a poignant dance memory

[HelenaZF]

I was the pageantry leader at a dance conference that was held at Founder's Inn, Virginia Beach (Pat Robertson's complex) in the early 90's. It was a several day conference with a nightly evening service.



Well, at Founders Inn, you know there were other things bound to be going on besides our dance conference. Richard Wurmbrandt, a holocaust surviver and probably known to many through <URL url="http://www.persecution.com/about/index.cfm?action=vom">Voice of the Martyrs was there as well. If you know anything of his story, he was held for years in solitary confinement and tortured everyday, often with the beating of his feet. When he gives his testimony, he tells of how the only thing that kept him sane and alive was that he would dance praises to the Lord all day long in his cell, obviously through great pain at times. The experience left him crippled.



He was invited to speak to the dancers at one of the evening services. After he gave testimony of how dancing was his preservation through the torture, he expressed a deep longing that he would still be able to dance before the Lord, because in his physical condition he was no longer able. Two of the male dancers on the platform came over to him. Standing to either side of him, the two men lifted the frail old man up by the elbows. He began to "dance" in the air with his crippled feet. He began to weep with joy, and the entire room of people wept right along with him. It was a holy moment I will never forget.

[flaglady]

What a wonderful story! And so heartbreaking to think that brave man would dance before his Lord even in such circumstances!



In September there is going to be a meeting of an organisation that campaigns on behalf of prisoners of faith, just like this man. It's very similar to Amnesty International, I believe but specifically for Christian prisoners, of course.



The meeting is being held in our Minster (cathedral) which is a very old, big, beautiful church with an impressive altar.



Well, I have been invited to do a flag worship routine in that meeting! I am sooo delighted and honoured, I can't tell you! (Do I really have to!)



The song I have chosen is "My Heart Will Trust" by Reuben Morgan of Hillsong the chorus of which goes :



<COLOR color="purple">Though I walk through valleys low

I fear no evil

By the waters still my soul

My heart will trust in You</COLOR>



I thought it singularly appropriate for such a meeting. What do you think?

[HelenaZF]

Sounds like a wonderful choice.



Another one that comes to mind is "Yet will I Praise Thee", from Hosanna Integrity #26 My Refuge.



"Yet will I praise, Thee

Even in the night

Even in the midst of the storm.



I will rejoice in you, my God.

I will exult in the God of my salvation!

I will rejoic in you, my God

My rock, my joy and my song."

[flaglady]

That sounds promising - do you have the name of a cd it's on?

[HelenaZF]

Hosanna Integrity #26 My Refuge. I believe it's also on one of their collection CD's called Messianic Praise.



It's a short piece, unfortunately (not quite 3 minutes), but very powerful.

[Margolit]

Helena, Flaglady,



Have you ever done anything to Marty Goetz's music? So many of his songs lend themselves to dance.....both interpretative and regular choreography.



Two years ago I fell in love with "The Theme from Exodus" (This Land is Mine) on Marty's Songs of Israel CD. To hear a Messianic singer, trained as a cantor, sing that song, gave me heightened awareness and yearning. It made/makes me think of Yeshua. I get goosebumps every time I hear it!



Anyway, each year our dance ministry performs one or two pieces as part of the congregation's community seder. Every year it's a challenge. That year I just KNEW we had to use this song. The choreography included mime and sign language, dance and flagging. It was a huge undertaking for our small group, using 12 performers (including 5 from one family, 3 from another), and included adults, teens and children, as well as dancers and non-dancers. The theme was "Passing on the Heritage", in this case, from father to son (an actual father and son!)....one generation to another.

The four younger girls and one adult had blue and/or white scarves draped around their necks, and at the end of the song, used them to form a Star of David. As they did, the father and son each came forward on one side of the semi-circle, and knelt before the finished star, arms outstretched.



And to top that off, when the rabbi's wife was talking with the co-ordinator of that year's Tikkun Family Advance a few weeks later, she mentioned the dance ministry's performance, only to find out the conference's theme was "Passing on the Traditions", and we were asked to perform it at the Sat. evening service! :twirl:



We were so happy to be able to share it with others, to touch them and bless them as we had been touched and blessed! The L-rd's timing was so perfect, as it always is!

[HelenaZF]

Love Marty Goetz. He has some very special music. We've used "He is my Defense" and "Lamb of God" in our worship-leading repertoire for years. I don't have any of his pieces in my personal dance choreographies, but I know Rochelle dances to several of his pieces.



That is a great story about "Passing on the Heritage." I love it when God gives you something (you think is for a particular purpose or event) and then plugs it into something that you had no idea would be coming. It gives you a sense of how awesome His plans are. I had a similar experience when building my first banner, King of Glory. As I made it, I had no idea that it would be traveling to Israel (practically while the glue was still drying!) to be used at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, and that the theme of the Feast that year was "Yeshua, King of Glory over the Nations".

[Margolit]

That is a great story about "Passing on the Heritage."  I love it when God gives you something (you think is for a particular purpose or event) and then plugs it into something that you had no idea would be coming.  It gives you a sense of how awesome His plans are.  I had a similar experience when building my first banner, King of Glory.  As I made it, I had no idea that it would be traveling to Israel (practically while the glue was still drying!) to be used at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, and that the theme of the Feast that year was "Yeshua, King of Glory over the Nations".

I know what you mean about God giving you something, then takes what you've done into a whole new realm. The thing is, He KNOWS, as soon as He gives it to you, what you will do with it, and when, where and how it will be used, and what He had in mind for it the whole time. HE will take it that one extra, unexpected step.



The interesting thing about that whole story is that the people who taught the dance workshop the year before were unavailable, and I was asked to fill in.....that's how the whole subject came up in the first place. Also, next day I had breakfast with another dance leader from a new congregation. She told me she had been looking for a way to make a Star of David with her small Shabbat school class of older children, and she now had an idea of how to do it.



Dancin for and with the Lord,

Margolit