Aspire Dance project on the move for God
Aspire Dance project on the move for God
11 August 2016
Aspire dance project is bringing together dancers from across the territory to develop dance ministry for local corps.
Pip Thompson, 21, and Sarah Kelly, 30, both caught the dancing bug as young girls. But what has them turning pirouettes right now is the new territorial Aspire Dance project, which gathers together dancers from NSW and Queensland to equip them to lead dance ministry in their corps and create a performance troupe for divisional and territorial events.
“Dance is a beautifully subconscious form of worship in that you don’t have to think about what you’re doing when you dance because your attention is shifted from that endless internal monologue to physically feeling and embracing the presence of the Lord,” Pip explains. “For this reason, it is an incredibly powerful personal worship experience. However, like all forms of worship, it also possesses the ability to significantly affect those observing it.”
The idea for Aspire Dance was germinated through a conversation Pip had with Territorial Worship Arts Coordinator Chris Brindley at EQUIP last year. “We threw around the idea of a bootcamp because we felt there was a lack of opportunity for dancers to utilise their skills as part of their journey with Christ,” says Pip, who is part of North Brisbane Salvation Army and is studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at Queensland University of Technology.
Pip’s love of dancing started when she took up ballet at four. Sarah was dancing around the house long before she started Highland Dance lessons around the age of eight. Between them, over the past two decades they have honed their skills in hip hop, ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap and Latin dance genres. Pip has been teaching and choreographing for dance studios since she was 15. In 2014 she choreographed for The Movement and last year led the dance elective at EQUIP. She will be leading the dance elective at the NSW/ACT EQUIP in early October.
“My greatest challenge early in my dance ministry experiences was that I did not know of anyone else who had explored similar ministry, so I had no model to work from and no sounding board for new ideas,” Pip says. “I was entirely dependent upon the knowledge of dance I had gained in the secular dance world. I found myself wondering how many people out there were phenomenal performers, dance technicians, choreographers or dance lovers who had not been able to make the leap to contribute in their corps just because they thought they were alone.”
Sarah, a nurse and leader of a dance ministry at Parramatta Corps, began collaborating with the other team members through the Worship Arts dance page. “There was a question along the lines of ‘How can we involve dancing in worship?’ and I responded,” she remembers. “It was one of those things that God plans where he puts the right people together at the right time to create something awesome.”
Dancing has been a part of Sarah’s life throughout her school years and beyond. During her nursing and midwifery training, Sarah was an assistant choreographer for her local community theatre, has led dance at EQUIP and started her first dance ministry at Dubbo Corps before moving back to Sydney and leading the dance ministry at Parramatta Corps.
“I lead a group of children and young people ranging between the ages of 4-16. While it is a challenge to cater for all these ages in short periods of time we have, it is something that both they and I enjoy. It’s not just the fact that I get to teach them a dance, it is them understanding why we are dancing, who we are dancing for, and that throughout the bible dance is often mentioned as an action of praise.”
The Aspire Team, which also includes Cady Brown and Olivia Cook, first met in person at the Dance Bootcamp in March.
“All of our meetings took place online and while it was initially challenging, it soon became apparent that God had handpicked this team from far and wide to make Aspire happen,” Pip says. Sarah adds, “It all miraculously came together on the day and it was fantastic to have people from many different places, with different dance training and experience join us to share their passion.”
Over three hours, the group put together two dance pieces and participated in a personal worship time. Seeing the Aspire Dance dream begin to take shape was a powerful experience for both Pip and Sarah.
“The highlight for me was seeing each young person grow in their confidence, and being excited about what they were doing,” Sarah says. “The bootcamp gave the young people involved a new confidence to worship in an art form they feel they can be comfortable doing.”
For Pip, a significant moment was during the personal worship session. “I saw someone ‘get’ what dance worship was. Watching someone move the way she did and knowing the experience she was having was an incredibly powerful moment for me, it’s like watching someone dance with Jesus.”
The Aspire Dance team recently coordinated dancers to participate in a dance piece and also a “flash mob” at the ACT/NSW Youth Councils in May. “We got the dancers to teach their friends the chorus of the flash mob song and they got involved too,” Sarah says. “This gave them some ownership, and a chance to teach and show their friends what they are involved in.”
Dancers of any age or those wishing to develop dance ministry in their corps can be part of Aspire Dance. For more information visit the Worship Arts AUE Facebook page or contact the team at worshiparts@aue.salvationarmy.au
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