By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
For the past four years, I have taken a weekly tap-dancing class at a studio in a community where I had my last job before I became editor of the Zeeland Record.
A couple of months ago, I danced in a year-end recital. I had a blast, as my dance partner and I shuffled and time-stepped our way through the Earth, Wind & Fire classic “September.”
You may ask why I tap. First, it’s a great aerobic workout. Secondly, it engages my mind, helping build neural connections as I try to remember steps and combinations.
Finally, it boosts my mental health, particularly when I struggle with depression. It brings me joy.
As a reporter who has covered this area for close to 40 years, I’ve found that at times there have been segments of the local faith community that have been resistant to dance. The perception, I observed, was that dancing was inherently sinful and that engaging in it led to other sins, such as sex outside the bonds of marriage.
I’ll be honest, I once joked that there was a 10th-and-a-half commandment handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai called “Thou Shalt Not Dance.” I admit it was sacrilegious for me to say that.
But as I read the Scriptures, there are several examples of dancing that honored God.
My favorite example is found in 2 Samuel 6:14-16. The context is that the Ark of the Lord was being transported to Jerusalem. As David is leading the procession from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, he stops to sacrifice a bull and a fattened calf. We then pick up the story in verses 14-15:
“David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sounds of trumpets.”
But there was one inside David’s own household who rolled her eyes at what she saw: Michal, his first wife, the daughter of King Saul. (Remember, that it was Michal who helped David escape when her father, Saul, sent people out to kill him in 1 Samuel 19.) We continue in verse 16:
“As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”
When the celebration ended, our boy David went home to bless his household (6:20), and was greeted by Michal, very likely with hand on hip and showing “The Look” of disgust on her face.
“How the king of Israel distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” Michal said.
David makes no apologies.
“David said to Michal, ‘it was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.’” (6:21-22)
The postscript of the story was that Michal had no more children the rest of her life. The royal line that would lead centuries leader to Jesus would no longer go through Saul and Michal.
In Exodus 15:20, after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry land and the waters washed over the pursuing Egyptians, Miriam, Moses’ sister, “took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing” to celebrate God’s deliverance from the oppression of Pharoah.
Thankfully, attitudes in our community toward dancing have changed in recent years.
In 1974, Maxine DeBruyn, a Zeelander, convinced Hope College to allow the startup of a dance program on campus. Today, it’s one of the top collegiate dance programs in the country. In addition, Hope students have held a 24-hour Dance Marathon annually for more than 25 years that has raised millions for Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, the dance program at Zeeland Public Schools celebrated its 30th anniversary this past spring, the vision of the indomitable Nancy Clyde. Hundreds of young people have come through the ZPS dance program, and now one of Clyde’s former students, Samantha Lamer, leads the program.
We also have a faith-based studio, Turning Pointe School of Dance in Holland, which has been around for more than 25 years. Many of their productions are based on stories from Scripture.
I get that certain types of dancing could lead to immoral behavior. Those concerns are not unwarranted. But please, don’t assume that all types of dance are inherently sinful.
I believe when we get to the end – when we have a new heaven and a new earth as described in the Book of Revelation – there’s going to be one massive party where we get to celebrate and worship our Lord. And I believe there will be a lot of dancing.
So, to quote a line from “The Lord of the Dance,” a hymn composed in the 1960s set to music from the Shaker tradition: “Dance, then, wherever you may be…”
Zeeland Record
For the past four years, I have taken a weekly tap-dancing class at a studio in a community where I had my last job before I became editor of the Zeeland Record.
A couple of months ago, I danced in a year-end recital. I had a blast, as my dance partner and I shuffled and time-stepped our way through the Earth, Wind & Fire classic “September.”
You may ask why I tap. First, it’s a great aerobic workout. Secondly, it engages my mind, helping build neural connections as I try to remember steps and combinations.
Finally, it boosts my mental health, particularly when I struggle with depression. It brings me joy.
As a reporter who has covered this area for close to 40 years, I’ve found that at times there have been segments of the local faith community that have been resistant to dance. The perception, I observed, was that dancing was inherently sinful and that engaging in it led to other sins, such as sex outside the bonds of marriage.
I’ll be honest, I once joked that there was a 10th-and-a-half commandment handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai called “Thou Shalt Not Dance.” I admit it was sacrilegious for me to say that.
But as I read the Scriptures, there are several examples of dancing that honored God.
My favorite example is found in 2 Samuel 6:14-16. The context is that the Ark of the Lord was being transported to Jerusalem. As David is leading the procession from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, he stops to sacrifice a bull and a fattened calf. We then pick up the story in verses 14-15:
“David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sounds of trumpets.”
But there was one inside David’s own household who rolled her eyes at what she saw: Michal, his first wife, the daughter of King Saul. (Remember, that it was Michal who helped David escape when her father, Saul, sent people out to kill him in 1 Samuel 19.) We continue in verse 16:
“As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”
When the celebration ended, our boy David went home to bless his household (6:20), and was greeted by Michal, very likely with hand on hip and showing “The Look” of disgust on her face.
“How the king of Israel distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” Michal said.
David makes no apologies.
“David said to Michal, ‘it was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.’” (6:21-22)
The postscript of the story was that Michal had no more children the rest of her life. The royal line that would lead centuries leader to Jesus would no longer go through Saul and Michal.
In Exodus 15:20, after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry land and the waters washed over the pursuing Egyptians, Miriam, Moses’ sister, “took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing” to celebrate God’s deliverance from the oppression of Pharoah.
Thankfully, attitudes in our community toward dancing have changed in recent years.
In 1974, Maxine DeBruyn, a Zeelander, convinced Hope College to allow the startup of a dance program on campus. Today, it’s one of the top collegiate dance programs in the country. In addition, Hope students have held a 24-hour Dance Marathon annually for more than 25 years that has raised millions for Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, the dance program at Zeeland Public Schools celebrated its 30th anniversary this past spring, the vision of the indomitable Nancy Clyde. Hundreds of young people have come through the ZPS dance program, and now one of Clyde’s former students, Samantha Lamer, leads the program.
We also have a faith-based studio, Turning Pointe School of Dance in Holland, which has been around for more than 25 years. Many of their productions are based on stories from Scripture.
I get that certain types of dancing could lead to immoral behavior. Those concerns are not unwarranted. But please, don’t assume that all types of dance are inherently sinful.
I believe when we get to the end – when we have a new heaven and a new earth as described in the Book of Revelation – there’s going to be one massive party where we get to celebrate and worship our Lord. And I believe there will be a lot of dancing.
So, to quote a line from “The Lord of the Dance,” a hymn composed in the 1960s set to music from the Shaker tradition: “Dance, then, wherever you may be…”
