Other bloggers are now writing posts for my blog – I love it! In all seriousness, Mark’s is one of my favorite blogs. I sincerely appreciate him taking the time to write.
More on liturgical dance: I found on the Net a paper
by an Australian teacher on the history of dance in
Christian worship. Here’s the link:
http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal6/coleman.html
Her conclusion:
“Dance within the Christian context, having sprung
from the Jewish tradition, was embraced by the early
church as an integral part of celebrations and of
worship. During the Middle Ages various influences
affected the development of Christian dance and
despite increasing proscriptions concerning its value
and use, it survived as a sacred dance form. However,
with the commencement of the Reformation, the dance
was forced out of its place in the liturgical
celebrations of the Christian church, and with few
exceptions flourished instead in the secular realm.
“Gradually, with the renewal of the church in the
twentieth century, including liturgical renewal, dance
has begun to find increasing acceptance in the worship
life of the church once again…”
Here is an interesting excerpt on prevailing Christian
views toward sacred dance after the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation:
“Similarly, in the Catholic Church during the meetings
of the Council of Trent, the intention was less on the
abolition of sacred dance, than on seeking unity in
liturgical and theological matters. The Council’s
decrees, however, stifled creativity and growth within
the church drama scene. In 1566, statues of the synod
of Lyons for example, threatened priests and other
persons with excommunication if they led dances in
churches or cemeteries.
“In general, the church insisted on liturgical unity
without the use of dance in worship. As increasing
pressure to cease all religious dance mounted, there
seemed no avenue for a possible creative revival in
dance.
“Consequently, religious dance disappeared, or
survived in only a few isolated places. Some religious
denominations cultivated specific liturgical movements
which harked back to the early church dance. Other
Christian dance movements were changed into folk
expressions, to be seen at weddings or funerals, or
else remained buried in the structured movement of the
Catholic Mass.
“The events of the period eventually led to the
eradication of liturgical dance, processions, and most
visual arts, leaving only the arts of painting,
preaching and music unscathed.
“In the post Reformation period both the Protestant
and Catholic Church ‘firmly attempted to close the
door on creative expression of dance in the liturgy’
(Gagne 1984:59). The Catholics’ increasing
proscriptions against dance, coupled with an
increasing sense of mistrust of dance on the part of
Protestants, forced dance back into the secular realm.
‘Dance was given back totally to society, with few
exceptions remaining of church-related Christian
dance’ (Gagne 1984: 59).”
If you think about it, the Catholic worship introduced
and nurtured by missionaries across the world between
the Counter-Reformation and the mid-20th century — by
Spaniards in California and Mexico and Latin America,
by the French in North America and Africa and the
South Seas, by the Belgians in the Congo — would have
been of the Tridentine variety.
The blackrobe Jesuits were noted for adapting to local
cultures, but it is far more likely they were teaching
the Hurons to sing Gregorian chant than adapting the
native harvest dance to Catholic “liturgies.”
This move to make worship more “relevant” by
incorporating “multicultural” aspects is a creature of
the post-Vatican II generation. I can’t imagine that
Latin American Catholics or Vietnamese Catholics or
various other ethnic Catholics have a deep-seated
hankering for a tribal promenade at Mass, since this
has not been part of formal Catholic worship in their
countries over the centuries. At the folk festival
maybe; at Mass, no.
Catholic means universal, and there was a time that if
you went to Mass in Paris or Pago Pago, you could
follow along, because it was the same Latin rite
wherever it was offered. Have we more unity in the
current day of botched vernacular translations and
Jules Feiffer-style Dances to Spring at the Offertory?
Short answer – no. Other opinions and musings welcome via comments or email.
