Liturgical/Sacred Dance

Introduction

Sacred dance is a dance that a group of people forms and practice in unison to perform in the adoration services. Sacred dance was common in prehistoric times with belief support in account of older testimony.  Is a sacred dance also known as worship dance that is made in the perspective of a religious service of worship. It can be done in group known as choir. Liturgical dance is found in both Christians way of life, Judaism and Hinduism. Sacred dance is skill performed by individuals or a group, presented by people in time and space using flow and force, human body is the instrument in this matter and progression is the intermediate. 

 Art of dance was well expressed practically by King David upon his return from the battle with the Philistines he entered the city of Jerusalem and danced before the Lord with all his might. Dance has been a very essential part of worship for many world religions and spiritual practices in centuries. The major purpose for the use of dance in history of many world cultures is the use of dance in worship. Movements such as leaps, turns and uplifting of arms were used in beginning as a way to express, to praise, to question and to communicate with forces of nature, gods and spirits (Wellford, 2016). Anthropologic studies of early cave and rock paintings from the Mesolithic period record very physical dances of humans dancing in religious or spiritual celebrations.

Liturgical dance in the selection and treatment of subjects prophetic for their periods have been influenced by twentieth-century dance forms from the 1930s (Diane & Adams, 1990). Dancing in worship resonates with the earliest prophetic practices of humanities coming to God. Dance as religious studies reveals assets for the art of liturgical dance in terms of both performances and learned explanation. Group dance was normative in worship but such dance allowed a range of personality differences. In political and cultural life the emerging role of women was foreshadowed in the dance and continued as major emphases into early 1960s (LaMothe, 2018). Many people who have difficulties in accepting dance as way of worship also have difficulties in accepting spiritual union and other sacraments in worship. Dance and eating the body of Christ have similar apprehension. As we come to understand Christ’s action of incarnation and communion as a force toward of activity, complexity, and community, we come to recognize not only aspect of the word but also the Implications for direction of our words and movements for worship. One effect of taking the Holy Communion and dancing in worship services is to make us remember the bodily base of all the life. Dancing and eating in worship creates awareness of our material nature and hence our solidarity with and commitment to the word. The decisive factor for preaching, dancing and other worship activities is whether they have the effect of crucial awareness of the better community and pledge to the expansion of the world. The recognition through the body was used to increase Christian intentions and to convert them into actions.

According to Kurath affirmation on the moral values of Anishinaable music and dance, teaches people how to attain health and well being on this earth (LaMothe, 2018). As she affirms that, rituals and ceremonies are Kinetic processes that manifest and preserve religious patterns or spiritual aspects of the tradition. In other words, the act of doing the dancing and singing provides people with a sensory education on how to move in relation to one another, this is in relation to the powers that sustain life, and in relation to the earth and her creatures. These actions creates social and cosmic conditions conducive to sociality, healing and well being.

With the anthropology of dance itself, the fork dividing religion from dance appears again, separating anthropologists who study world dance from those who study western dance forms of modern, ballet and jazz (LaMothe, 2018). Most dancing that falls under the category of ethic is integral to religious life, while dancing in the modern west is most often renowned from religious conviction as an art. What appears in this limited selection from religious studies and dance studies are parallel trajectories in which scholars exclude dance or religion in the name of better scholarship. In so as scholars in religious studies solidifies the status of their field by excluding from consideration what appears to them as dancing, so scholars in the field of dance studies cordon off what appears to them as religion. While not universal, this dynamic is common and influential enough to perpetuate a conceptual difference between the two, as Kurath acknowledges, leaves intact a primary conduit of colonial authority.

Dancing changes the world. The act of wisdom and repeating pattern of progress represent and prescribe efficient conduits in African rooted traditions for the most important distinctive values and knowledge. Spheres of experience and meaning come into being and bond together as a result of dance performance. Specifically, dancing affects the relationship with divinities. When people dance divinities appears (Daniel, 2005). As divinities appear, people’s bodily selves are transformed. In transformation people learn and change their body movement and behaviors. Liturgical dance on the other hand gives a transformed consciousness of who lives in a given community. While body swing in harmony and arms are raised in prayer, the people attending worship become aware that the Holy Spirit is at work and get a revelation that they are part of the creator (Adams & Diane, 1990). Experienced by a   liturgical artist, sacred dance serves as a means of expression of an individual being. During the dance session the observer is in contact in action of dance, giving out configuration room, outward appearance and group behavior.

Conclusion

Liturgical / sacred dance has been an important thing that has been embraced since ancient times. Many people in Christian community have tried to ague of its existence in their way of life. Dance on the other hand has its advantages, as discussed above, liturgical dance help people to attain well being. Liturgical dance gives an encounter with the divinities while dancing. It has the power to let one feel free from stress of ways of life by reliving the mind of both the congregation and the dancer.

 

 

References

Adams, D., & Apostolos-Cappadona, D. (2001). Dance as religious studies. Eugene, or: Wipf      and Stock Publishers.

Daniel, Y. (2005). Dancing wisdom: Embodied knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba,       and Bahian Candomblé. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

LaMothe, K. L. (2018). A history of theory and method in the study of religion and dance: Past, present, and future. Leiden: Brill.

Wellford, J. C. (2016). Moving liturgy: Dance in Christian worship, a step-by-step guide.             Eugene, Ore: Resource Publications.