Dance Ministry – What’s a Christian Dance Weekend?

As I’ve been gathering notes for this year’s Christian dance weekend. I started to think about what it was that made people come on a weekend in the first place. Plus, I think it’s always good to remember where our roots are and why we do what we do! Over the decade and more that I have been running UC Grace. Different groups, workshops, training and performances opportunities have evolved. Some not even in my planning, but God has placed them in the pathway of UC Grace.

At every event I marvel at how God brings it together. Who he brings and the impact that the event creates in others. Let me take you a very short journey of the UC Grace Christian dance weekends, how they began, their impact upon myself and others and what they look like now!

Christian Dance weekend 2014 attendees.
Attendees from the first Christian Dance Weekend in 2014. The theme was Treasure and Truth.

How did UC Grace Christian Dance Weekends begin?

The first musings about a dance weekend began in 2013, when I first started to have discussions with other Christian dancers. They were asked whether they’d either value a Christian dance day retreat or a weekend away. Plus what it was that they’d see that time away being. Many of the Christian dance workshop participants at this point had been dancing with me from the beginning. I had watched them grow and develop and were eager for more. However, we all recognised that the odd 90-minute workshop just didn’t cut it and we wanted something more! Going back over some of the responses from an initial survey I sent out. It is awesome to see how God has worked in it all.

Defining a weekend away.
Exploration and reflection through creative expression, feeling refreshed individually, closer to God, and a sense of fellowship and sharing with a group.'
Space to reflect, read the Bible. Share the experience with others.

With just a handful of resources I took the plunge and stepped out to run my first Christian dance weekend for UC Grace. I didn’t know the true amount of work it would take. The people it would bring or that it was just the beginning of many!

My heart was to provide a space that would enable people to grow in their Christian dance worship movement skills, their relationship with God and build relationships and fellowship with others.

So how have UC Grace Christian Dance Weekends developed?

For that first weekend in 2014, my heart was hopeful that I would get to 15 participants, that didn’t happen. I could have let that disappoint rule how I went forward with my planning. However, God has spoken quite clearly since I began UC Grace that it is about the hearts of those that come to UC Grace events. Not about the numbers.

That first year, I was blown away by how God moved. I changed the whole of my Sunday plan on the Sunday morning as I followed God’s lead. We took dancing out of our room and out into the centre to bless others in the building. We crowned ourselves with Gods crown, and broke down walls that didn’t need to be there.

Treasure and Truth feedback reads.
'Being released into creative movement without several sessions of practising and that the whole weekend has been so based on the WORD in combination with HOLY SPIRIT.'
'I cam feeling very sad and low and feeling as I was entering into a dark place again in my life. I now feel lighter and brighter and fuller!! I feel I have tools that can help me stay out of that dark place. Thank you.'
Feedback from Treasure and Truth 2014 dance weekend

We did this by standing on God’s word and letting scripture and God’s voice lead the sessions. Since then, that’s how the weekends have developed. God always goes first. Even if I’ve spent a long time putting the plan together, because, His plan is the ultimate plan.

Since that first weekend, I always look with delight at the next weekend that will happen. At who God will bring to come and move, and dance and grow. To explore what he lays on my heart. How I can help change people’s perspectives on themselves, their movement and their journey with God as my lead.

What’s the soul of the weekend?

This picture below, sums up the soul of the weekends perfectly.

Hugging embrace with three ladies. One dressed in light colours and the other in darker colours. Look of content on their faces and the giving of love.
Dance Worship weekend 2018

They say pictures show 1000 words, they demonstrate what can not be said, that is so true. As you look on the outside looking in at this picture. You see a hug, a warm embrace between a group of friends. But what they don’t show you is the journey each of these ladies have been on over the weekend. It doesn’t show the struggles they’ve had to step out in their faith, it doesn’t show when times were tough. It doesn’t show what God has said to them or how they have been taken on a journey.

This picture was taken at the last session of our 2018 dance weekend (you can watch a highlight video here). We had just had a time of praying and dancing (so important that we do both of these things together). Only the ladies in the picture really know what was going on in their journey at that point.

But for me it shows a freeze frame of friendship, support, love, prayer, journey and acceptance that they are letting God lead their journey.

WOW!!

But what’s the layout of a Christian Dance weekend?

If you’re like me, you want to know details about what specifically happens at a UC Grace Christian dance weekend. The details that normally you don’t find out till you’re booked!

