the colors of which vibrate and sound to me like the humming of many bees. When I respond to the calling of the spirit, I’m able to give expression to the words and music from deep recesses of my soul.”
Now close to 80, Grace continues to dance her way through life with passion. “It’s like Mark Twain said: ‘Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.'”
