Jireh's Spring 2007 Clinic

[DeanZF]

We were invited back for another year, to the Spring 2007 Dance Clinic put on by Jireh Worship & Arts, part of the Missouri chapter of Christian Dance Fellowship. And, like last year, we had a great time and the folks responded wonderfully. Writing our own review is always a bit tricky, but I'm hoping that Jireh herself will join her thoughts to not only our part of the event, but on everything else that went on.



We had about 90 minutes with the folks. It always goes by really quickly of course, but as best we can judge, a lot was shared and a lot was received. We met up with some old friends from Columbia, Missouri who were attending. We got to re-remember some jointly held war stories and renew our brief acquaintance, always a wonderful Kingdom event.



The evening started with the blowing of the shofar hofar: and a quick sentence or 3 about the sabbath and that we were joining in the celebration of Him Who made us for His pleasure for the showing forth of His praise. After a bit of "interactive :flag: praise", It was ZionFire's turn. I've been smiling all week since realizing that ZionFire was going to minister in a Baptist Missionary church by the name of Zion Grove. What a great place to start a ZionFire--in a ZionGrove!



I think it's really important to lay groundwork, not to just jump in. We sang an old chorus from the early days of the Charismatic Renewal, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, let ALL that is within me bless His Holy Name." That "ALL" was really our message to those attending. Isn't that what dance and movement for the Lord is all about? Isn't that what worship and praise are all about?? Yes, a little bit of preaching to the choir to encourage them and to equip them for better discussion of the issues, IMHO.



Zion Grove was a great space to use as an example of a tough place to do any sort of group or individual dance ministry, an especially difficult space to teach a congregation about what many would deem "traditional folk movement". Auditorium seating, bolted to the floor with pretty narrow aisles and a bare minimum of space between the rows of seats. A great space to teach them how to encourage movement in tight quarters. We repeated a couple of the things we did last year, but tailored them to the space and the perceived needs of the folks. How does one teach movement to a congregation bound between rows of bolted metal racks of seats? No problem. We taught them about davening and we did some wave offerings, providing some scriptural background for both and reminding them that dance and movement were not man's ideas, but that they were found in His book, as He shared with Moses and David, Peter and Paul, and others, just exactly what He Himself thought that our expressions of praise and worship ought to look like. Lots of head nodding going on during that teaching time.



The space made it tricky to teach true circle dancing as there was no space large enough to actually make a circle of more than 4 people, so Helena instituted oval dancing! <EMOJI seq="1f607">:innocent:</EMOJI> The folks laughed and giggled; they worked hard at making their bodies do things that they'd not done before. In the end it was a wonderful sacrifice of their bodies--their Romans 12:1, presenting of their bodies as "a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship"--and what was I'm sure a sweet savor unto the Lord. At the end of our time together one of the women remarked that she felt that she'd worshipped in a very special way. The pieces presented were really very simple for folk-dance-type stuff, only 3 simple moves total, plus a walking step and some swaying (heck, being careful of the mayim, even *I* can and did do this one!!). I'm trying hard not to put words into her mouth, but she was able to get past the awkwardness of the unknown steps and really enter into a sense of worship. Part of it was the corporate part of it, part of it was knowing that it had to be her heart because what she was doing was still a bit awkward and unfamiliar, but her heart was still able to be fixed on Him. More head nodding. :amen:



The movement "finale" in our time together was a great rendition to Paul Wilbur's Blessed Are You (Barechu) from his album Jerusalem Arise. A little mayim/grapevine stuff, a tzerchazia or two, and some rocking to and fro, and voila, a choreography! :linedance: They put their hearts into it and even let me even out their numbers. They were quick studies who seemed to enjoy the time together as much as we enjoyed sharing with them!



Helena & Jireh, did I miss anything?? :ears:

[HelenaZF]

It was a good time of sharing. I was particularly blessed that the clinic started out with a time of praise and expressive movement that was participatory for all the attendees. It really opened hearts to receive and move with the flow of the Spirit the remainder of the evening.



We taught a variation on the Barechu dance that involved switching lines on the chorus part. The first tries of it did look something like this:

<IMG content="http://www.smileygarden.de/smilie/X-Maennchen/schlacht.gif">



..but as we kept trying it, it did smooth out!



If anyone would like the notes, music info and choreographies for the class we taught, they can be downloaded in this topic:

<URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=143">http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=143

in the Reads & Reviews forum.