Dance for the King

     If you saw my first post, "A Writer is Born, Part I", you might remember that I mentioned I hated to dance when I was little. Ok, hated is an understatement. My first ballet class was a complete failure. I look back and think, "Poor kid."

    At first I dreamed of being a ballerina, so my mom signed me up for ballet class. My five-year-old brain thought, "This will be so cool! I will kick my leg up high and do twenty turns!"

   Now if you've ever even attempted to do ballet, you know it's not like that. Not only do you not learn to do the "fancy stuff" until about a year or two (or even more, depending on how hard you work and how old you are when you start) of dancing, but the process to get there is rather painful. As one of my later ballet teachers said, "If you don't hold it there, you don't build muscle". Sometimes translated as, "No pain, no gain."

  So with slow progress and aching muscles, I was thoroughly disillusioned. Being a beautiful ballerina was NOT worth it, I decided.

   Fast forward seven years. My family and I had just moved to Colorado, and almost all my friends were doing this new thing called worship dance. Basically, worship dance is a choreographed dance done by anywhere from two to twenty or more dancers. It is almost always done to worship music, and, depending on your teacher, can have elements of lyrical, ballet, jazz, or modern dance.

   You know how it is, when all your friends are doing something, you just have to try it. And I did. Not before my mom warned me that I wasn't allowed to complain about sore muscles. And I agreed. After two or three classes I was hopelessly in love. Not only was dance fun, (so fun it was worth the sore muscles), but it was also a powerful way to worship my King.

   I think that is why I love worship dance in particular. Most forms of dance scream, "me, Me, ME! Look at me!" But in worship dance, the focus is totally off you and completely on your Father.

  So now if you see me doing random kicks, leaps, or turns, (remember I said hopelessly in love, I can't stop!) you know why. I told you I wasn't crazy! Ok, well I might be crazy, but at least I have a reason. :)

  If you're interested in learning more about worship dance, here is a video of one my favorite pieces our dance school did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPJcWmDo4Q