Liturgical Dancers

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There was another thread that posed the question “Have you ever gotten up and left a mass.” I have not, but if I were to see people flitting and prancing down the aisle, I wouldn’t hesitate to leave with a quickness!

Dancing, in our culture, is for entertainment and clapping is a sign of appreciation for having been entertained. I don’t go to mass for entertainment. I go to worship God and participate in His holy sacrifice.

NOTE: I’m not including applauding a newly ordained priest, newly married couple, etc. That’s a bit different, although I’m such a stick in the mud, I kinda believe that applause at a wedding should be saved for the reception.
 
We had one for Easter Vigil Mass. She was modestly dressed and a talented dancer. It kind of caught me off guard at first, but I suppose that’s a service where it makes sense. After all, Psalms talk about singing and dancing in praise of the Lord. The Easter Vigil service is supposed to be a celebration set apart from the other services of the year. If it started ocurring more often than once or twice a year, though, I’d question its practice.
 
Hopefully our new Holy Father will put a final end to this sacrilege. He can start by either retraining the Pontifical Master of Ceremonies Bishop Marini (one time secretary of that liturgical “Jack-the-Ripper” Archbishop Bugnini who cooked up the Novus Ordo to begin with) or else send him to Greenwich Village where he belongs.

As awful as this is, Pope John Paul II did little to discourage its development. He even enjoyed similar “performances” put on by various Marini Marionettes during many of his papal pageants.

Very strange that all the world can’t see this as the advent of liturgical nuclear winter.
 
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Marines:
Actually, the Mass we go to is more like this.

http://www.cathinsight.com/apologetics/elevation.jpg
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Now that is what I call a Holy Mass!
 
Cardinal Arinze…
Now, some priests and lay people think that Mass is never complete without dance. The difficulty is this: we come to Mass primarily to adore God – what we call the vertical dimension. We do not come to Mass to entertain one another. That’s not the purpose of Mass. The parish hall is for that.
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How I wish some people could get this through their thick heads!
 
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John_19_59:
Cardinal Arinze…
How I wish some people could get this through their thick heads!
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Amen!
The only dancers at our Parish are the Slovak Dancers that bring up the gifts, in costume.
The girls of the parish are instructed in the Folk dance by the Slovak ladies who danced when they were young. Once a year, Father gives them a blessing and they WALK up the aisle with the gifts.
 
We have had a liturgical dance at our parish a couple times. Let me qualify…

We have a pretty strong relationship with a catholic school in Uganda, Africa (please don’t ask me to spell or pronounce the district!!!) Eighteen months ago we had about 10 of the students with a Sister here for 4 weeks. During this time they lead our youth group in singing native songs, with the drums and everything, at two of the masses. They led the procession of the gifts with a very beautiful native dance (don’t worry–they had plenty of clothes on). It was very nice in the context of the African culture and music. I would never recommend it otherwise.

As an aside, one of their campfire traditions is to kabob a goat and cook it on the fire, which our priest was all for – having spent time in African himself. The pastoral council shot that down…afraid the community and the parish would think we were some kind of ______, well fill in the blank!
 
No, I’ve never seen one and wouldn’t want to see one. The world is awash in euphemisms. and “liturgical dance” seems to be another. What does it really mean? It means

PAGANISM

writ large.
 
During this time they lead our youth group in singing native songs, with the drums and everything, at two of the masses. They led the procession of the gifts with a very beautiful native dance (don’t worry–they had plenty of clothes on).
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In England we have a traditional dancing too - this involves dancing around maypoles, and also “morris dancing” whereby the participants hit each other on the head with inflated bladders and shake sticks with bottle tops nailed to them.

In Scotland the men wear dresses and dance over crossed swords.

In Germany I believe they wear leather shorts and slap their thighs a lot - and possibly yodel.

We shouldn’t everyone include tradtional dancing in the Mass?
 
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WhiteDove:
LOL, I guess people really do get carried away with their liturgical ‘creativity’! Hopefully God has a sense of humor. I’m no liturical correctness fiend, but this goes more than a little too far, even for a liturgically laidback person such as myself! Plus, I’d hate to get an uncontrollable fit of laughter in the middle of Mass, it might be embarrassing.
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I’m afraid that is exactly what happened to me the first time I saw “Liturgical Dancers”. It was at a Christmas Mass in Ennis, Ireland 2 years ago. Nobody had told me about the dancers and I was so shocked that I started laughing which set off everyone around me. We eventually got ourselves back under control but it was very embarrassing.
I’ve since heard that they don’t have them any more.

Gearoidin
 
Was once in a parish with liturgical dancers…it was torture to me and took away from the liturgy!

Bob
 
for me liturgical dancers is okay if it is only done during offertory. Especially if the dance is a cultural dance or it shows the culture of a country like tribal dance of africans etc.

Liturgical dance in “Our Father” and in other songs like gloria etc. doesnt sounds good. it sounds terrible.

i just hope that during consecration these dancers will not dance in front of the altar of sacrifice.
 
Good grief. Martha Graham’s “Seraphic Dialogues,” about the life of Joan of Arc, was much more respectful and reverent than some of these pictures and stories. The choreography required the dancers to perform a good deal on their knees, and they were covered from neck to wrists to ankles. And this was a secular dance!
 
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