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ancient dance, biblical dance, biblical dancing, Dance, dancing, feminine dance, first dance, masculine dance, today's dance, triple threat
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MY PREVIOUS SITE (DANCERFORADONAI.COM) on 6.3.16, Modified today:
I believe ancient dances to be more feminine, more flexible, & more spiritually connected than today’s modern dances.
Let me explain:
More Feminine..
All the modern dances created in the past 2000 years, have elements of masculinity and abnormal gravity defying movements, which is also a masculine trait. Women don’t naturally move in the ways of modern dance, which is why they must be trained in that particular dance.
Hip Hop is aggressively masculine, Jazz is the birth of spunky, & Ballet uses a number of damaging alignments to the body in the appearance of gracefulness. They are all unique and have their place, but they are also a few illustrations of the non-natural femininity in dance.
In ancient times, before and up to the arrival & death of Christ, the way women moved naturally were easily incorporated into their dances, which made learning & doing them easy & simple. Imitation was the teaching method with the way of observance, made the dances remain alive in the culture of those generations.
More Flexible..
It appear we have evidence that all ancient dance incorporated two or more of the following elements:
~the dance itself (lovely body movements)
~props (instruments or other)
~songs (sung by singers reflecting their current, but now historical, news)
Today, many dancers solo dance to the music, in which is a great feat, BUT most ancient dancers sung & played an instrument when they danced, creating rhythm with their movements. In addition, their dances were beautiful, use various levels of rhythmic space, and were often done in groups.
Remember when Miriam danced? She sung & played the tambourine simultaneously while leading others in the celebration. And what about the dancers who praised David & Saul? They chanted as they danced with tabrets &various instruments of music. These women recorded in our history books of Exodus (15:20-21) & I Samuel (18:6-7), were the first triple threats!!
More Spiritually Connected..
Ancient dancers of all races, ethnicities, & nations danced. And when they danced it was often in connection of worship to their deity. For the Israelites, is was/and still is for the Most High God: I AM / the Lord Almighty, for the Greeks is was to act out legends for their gods, for the Canaanites it was to dance around their idols & different forces of nature, while the Baal priests wildly & violently danced around their erected alters.
All dancing was consciously connected to worship of a spirit. Although there is only One Spirit, which is the Most High & beside Him there is no other, these diverse people recognized dance as a sacred act of worship to a spirit that they felt were governing their lives. I do not advocate demonic dancing’ dancing to any god except Our Creator, Yahweh. I solely support honoring the dance to Him as the true Lord. Yet, I point out these other ancient dancers to reveal their awareness of the power in dance & their understanding that it should be offered up as a sweet sacrifice in worship to the Lord.
We as a whole people do not have this vast awareness today. Yet the spirit realm has not lost its knowledge of its power. It perceives each dancer whether their dance belongs to the Holy One or given to the other one (the enemy), (see Acts 19:15), even though the average dancer is unaware of it. Many don’t realize they are dancing for some deity that influences their movement, whether it is for the Lord or some idol. If we restore this awareness, we can change our commitment to move for & only for God.
Will you return to the triple threat dancing for the Lord of this Dance? Or will you continue to allow our precious customs to lie dormant unknown in books, movies, and songs?