Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
I saw liturgical dancers at a funeral once, I was shocked at first

but it was very dignified and everyone seemed to like it ultimately, including me.
Anyway, this wasn’t a Catholic funeral, I have a lot of Baptist and other non-Catholic acquaintences. This was a relative of my friend and the deceased chose the whole service in advance.
The message seemed to be about celebrating life, and the passage into eternity should not be a sorrowful occasion.
It was poetry in motion and I believe that funeral was an appropriate venue for this type of praise.
A lot of what is done liturgically is in fact a dance, the rubrics call for choreographed movements by the Celebrant, Deacon and the altar servers. It is when this is done well that we most appreciate a liturgy but we take that all for granted. It is easy to ignore the fact that body language is picked up by the observer, and we can tell when a priest does not put his work at the altar in high regard. We expect him to ‘dance’.
I did see a Mass once about five years ago with liturgical dancers. I didn’t really care for it but the negative impression I had of the event was not long lasting.I could see that these were young people from the parish and they put their hearts and souls into their praise of God in this way. What I witnessed was nothing like the pictures that have been displayed here, which just seem like the extreme to me.
In my current parish, a Byzantine Catholic temple, movement of the entire congregation is almost a given. The introduction of pews has constrained the worshippers, almost penning them up like animals but my priest encourages us to stand. We take full bows at the waist, touching the floor with out hand if we are able. We cross ourselves often, far more often than any Roman Mass of any type. On those occasions that are appropriate for kneeling we go right to the floor, palms down, pressing our foreheads to the hard floor, then we stand straight up while praying aloud and right down to the floor again! It reminds me of Revelations, where the Kings bow down before God, tossing their crowns to the floor.
:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:
Our weddings are beautiful, the priest crowns the couple and takes the two by the hand, leading them in a circle around the tetrapod three times, very much a dance. Once you have seen this you will never forget it, it is so beautiful.
I think there are a lot of ways of looking at this subject, spirituality comes in many forms. It is easy to reject things we aren’t familiar with, I think it deserves more reflection.
Michael, that sinner