Dance for Christ
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on March 19, 2018 2:08 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
"Amazing Grace" features dancers with flowing skirts, ribbons and giant golden wings.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
New to "Dance for Christ" this year is a two-part dance that tells the story of Moses through props, costumes and interpretive dance. The first part tells of him being placed in a basket in the river by his mother and rescued. The second part tells of him being the deliverer.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The annual "Dance for Christ" performance brings hundreds of people to the Paramount Theatre each year. Organizer Patricia Warren says the group likes to keep the show fresh by adding new dances and reworking some of the favorites. One dance that has been re-choreographed this year is "Clear the Stage."
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
New to "Dance for Christ" this year is a two-part dance that tells the story of Moses through props, costumes and interpretive dance. The first part tells of him being placed in a basket in the river by his mother and rescued. The second part tells of him being the deliverer.
The courtroom is full. The lawyer -- Satan himself -- is determined to send every single soul on trial to eternal damnation without any chance of redemption. Dressed in a suit and occasionally shooting out fire, Satan is very demanding of the judge -- God.
Local dancer Andrew Shaw takes the part of Satan seriously.
"It must be represented because there's always an enemy out there," the 18-year-old said. "I play Satan in several pieces."
The pieces are part of "Dance For Christ," a non-profit production put on by Artistic Productions under the umbrella of Artistic Dance Academy.
"The dances really speak to me because I can feel a connection between myself and the audience as I'm dancing," Shaw said.
"My favorite dance has got to be 'Spirit Move.' It's a dance about just having this feeling that God has come into your life and you can do great things, which I really think is the message of 'Dance for Christ.' There's this part right at the end where it peaks, and you can just feel yourself connected to everything. And it's really an amazing feeling."
The production is now in its eighteenth year. Having been part of "Dance For Christ" for five years, Shaw has many memories, but a moment last year when the dancers prayed together sticks out.
"Two-thirds of the cast had some awful thing going on -- three new cases of cancer, a dog dying and others -- and it was just terrible," he said. "The second we started praying, you could just feel that weight being lifted. It really was a powerful moment."
Caroline Foy, 16, will always remember funny night.
"It's always the last dress rehearsal," she said. "We make these crazy costumes and bring out these crazy objects. One year for the number 'Creation' someone had a banana costume and was hanging on a tree. One of the gorillas took the banana."
Foy has danced in the production for seven years. During that time, she has sacrificed much to rehearse and perform -- family trips, family meals and more. But she tells her parents it's something she needs and wants to be a part of.
"It's so wonderful," she said. "I have faith that I'm going to do what the Lord wants me to do to minister to people in the audience. Every time I go on stage, I can't think about myself. I have to think like the type of person I'm going to portray because that person is going to speak to someone in the audience."
It's 13-year-old Lauren Jett's sixth season of performing in "Dance For Christ." The first time she saw it, she thought what an amazing ministry it was and knew she had to be part of it.
She portrays Eve in "Creation." She's also a demon in "Champion" and "Courtroom."
"It's kind of fun to be a bad guy sometimes," Jett said. "I put myself in the mindset that I'm trying to portray to the audience what evil looks like. We have contacts that make our eyes look white, a little scary. And I act really creepy and slinky."
She said the production is a life-changing experience.
"I hope that maybe someone who might not go to church might come to this dance and see how much Jesus loves them, and hopefully they'll also get saved," Jett said.
"I asked one of my good friends to come and watch one year. At the very end, they ask you to raise your hand if you've gotten saved when they have the call to get saved. I remember she raised her hand and she got saved. It was very awesome."
One of the youngest dancers is 10-year-old Mabry Chudy. She plays a deputy in "Satan Bite The Dust."
She has had good experiences both on and off stage, including last year when senior Micah Sherrard was performing.
"He always encouraged me and the way he danced inspired me to be just like him," she said. "That kind of changed my life, knowing there was someone that I could look up to."
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Patricia Warren is the creator of "Dance For Christ."
"I think God put it in my heart, but I was afraid to do it," she said. "I felt like I wasn't qualified to put on stage anything to glorify God."
But a bout with cancer changed that.
"When I got sick, I didn't know how it was going to unfold," Warren said. "It made me realize how short life is and how we have these dreams that God puts in us and we should act on them.
"When I was sick with cancer, I realized I might not be here to do this, so if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it now."
Since its inception, "Dance For Christ" has grown as a ministry, Warren said.
"We do pieces that not only glorify God and tell stories of his mercy and love and stories of the Bible, but it also talks about life circumstances and how God is in the midst of all that. He never leaves us no matter what we're going through," she said.
Warren said through this ministry, she hopes to open people's hearts and minds to understand that God is not a God to be put in a box. And it's not a God who just wants to check off everything people have done wrong.
"God wants a relationship with us, and we as humans put so many rules and rituals on our Christianity," she said. "God just wants to love us and he just wants us to love him.
"I want people to know Christ and be set free in this world where we're held in bondage. And I want these dancers at the studio that are here every week preparing for this, I want them to grow up knowing who God is, and I want them to know now. I want them to be armed with the love of Jesus and weapons of the Bible that will protect them."
Warren said that everything in the "Dance For Christ" ministry is because of God, and the dancers are just his vessels.
"'Dance For Christ' has been a beautiful blessing on the community, on the studio and on these kids," she said. "I think it brings so much joy to the audience. It's going to touch you in a powerful, powerful way."