By Grace Badillo, President of Dancing With Grace Productions, Inc.
Since the time I was a baby I remember dancing to any music that was on around me. Those pure moments of happiness were something God planted in me as a babe; times I will always cherish. While browsing the internet I came upon a website that stated that all forms of dance are a sin. I found my self confused and saddened. The more I research the more I found “confusion” which doesn’t come from God. How could my wonderful world of dance be a sin? I ask for guidance from God each day and at every turn I see his face so how could this be? So, I began to search and found this in his presence:
First we must begin with the definition of dancing:
Dance: generally, refers to movement used as a form of expression presented in a spiritual, performance or social setting an artistic form of nonverbal communication to music move in a graceful and rhythmical way taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment.
Just as God designed love and people distort its meaning, many distort the idea of dance that comes from original uses of praise, worship, & an expression of unadulterated happiness that can be had alone or in groups.
Dancing is not a sin unless we make it one, but we must go to the Word of God to get God’s view on this important subject.
- 2 Samuel 6:5-16, David and the entire house of Israel played music before the Lord with songs, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. Verse 14 states that David danced before the Lord with all of his might. He was also leaping and dancing.
- Exodus 15:20-21 gives an account of women dancing to celebrate God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt after crossing the Red Sea.
- In Judges 21:19, there is an example of women dancing together and in Judges 21:23 they were called “dancers”.
- In 1 Samuel 18:6, women danced to celebrate one of King David’s victories with timbrels, songs of joy, and instruments of music. It was also said that they laughed and frolicked.
- In Judges 11:34, the daughter of one of the Israelite judges danced alone.
- Psalms 149:3 and 150:4 speak of praising God through dance and song.
- In 1 Samuel 30:16, we read of “the raiders were spread abroad over all the land dancing.”
Weren’t there women all over the land too; while the men were happy about their victory were the women all asleep? People like to imply that only the men danced but this is farfetched and they likely celebrated together like most human beings. This victory was a miracle, please read the entire book, you will really appreciate it!
In Ecclesiastes 3:4, Solomon wrote that there is a time for almost everything. He includes a “time for dancing,” There is no mention here if it is a sin for men and women to dance together.
And the prophet Jeremiah (31:13) foretold a time when dancing would be the joyous result of God’s work (We see our business as a joyous result of God’s work through us sharing our love of dance and appreciation of God with our students and with the poor and poor in spirit).
And so, in ancient days they danced but there are accounts in the Bible where dance was seen in a negative light:
The children of Israel danced around and worshipped the golden calf they asked Aaron to make while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and God’s covenant. What was the result of this dance? “Listen, ye that dance not to the glory of God! 3,000 of them were slain.” Exodus 32: 19-28.
The Moabites enticed the children of Israel to idolatry by the dancing of their maidens, and 24,000 were slain at the ball. Numbers 25:1-9. Josephus says the Moabites enticed the Israelites to dance.
The daughter of Herodias danced before Herod and pleased him, but her mother taking advantage of the occasion, caused Herod to commit one of the darkest crimes recorded in history—the beheading of John the Baptist.
So in reading Scripture we see there were many instances of dance and celebration and a few instances of evil acts, which proves one thing: People can take anything and make it evil.
We recognize we can’t always know the motives and intentions of others; we can only responsible for our own. We must teach our youngsters & couples what to avoid and to dance as if God were in the room. After dancing and teaching for so many years I have found that true dancers have a great appreciation for how much work it actually takes to accomplish choreography.
The dancers who work for hundreds of hours practicing aren’t sinning when they are training themselves like Olympic athletes. The hours of work and effort it takes to accomplish this are very much what goes through the mind of serious dancers and social dancers who perform or watch performances.
On occasion I like to question, “When you watch dancers perform do you lust after then or watch the dance in a pure way?” This is the true challenge for all dancers, our thought life, a challenge to us all.
Whether it’s what you think of your neighbor’s wife, a person’s church going habits, or what you think while watching a dance performance, we all need to “assess our thoughts” and require a higher standard. We can also ask God to help us guard our minds and hearts.
The Lord’s prayer is a great weapon we can use to guard our hearts and minds and teaching this will give the dancers ammunition that we must all use on a daily basis. Dance can be a sin if the dancer makes it one, much like praying to God in front of your friends to sound “godly” can be a sin or eating too much is a sin of gluttony. My advice to my mostly adult students who need help trying not to fall into lustful temptations is that when you think a lustful thought, hit the “delete button” and turn away.
Just like on a computer you too can hit the “delete button” in your mind the moment a lustful thought comes your way. God will then know that you love to dance, your intentions are pure, and you are always working on improving your thought life. This is the true “battlefield” of everyone’s everyday life; we don’t have to be a slave to our thoughts.
People who dance invest in their hobby. People who dance usually take 2-3 dance lessons a week while learning for up to a period of 6 months to an average of 5 years, or their entire lifetime. People who dance do not spend this kind of money to go to clubs & get drunk; they wouldn’t be able to dance at all. Couples dancing takes a lot of skill and technique, thus, most dancers drink water or energy drinks so they can continue to dance all night. Most dancers also take care of their body more than the average person.
Hundreds of our students also come to us after an illness or heart attack needing to get exercise so they can better their health. Contrary to what many in the legalistic churches believe, not all people are trying to unload sexual frustrations through dance. The health benefits are overwhelming. Many make friendships that last a lifetime through dance and I have hundreds of testimonials to prove this fact. Those that use dance as a form of deriving sexual pleasure don’t last long in our world of dance because we women like to stay away from people like this and choose to dance with those who have good reputations for loving dance and not themselves.
Dance isn’t a sin in its purest form. It was created by a God who made us in his image. I imagine he dances every time we:
- choose right instead of wrong
- help the beggar on the street regardless what he might do with the money
- hit the delete button every time a bad thought comes into our mind
- consider those around you before you consider yourself
- treat others with respect
And I hope he dances when we share him with others around us regardless of the politically correct world we live in.
In Conclusion
Once upon a time, I was a little girl (named Grace), who dreamed of being a dancer when she was 4 years old. Years later, after meeting her sweet third grade teacher, she dreamed of being a teacher so that she could help others learn. God then made her (20-something years later) a DANCE TEACHER. GOD knows the heart and rewards us and delights in us each time we step out on faith and do something for him and through him. So be mindful of your thoughts and consider what I have written here today.
Let us give our brothers and sisters wholesome options to couple’s dance and teach them how to live rather than to condemn something so beautiful as dance and write it off on the “what will the members think?” legalistic can’t do list.
I don’t believe it is responsible of us as Christians to write off something God made that was and is used to praise him.
PS. For those of you out there who have no faith and believe in nothing consider reading Scripture and just asking for God to reveal himself to you. What do you have to lose? He never fails to answer if you keep asking!
Thank you for reading this article. I applaud you! Please tell me what you thought!
grace@dancingwithgrace.com
Enter to win a private dance class in the Bible Trivia Contest on pg. 8