Religious Dance

Dancing has long been considered an art form. People express their feelings and thoughts through intricate physical movement and well-choreographed steps. Many modern forms require a partner or a group of artists to beautifully execute and clearly express body movements. And most of the time they need to perform steps which look aesthetically pleasing but indecent to the religious (or to the conservative). Moreover, these dances require costumes that are alluring and sexy to conservative and modest tastes.

Generally, religious dancing is not that distinct in terms of modesty. There are many pantheistic religions that allow costumes and the moves to be bold and daring (it is because a religion is heavily influenced by culture). But people with different cultural backgrounds may respect a specific daring dance, even though they have a solid understanding of indecency.

Judeo-christian dancing is a different matter. Their monotheistic Creator has passed down precepts to avoid evil, so any indecent dance maneuver is prohibited. More over, Judeo-christian dancing exclusively focuses on praising their monothestic god. Christians also wear modest and unique costumes because of this exclusivity.

Judeo-christian historical records of dancing dates back to their pilgrimage to the holy land (i.e. Israel). Miriam -- the sister of the person who was given the God's commandments -- danced with her fellow ladies to celebrate their freedom from Egyptians. This historical record in Judeo-christianity is the basis as to why the dance of their religion requires no men and women to be partnered (or even touch each other). More over, both religions do not allow men and women to dance in a single group. When they dance, men and women have separate circles. Their dance is credited to praising their Lord and not merely to express their feelings and emotions.

Though they have a historical basis for their purpose of dancing, the specific moves are not exactly mentioned. This is where Judeo-christianity is split. Jewish dances changed over time because they adapted the dance motions of other neighboring cultures. Although strict jews still practice the earlier rules.

As for Christians, many of them also adopted other types of dances, such as ballet and breakdancing. But because they do not allow alluring dance manuevers, they developed and restricted dance movements from the discipline ballet and breakdancing (for example). They would learn about the fundamentals of certain dance disciplines, and pick and develop from them modest dance movements that follows the traditional laws of jewish dancing.

All types of dance are taught at Dance of Life Studio.