Thoughts on worship dance
By
Tunmise
Awojobi
A few days ago I got a text inviting me to write an
article on dance and I must say I feel somewhat
privileged to be given such an opportunity. I pray
that even if you do not actually do “Worship Dance” in
the capacity that I do you will learn one or two
things as I share my thoughts on dance from my own
experiences.
Just so we can be clear on what I am referring to as
“Worship Dance” I would define it as descriptive dance
that expresses the heartfelt meaning of a song,
usually to God (like Darlene Zschech’s ‘Power of Love’
) but sometimes to the audience (like Fountain Of
Praise’s ‘Friend of the Light’).Some people refer to
it as Ballet (I’d rather not kid myself!!) others
refer to it as Choreography (well…maybe…) but in my
opinion “Worship Dance” is just dance that helps me
better express my heart to God in a unique way and it
does make the meaning of a song become even clearer to
me and to the people who I’m ministering to.
There are certain “rules” that I realize have helped
me over the years and I’d just like to highlight a few
of them in this article.
For me, rule number one has got to be:
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DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!!!
Let me explain…..one day after ministering in church
someone walked up to me and said I am not exactly
doing it right “You are not supposed to sing when
doing choreography but your lips are always moving and
you always sing”!! Well, I went on to explain to the
person that if that’s what choreography means then I
DON’T DO CHOREOGRAPHY!!!I helped her to understand
that when I sing as I dance I really ‘get into’ the
song and I’m able to express myself a whole lot better
in dance than if I was trying to keep the rule by not
singing. Singing works for me and I am more concerned
about ministering to people than keeping the
choreography rules so I’ll sing rather than be scared
of the Choreography Police pulling me over someday!!
So don’t sweat the small stuff about keeping rules (I
say this with some caution though) but be concerned
about the more important mission of ministering and
reaching across to the other side of the divide! I
also try to encourage the children that I teach in
church to sing along as they dance and they always see
the difference. Need I say more?
Another thing that has really worked for me is what I
call
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AN AUDIENCE OF ONE
Often
when playing music in my room I just get up and
suddenly start dancing like I was on stage in front of
a large audience. Truth is, I am on stage, but
not in front of all those people, I am before an
audience of one…Father God. I realize it helps to just
dance before your Maker…give Him worship through dance
in the privacy of your room, in your secret place. If
you can minister to God that way then He’ll equip you
with what it takes to minister to others. It’s like
falling in love with God where no one can see and then
going to express this love in the open. It’s like
getting a refill so you don’t go giving what you don’t
have… like practicing in your room away from the
prying eyes of people and getting your Father’s
approval first. Sometimes I dance to the song I’m
actually going to do on a Sunday (so He can get a
first glimpse!) but sometimes I just dance even when I
don’t have any ministration coming up. It always makes
such a difference to the actual ministration I
noticed.
Again it’s important to
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BE WILLING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW
I am used to dancing all by myself and it’s much
easier to think up moves and remember them (or
improvise if I do forget them!!) when it’s just me
doing the dance. But I understand that people do get
bored easily with the same things again and again so I
have sometimes had to involve one or two of my friends
(who have a heart for worship dance) when working on a
dance just to give it some variance from what people
are used to and anyway like they say “Two (good) heads
are often better than one”!
At other times, I have had to try out other people’s
suggestions on costuming and I realize that this
sometimes makes ALL the difference to a dance. I
remember particularly a costume concept Uncle Zik
Zulu-Okafor had for Boney M’s “Zion’s Daughter” which
I did at the church carol service in 2002.It had a
Jungle girl / Tarzan look to it but it worked well for
the music and the steps which we had worked into it.
It was fun!
Also, I remember very recently when working on a dance
to “Friend of the Light” with a friend who I like to
call my “dance partner”, Elizabeth, we both had an
idea what the bridge should look like but we had to
call in another friend who is better at hip hop to
help us with that part because we wanted some “hip
hop-like” steps which we knew we couldn’t put together
on our own. We could have settled for our own type of
steps but because we had an idea we wanted to pursue
we called in someone we knew was better equipped than
us.
Sometimes trying something new may involve going the
extra mile of reading, getting someone else involved
etc but I think it’s always worth it because “Friend
of the Light” was easily one of my favourite dances in
recent times.
Last but not least, it’s very important to
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TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE!
How can I ever forget one Sunday morning in church
about 2 years ago when God’s glory was so tangible in
our midst? We had just finished singing “You are
beautiful beyond description” my Pastor, Femi Obaweya
then took the microphone and asked that I come on
stage and dance while we sing the song again. I wasn’t
quite sure it was my name that I heard and especially
since Pastor Femi had never done such a thing before
but it was awesome and I realized later that all I
actually had to do that day was yield to God and He
took over. What am I saying? Don’t say “I can’t do
this or I can’t do that” take up the challenge and
allow God to have His way. Other times (like it
happened last weekend) Pastor Wale would call me
during rehearsals or even on Saturday night and ask me
to do a dance the next morning. Initially I didn’t
exactly find it funny but as time went by I realized
that the more I took up the challenge the better I
became and the more confident I am not in my ability
but in God’s ability to use me no matter how
impromptu! Some of the most effective ministrations
have even been those impromptu ones!
These are just a few of the things that have worked
for me over the years and I do hope that even if you
are a part of the worship team in whatever capacity,
worship leader, accompanying vocalist, instrumentalist
or if your write or whatever talent it is that you God
has placed in your hands, you will learn one or two
truths here that can help you along the way.
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Tunmise who is a dentist is also serves as Fountain of
Praise's ministry coordinator. You can email her on
info@fopmusic.com
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