Dance for Christ: Cast wants to spread love of God through art of dancing
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on April 2, 2017 12:24 AM
Full SizeThe curtain opens to show heaven. People are dancing everywhere. New arrivals run across the stage, happy to meet people from their lives who were already there.
"The emotions they show on their faces are just so beautiful," said 15-year-old Caroline Foy.
That's why she likes the "Heaven" dance best of all the pieces in "Dance for Christ."
Caroline has been dancing in the production since she was 10.
This is the 16th year of the show by dancers at Artistic Dance Academy.
Caroline began dancing at the studio when she was about 4 or 5 and knew of "Dance for Christ.
"I always came and watched it before I was old enough to dance in it," she said. "I always wanted to be part of it. It's a great opportunity to learn more about God and his love and be around this environment of other dancers."
One of her favorite dances is "Cry Freedom."
"It's more of the style of dance I like to do," she said. "And it has a really great message."
As does the entire production. And that's exactly the way director Patricia Warren wanted it when she started "Dance for Christ."
"About 10 years before it started, I had always had this in my heart to do," she said. "I always wanted to do a ministry with the art of dance."
But she felt like she wasn't worth enough to put anything on stage that would be good enough to glorify God. So she put it on the back burner.
"It wasn't until I got sick with cancer that it made me realize how short life is," Mrs. Warren said. "I didn't want to leave this earth without at least trying to do a dance ministry.
"The more I delved into the word, the more I realized I don't have to be perfect. All I had to be was a vessel and God would work through me and he would equip me with everything I needed."
Mrs. Warren said "Dance for Christ" gave her dancers at the studio a new way to pray and also minister to their community about the gospel.
"In our small way, we just want to spread God's love through the production," she said.
When Mrs. Warren first began putting together the show, her biggest challenge was using choreography as a ministry. She said people who aren't dancers don't always understand the art behind the mind of a dancer, and it can look very abstract to them. She didn't want that to happen with "Dance for Christ."
"I started out making it about the choreography," Mrs. Warren said. "I was in the studio one day and struggling with a piece. God told me so clearly that it's not about the choreography; it's about the message. When I stopped thinking about the choreography and only about the message, the choreography just came."
The show changes up a little bit from time to time.
One new change this year is with a piece that's been in the show since it began -- "The Real Me."
"That's the piece that I have more men come up to me and say it really ministered to them," Mrs. Warren said. "I've always used female dancers and they wear masks. It's about being who we are and not putting a mask on and being who the world tells us we should be. Be who God created us to be.
"I was thinking about how that impacted so many men in our community. Now that we have so many male dancers, we talked about this piece and they thought it would be a good idea to use male dancers in that piece this year. So the dance has been completely rechoreographed using men in the piece."
Josh Crawford, 15, said "The Real Me" was the most challenging dance for him, having to learn all the moves in just one day.
He's danced in the show for three years.
"It's an amazing ministry and it reaches so many people," he said. "I love being able to worship through what I love to do -- dance."
Josh said one of his favorite pieces is "War" because it's very upbeat and very fast-paced, the kind of dancing he likes best.
This is 17-year-old Melanie Exum's 10th year of performing in "Dance for Christ."
For a while, she was one of the little monsters, but this year is in a lead role in the dance "Courtroom."
"I'm a soul on trial," she said. "I'm representing the human race as sinners being accused of stuff, but God is always forgiving. I have to do a lot of acting, too, because the demons in the dance have ti kind of throw me around."
Melanie said the production has helped her grow as a person, a dancer, a leader and a believer. And the other dancers have become a second family to her.
"Knowing I'm dancing for God makes the pressure go away because I know it's not about the audience, it's not about me, but it's about Jesus," she said.
One memory she'll always carry with her was when she was one of the little monsters in "No Monsters."
"At the end, the monsters are supposed to fall back, and I fell back and there was nobody there to catch me," Melanie said, laughing. "I didn't hurt myself, but it was scary. Every year when she's teaching the dance, Miss Patricia talks to the little monsters and tells them that story."
"Dance for Christ" is unexplainable, said Caroline.
"Its one of those things that you just have to go see," she said. "It's a wonderful ministry to be in."
Josh said the dancers are not just dancing on stage when they perform "Dance for Christ."
"We are pushing out the love of Jesus to the audience by our moves, breaths and dancing," he said. "We spread the love of Jesus."
"Dance for Christ" will be performed at the Paramount Theatre March 31 and April 7 at 7 p.m., April 1 and 8 at 1:30 and 7 p.m. and April 2 and 9 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $13 and $11 for the Saturday matinee only, available at the Paramount box office, by calling 919-583-8432 or online at www.goldsboroparamount.com.