Letter from the Chair of Dance into Worship, August 2008.
Dear dancing colleagues and friends,
I write as your newly appointed Chair, with some surprise at finding myself so suddenly placed in this position by the "rebellious sisters" sitting around the committee table with me. I write also with an appropriate humility, as I begin my five years in the steps of Judi and Isobel, my worthy predecessors.
As you will know, one of the qualities found in our Dance into Worship membership is imagination. It is essential for good liturgy; it is the source of dance choreography – balanced with a technical understanding of bodies and what they can and cannot do; it is what the dancer uses to embody and communicate with others - "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace". Without imagination our whole Dance into Worship enterprise is doomed!
I would like to invite and encourage more of you, who continue as paid-up members and supporters, to give your tangible support, by coming to workshops and dance performances whenever you can. We try to use many different liturgical spaces, each with it's own potential and challenge. We include different styles of music and choreography, some simple, others more complex. More than this, our Dance into Worship gatherings provide an opportunity to share with "companions" (derived from the Latin "panis" = bread) , those who share bread together on the journey - the journey of God's pilgrim Church on earth. Also, please send your comments and questions to Heather for publication in Dance into Worship magazine - whether or not you can make it to events.
You may have your own liturgical space – "impossible to dance in?", your own inspired choreography – which needs more bodies than you have available, or are you seeking choreographic guidance with which to realise a dance idea, or…? Please contact us and let us know what you want. Please invite others to dance with you, whoever and wherever you are. We will try to respond.
God bless you all and please pray for your new Chairman, surrounded as he is by all those "rebellious sisters"!
John Brassington - Chair of Dance into Worship
e-mail c/o committeeATdanceintoworship.org.uk (please replace AT with @ when writing to us (spam precaution))