PeaceBang

Shake Your Groove Thang

September 1, 2007 on 1:17 pm | In Inspirations |

One of the hardest things about giving up musical theatre as a regular extracurricular activity is that my life is much more sedentary. I do exercise at the club but I’m really not an outdoorsy-type at all and have never found a physical activity that enchants me the way the theatre did and does. When you do a show, the pounds just fall off. You’re singing, dancing, moving on stage, using your whole instrument and all your muscles.

When I’m at the health club I feel like a hamster on a wheel; there’s nothing creative or engaging at all about it and it’s easy to get into “fitness mind” — calculating calories burned and heart rate and blood pressure. Blech. I’m not a machine, I’m a human. I know it’s important to keep the bod moving, but if there’s no passion and joy in it it’s darn hard to keep at any physical discipline.

Therefore, because my ministry schedule makes it very difficult to commit to a community theatre production, I’ve been looking for years for an opportunity to dance somewhere. You’d be amazed how hard it’s been to find a place. Club dancing is often couples-oriented and expensive and involves staying out late. Dance studios that offer classes where I live are inevitably geared toward children, and ballroom dance groups are generally populated by much older married couples. The lighting is harsh, the settings (church parish halls and the like) uninspiring and the music really awful. I used to love Yogarhythmics when I lived in Maryland but the class got so popular there was no room to move in the small studio. It’s not really free, expressive dance when you’re constantly worried about smashing into the gal next to you.

Last weekend I took a risk and went to see a fantastic band at a club that I knew drew an older crowd, was not at all meat-markety and where I was supposed to join a Meetup group. While I never did find the Meetup folks, I was adopted by a group of middle-aged friends who invited me sit with them and were wonderfully friendly and hospitable. I hadn’t been out dancing in YEARS and it was revelatory. The music was wonderful, we boogied our hearts out, and I determined to find an opportunity to shake my groove thang more frequently (far enough away from my parish to keep my boogeyings a private matter, as I do not think it’s appropriate for ministers to dance with uninhibited exhiliration where their people can see them. I know we’re not Baptists but even religious liberals need to maintain those boundaries).

I am therefore thrilled to have just found this dance studio, a place that looks hip, fun, affordable, accessible and friendly. I’ve signed up for a free mambo/rumba night next week and will see how it goes.

Dance is a universal, ancient way to create community and to praise God with one’s whole self. For this minister who lives far too much in her head and in words on a page, singing and dancing provide essential counterpoints to the staid Western tradition that would have us worshiping as waxen figures. Psalm 149, people!!

Let them praise God’s name wtih dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.

(Just don’t read the rest of the psalm, where it talks about two-edged swords and “executing vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples.”