I have just read an article on the internet concerning dancing in the Church. Of course, Augustine and all the early Fathers of the Church discouraged or forbad dancing because of its prevalence in pagan rituals. This continued throughout the 'classical era', but seems to have changed as the middle ages dawned. Among examples of dancing in the Bible is the account, known to all, of David dancing naked before the Lord (his humbling by means of regal nakedness prefiguring that of Christ). Throughout the mediaeval era dancing in church became quite common as an expression of joy in the Lord's presence and in imitation of the redeemed in heaven, who were thought to be in a perpetual state of joy expressed though dancing. Several saints are on record as having said that dancing will be a constant state in heaven. This is recorded in many art works up into the XVIth century - notably in Fra Angelico's Last Judgement. In many places the men would perform elaborate dances around the labyrinth (a common feature of mediaeval church floors) at Christmas and Easter. (One saint, one of the Bridgets, is even on record as having said that heaven will be eternal jollity around a great vat of beer. How 'earthy' some of our saints were!) This all seems to have come to a sudden halt around the time of the Reformation and its accompanying rather puritan mindset. It is noteworthy, though, that many of the movements of the French organ mass, up into the XVIIIth century, were heavily influenced by baroque dance forms and that people of those times associated dance with the joys of heaven. Since then, dancing has been and remains a feature only of some African-American worship and some fringe Christian sects. There is also the sacred and famed dancing of the Muslim Dervishes, a Sufi order of mendicants, known popularly as the 'Whirling Dervishes'.

Not that all this was universal, but that it seems not to have been uncommon. It is interesting that worship and dancing went hand in hand quite often in the mediaeval era, fell into oblivion in more modern times, and today is unthinkable to most of us. A few have tried resurrecting so-called 'liturgical dance' in recent times, but their rather theatrical, self conscious, and formalised (one might even say 'kabuki-like') efforts have not seen general approbation. One must say that these efforts do have a decidedly 'pagan' tinge to them.

It might be suggested, though, that 'dancing before the Lord' may have been one of the better activities of the faithful in church. It was sort of taken for granted that during mass the people 'out there' would be talking loudly, transacting business, animals would be running about, and only the sanctus bell, which was introduced for this very purpose, would warn them to give due silence at the most important moments of the mass. So, they would all stop to 'see God' lifted up on high but would rarely if ever receive him.

As dealing with a subject unusual for our Forum, this does explore some activities in the Church's earlier times which may have involved less than sacred music of the day and would seem utterly disrespectful if not blasphemous to us today.

I myself have never been one for dancing, no matter the context, but many seem to derive great joy from it - except in church.