Would you want Liturgical Dancers?

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RBushlow:
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Well, I live here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where my bishop fosters the idea of liturgical dancers. I have suffered through the process twice and almost walked out of Mass. Not only is it distracting, but worse, some fat women wearing very tight clothes have “danced” in front of Our Lord (believe me, not a pretty sight) and I had to contain my laughter in the interest of charity.

Antonio :o
 
I think if it is the right occasion. We see liturgical dancers at the papal Masses. If there is liturgical dance I think the dance must enhance attention to the liturgy rather than distract from the liturgy. Here in the US it could be a distraction, however, with the sexual connotations attaced to dance.
 
I think that any desire or need to have liturgical dancers during Holy Mass indicates a clear misunderstanding of A. what the Mass is and B. Why we attend. In short–no…no dancers.
 
I would welcome liturgical dancers to my parish.

I would just prefer that they not dance. Perhaps they could sing in the choir.
 
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KennySe:
I voted no.

Holy Mass isn’t the Love Train, in which we would do a conga line to the altar.

Picture it. Live from the Vatican. Midnight Mass.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, Catholics and non-Catholics, at the presentation of the gifts…
The St. Peter’s Basilica Solid Gold DANCERS!!” :eek:
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If it wasn’t so sad … that be funny!
 
Was there dancing at the Last Supper.

Actually, there may have been. I refer you to the “Hymn of Jesus” from the Acts of John:

Before he [Jesus] was arrested by the lawless Jews, whose lawgiver is the lawless serpent,
he assembled us all and said,
ÒBefore I am delivered to them, let us sing a hymn to the Creator,
and so go to meet what lies before us.Ó
So he told us to form a circle, holding one anotherÕs hands,
and himself stood in the middle and said, ÒAnswer Amen to me."
So he began to sing the hymn and to say,
Glory be to thee, O God,
And we circled round him and answered him ÒAmen."
 
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rosarydancer:
Was there dancing at the Last Supper.

Actually, there may have been. I refer you to the “Hymn of Jesus” from the Acts of John:

Before he [Jesus] was arrested by the lawless Jews, whose lawgiver is the lawless serpent,
he assembled us all and said,
ÒBefore I am delivered to them, let us sing a hymn to the Creator,
and so go to meet what lies before us.Ó
So he told us to form a circle, holding one anotherÕs hands,
and himself stood in the middle and said, ÒAnswer Amen to me."
So he began to sing the hymn and to say,
Glory be to thee, O God,
And we circled round him and answered him ÒAmen."
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Don’t care, don’t like them, don’t want them. End of discussion.
 
The Acts of John?? Is that an anathematized text? Liturgical dancers are unacceptable regardless of one’s culture. I suppose the Jesuit missionaries invited the African pagans (or even the African converts) to dance at Mass… I think not. The whole idea is reminscient of the infamous Robert de Nobili, Jesuit turned Brahmin.
 
I saw Liturgical dancing to the Mass only once about 30 years ago by a very fine well intentioned lady who’s very progressive pastor encouraged her to do so… Lots of the older people were scandalized…I felt bad for her…

I didn’t like it then and I certainly wouldn’t like it now!
 
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Mary1973:
They are okay for a prayer service, but not Mass.
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Oy. Not even for a prayer service. I used to be a dancer. Loved it! I was pretty good, too. 10 years of classical ballet training. Never did occur to me that the Mass would be improved by my flipping around in the aisles. Puh-leeez!
 
Andreas Hofer:
With all the respect I can muster for those cultures who use dance as a prayerful expression, I’ve gotta say they have no business whatsoever in American parishes.
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This touches on the subject of “inculturation” – a very slippery slope, if you ask me. I’m doing all I can to “inculturate” myself into the environment that has perpetuated the faith for two thousand years. There is a limit to how much you can bring in from the ambient culture before you lose the distinctive note of your evangel. We are ek-klesia (called OUT), after all.

If inculturation had gone hog-wild among my ancestors, we might all be painting our legs blue before going to Church?
 
Antonio B:
…Not only is it distracting, but worse, some fat women wearing very tight clothes have “danced” in front of Our Lord (believe me, not a pretty sight) and I had to contain my laughter in the interest of charity…
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perhaps the urge to laugh was a prompting from the Holy Spirit. IMHO, if a man is embarrassing the Lord, we need not fear embarrassing them in reply.
if you (and others) had laughed (out loud), maybe those thinking this was a good idea would be encouraged to rethink it.
thanks for listening, love and peace, terry

ps. not really thinking He can be embarrassed, a better phrasing may be ‘if someone chooses to act embarrassingly in front of the Lord.’
 
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seeker63:
What sort of dances—The Bump? The Black Bottom? The Jittterbug? The Tango? Maybe a Mosh Pit Mash?

I think not. I’m sure when David danced before the Ark he was like Fred Astaire and no one after him could come close, so there’s no point in even trying. Leave all that to the Pentecostals.

Anyway, I get distracted enough during Mass when some old man coughs loudly while the Priest is speaking or if a baby starts screaming bloody murder and the parent doesn’t have the consideration to take him outside, so no, dancing wouldn’t help at all.

I admit I have never, ever heard of Liturgical Dancers before.

On the other hand, if we could get the June Taylor Dancers from the old “Jackie Gleason Show” to come make patterns on the floor…
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David didn’t dance in front of the Ark in the Temple. He danced outside of the Templein a procession.
 
I am not from Africa nor do I have it in my culture. Nope, no Liturgical Dance…
 
I never heard of Liturgical Dancers before in the Catholic Church. This is frightening! It reminds me of my friend’s Presbyterian church where they had this Methodist girl who had a spiritual gift of “Interpretive sign dancing” where she stand up in the front of the church and lipsynched to this awful Christian/Grunge fused sounding song and danced out the sign language to go with it. I tried to not laugh but that was a tall order for me.
 
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RBushlow:
Yes
No
Maybe
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Only if they’re like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. After the consecration…they could yell touchdown! And the choir could sing the victory theme. (sarcasm)
 
Are you kidding? This isn’t the Episcopal Church forum, which also includes discussion of clown masses, as well
 
My husband and daughter were reminiscing recently about a Liturgical Dance performed in our Catholic Church during Holy Week or maybe it was Lent about 5 years ago. Oh my! We couldn’t believe it. So here were about 5 nubile young women in ballet leotards dancing about the altar. Amazing. I couldn’t believe the priest allowed it. But we were too stunned to ever say anything. Thankfully, it never happened again!
 
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