Most weekends follow a similar format. We have main sessions Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning. Sprinkled in between are breakout sessions for you to pick and choose from. These fit with the theme of the weekend, and could be anything from –

  • Learning a dance
  • Getting crafty and creative making something
  • Developing a skill. Such as dancing with flags, material, leading. Responding to the Holy Spirit, prayer dance and movement – there are so many options!
  • Formal and informal quiet times
  • Prayer space
  • Chatting, chilling and eating cake with friends old and new!

In terms of the actual structure of a main session, that is down to the individual leader. However, most sessions follow the format of:

  • Welcome
  • Prayer
  • Scripture focus with talk and discussion
  • Exploration exercises
  • Reflection time
  • Implementation
  • Time to hear from God

There will be opportunities both to create movement on your own and in groups as well as learn specific movement.

On our Dancing Free Christian dance weekends we ‘build a dance’ throughout the course of the weekend. Something fun to do together, and offers the chance for you to take back to your group or church and re-use if appropriate. Each session we would add a little bit on.

How did the Christian Dance weekend Going Deeper begin?

UC Grace Christian dance weekends have turned into a key fixture in our calendar. Something for everyone to look forward to. When I ran my first one in 2014, I didn’t think people would be interested in a yearly weekend. So, I began to arrange them bi-annually (this has developed into our Dancing Free weekends). It gave me time to develop other ideas and continue to grow other areas of UC Grace.

However, God has been gracious and given me opportunities to grow connections, build friendships and have the privilege to journey with others. I felt UC Grace was at a point where it now needed to offer those dancers and participants. Who had journeyed with it for over 10 years another opportunity that would take them deeper on a more personal level. That’s where the Going Deeper weekends developed.

Going Deeper provides a smaller more intimate group to develop their Christian dance worship skills and personal faith journey. Dancing Free Christian dance weekends allow a larger number to gather in fellowship, experience dancing and learning from others. Whilst exploring the use of arts and creativity alongside prayer and movement. Plus being in a place to build friendships and generate a network that draws people across the country together.

Check out our Dance Weekends page to find out when the next weekend is and I hope to see you there!

Our 2022 Dancing Free Christian Dance weekend is running 1st – 3rd April at Kings Park Conference Centre, Northampton. There are still spaces and we would love to see you there! Head here for more info and booking.

1000 Reasons to dance for our King

I am so excited to share this project with you.

It particularly seems so relevant now as so many of us are dancing and moving more than ever have before. 1000 Reasons to dance for our King, is a project about acknowledging all those reasons that we choose to dance for our King, what pulls at our heart, the emotions we bring and experiences we have, the answers to prayer.

I know not all of you dance, but I expect at some point you have been impacted by dance in some way, that is also a good reason to dance for our King. In a time when when everyone needs to be encouraged, when people want to witness the effect that God has on people, when people are asking questions. Let’s be deliberate in understanding why we are moving, what initiates us and takes us on the journey. From there, we have the opportunity to be equipped to share and explain the gospel in a more comprehensive way.

So, my question to you, will you join me on this journey? I know that why you dance today, will be different to why you dance tomorrow. Or how dance impacts you today, will be different to how it impacts you tomorrow. Over the next few months and the month previous, the journey each of us will go on will test our faith, movement and resilience to stand firm with our faith, lean into God and dance for our King. Check out the video below to hear more before the project.

Comment below or drop me an email and let me know if you’re up for it.

Then as you dance and move over the next days, weeks, months, pop me a message  and share your reason why you dance for the King. You can do this via email (click here) or phone.

Please do share this with anyone you think would love to join this movement. The #dancingarmy is growing at an immense rate, it is awesome to see God move and witness people choosing to #dancealittlelouder.

How important is advent to your family?

How often does Advent arrive and you feel like you weren’t ready for it, or you groan because that means that Christmas is going to sneak up really quickly and you still need to get x amount of things done first?

In an effort to be a bit more organised I started thinking about Advent in October! Yes October! But mainly because my daughter is nearly 4 and really clued in to what is going on and already talking about Christmas! I felt this year would provide a great opportunity to develop further some of the activities that I already do during the Advent season.

I really struggle with how secular advent has become, I feel you can get blind sided with all the ‘extras’ that seem to go with that time of year, particularly in the run up. God wants us to remember him in all we do and put him first, and that includes in amongst all the ‘extras’ that get thrown. So my questions to you, with December under 2 weeks away, how have you prepared for Advent? What is going to be your most important thing during the advent season? How will you celebrate it as a family?

