Through the ages, dance has been lost as an acceptable form of worship before the Lord. However, when we look back at the Bible, we see that it was commanded by Him in the Psalms.
How can we create an atmosphere where dance is again encouraged in our regular worship services? We draw on the background of group/folk dances of the Jewish people as they have been handed down through time. We do not know for a fact that these are the dances of ancient peoples, but due to their similarity in different parts of the world, we assume that the ancient dances had some things in common. The movements we use are simple, so that they can be learned by anyone, and modest, in accordance with commands of the Bible.
Besides being commanded by G-d, dances provide a framework for community participation in worship. Like training for military service, group dancing brings community members into a 'unified' body whose parts are moving in harmony and cooperation with each other. A feeling of strength and power fills the atmosphere, both for participants and observers. Like voices rising together in song reveal to our hearing the unity of the body, people dancing together reveal to our eyes and physical senses our strength, our cooperation, our unity, our oneness of purpose. It shows us a picture of how the body should move as an integrated unit.
In order to facilitate the easy learning of congregational dance, the concept of interchangeable dances is employed. Using various feet, leg and arm movements that are suitable to the different styles of music, we have created strings of steps. The idea is similar to language, where strings of specific types of words create sentences and thereby meaning. Once the student is familiar with a few different 'strings' of steps, he or she is able to participate in a number of different dances. We avoid creating complex choreographies, each limited to a specific song. We want to facilitate participation, not performance.
