Photograph by Ardian Lumi via Unsplash

My son got married in December. Six weeks before the wedding, he asked me if I would do a mother-son dance with him. Of course, I said yes! The song was Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.” Perfect for a mother and her adult son. However, I was anxious. I never learned how to dance. Plus, we’d be the only couple on the dance floor with everyone watching.

In the churches of my youth, dancing was suspect. Our church had a youth event the night of the prom to encourage kids to skip it. As an adult I’ve been in a few shows with choreography, one just last year! But never social dancing.

Yet my dad was a great dancer. In junior high, the older sister of one of his friends taught them both to dance. Unsurprisingly, he was popular with the girls. He told of dancing at the Palladium in L.A. in the 1940s on Sundays from noon to midnight. A friend asked recently if I ever saw him dance. Only when he swung my (reluctant) mom around the kitchen. In Mom’s childhood as a pastor’s daughter, dancing was not just suspect but sinful.

Suspicions about dance in fundamentalist Christian circles persist to this day. Restrictions on dancing are framed as avoiding “worldliness.” Rebecca Lynn Huppenthal of the University of New Mexico wrote a fascinating MFA thesis, “How Would Jesus Watch This? An Investigation into Dance Restrictions in American Protestantism.”[i] Huppenthal discusses the variation in attitudes toward dance in Christian churches over time. She says in the opening, “At the center of this argument is the understanding, treatment, and use of the physical body” (p. 1).

Some groups, like Shakers, some African American denominations and Pentecostals, embraced movement as an expression of worship to God. Others, beginning with the Puritans in the 1600s all the way down to Southern Baptists today, were suspicious of dance or banned it outright. Huppenthal suggests that most of the groups in America suspicious of dance have Calvinist roots. Huppenthal quotes Calvin who said, “If any one sing immoral, dissolute or outrageous songs, or dance the virollet or other dance, he shall be put in prison for three days and then sent to the consistory” (p. 6). Many groups that immigrated to America were Calvinists, like the Puritans and the Pilgrims. New England Puritans banned dancing, along with other activities like celebrating Christmas. Huppenthal sees evangelical fundamentalists as heirs to the Puritans. Schools like Bob Jones University and Liberty University still ban dancing.

This anti-dance attitude is rooted in dualism. Spirit good, body bad. That dualism has a long history in Christianity. However, it’s not actually Christian. If the Incarnation teaches us anything, it teaches that God blesses and uses the body. Huppenthal writes, “The human form was considered worthy for the Savior. I believe this means holiness and goodness can come from the physical human body” (p. 35).

Today, some churches incorporate dance and movement of the body into worship itself. A new focus on liturgical dance in worship began in the 1900s. It has continued into the 21st century. In addition, newly founded Christian dance companies seek to share the gospel through the performance of dance (Huppenthal pp. 23-24, 27-28).

Dance is in Scripture itself: “David danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). Our bodies are gifts from God. One of our central practices is the physical as well as spiritual practice of communion. We eat and drink bread and wine (or, for Baptists, grape juice). The integration of body and spirit is part of our faith.

Back to the wedding dance. A friend of mine said, “You could take lessons!” I love lessons! I took a lesson from a teacher referred to me by a choreographer I know. She taught me the “rhumba box step.” Who knew? Then I practiced. I love practicing! My goal was to have a good time preparing and then dancing with my son. During the dance itself, I missed a step but recovered. It was one of the sweetest times in 34 years of being the mother of a son. I’m grateful I could learn to be in my body in a different way in my 60s.