For me, I identify that advent can be such an exciting time and an awesome chance to explore not only the Christmas story but also ways we can pray, interact and move on our journey with God. This year to help, I have identified 3 areas to form the basis of our Advent time – Celebrate, Create and Explore.

Celebrate – take a moment to find something specific to celebrate within our family, or something that Jesus did.

Create – make something that will enable us to learn more about an aspect of Advent, the Bible and the Christmas Story.

Explore – read a bit of the Christmas story and chat, move and go deeper with the themes from it.

I’m looking forward to writing some ‘kindness elves’ activities (there’ll be more on this in another post), making HOPE jars, dove mobiles, and prayer bunting! All to help inspire imagination and generate conversation in our family.

You can read some more ideas about how to explore advent as family from one of our free downloads, just fill in the form here. There will be a series of 4 available throughout the course of December.

Don’t forget that there is also our Family Advent Fun event on the 1st December.

 

Dancing with a Holy Roar

“In Him we Live and Move and have our Being.” Acts 17.28

God has given us our amazing bodies to move and dance with in whatever way we can. The other day I came across Chris Tomlins new song ‘HOLY ROAR‘, it took my breath away. It spoke right into my core, about why I move and dance, and the strength, passion and integrity with which I do it. It prompted an opportunity to share at our latest Living Colour workshop how we could explore Dancing with a Holy Roar.

But what does Holy Roar actually mean? It’s best to start by looking at how the dictionary defines each word.

Lets start with Holy – dedicated or consecrated to God, sacred. Which sounds a great way to describe this special word. Participants at the workshop also came up with the following –

  • Special/ quietness – an awe
  • Pure, sacred. Set apart and hard to translate
  • Jesus dying on the cross. What he did for us

In essence, Holy, is something that is indescribable, beyond words, definitely set apart and something special.

Whilst Roar is defined as – a full deep, prolonged cry uttered by a lion or wild animal. That’s pretty intense isn’t it?! Other words came up in discussion such as –

  • Power
  • Roaring like a lion
  • Strong
  • Loud
  • Aggressive/ emotive

How can we link these two words together? If I now asked you what you think Holy Roar means as one thing what would you say?

  • Cry for justice from a place of deep grief or righteous anger
  • From the belly – it uses your whole being
  • Confrontation with all your strength but you’re 100% up for it
  • Freedom

Living Colour October 2018

What do you think it means to have a Holy Roar in dance ministry and life? Massive questions hey! But have a think, how could you move and dance with Holy Roar as your foundation?

My favourite line from the responses above has to be the picture of ‘from the belly’, because actually that’s what it’s all about. When we worship, when we cry out to God, when we battle and declare he is victorious. We are putting our whole heart into it. We’re choosing to be strong, clear, and direct with our movement and what we want to declare.

Think of it like your belt of truth. The belt is something that holds things in place, stabilises your core and carries things. If you have a weak core, your ability to move efficiently will be diminished. The core of moving and dancing comes from knowing the truth in the Bible. I love the imagery of tightening the belt the more you know. It’s like you’re choosing to take a stand point and are notching in ready for the fight!

So when you choose to move and dance. Think about the stand point you are taking, and how you can use a Holy Roar in your movement.

What different ways do you pray?

What different ways do you pray?

Weaving prayer into our everyday life can sometimes be a challenge can’t it? I love exploring ways to use movement and prayer together, go deeper with God and journey with others.

Amazing Grace Course July 2018

We’ve developed a fantastic resource to enable you to start moving at a pace that you are comfortable with, pausing where needed. It’s completely FREE and you can access it here. We’d love to know how you get on, so please do let us know.

When I connect prayer and movement I find it easier to associate with specific areas. In the FREE download – 5 Ways to use Prayer and Movement together,  I identify the following areas –

  • Walking
  • Knees
  • Thanking
  • Declaring
  • Revealing

Each area providing an avenue to explore movement in a different way. It can be really daunting choosing to step out and pray using movement. But the thing that God delights most, is not only that you try, but that nothing is EVER WRONG. Any way you choose to move for him, there is a party. PLUS if someone sees you doing prayer movement, you never know the impact that that will have on them.

So go on, go for it and try stepping out! Grab the it here.