5-6-7-8, Opportunity!

I am blessed (by my husband who will be watching Eden and by the lady who told me about the class) to be able to attend an open master class with dancer and choreographer Steve Rooks tomorow at Belhaven College. Mr. Rooks was a part of the Martha Graham Dance Company (Martha Graham was one of the most influential people in modern dance last century.) and later became a member of the Alvin Ailey company. He has taught and choreographed for many companies including Ad Deum, a professional level Christian dance company based in Texas.

He said in an interview with LeAnne Martin on her blog Christians In The Arts:

"The call to be light and salt (a “witness”) in the dance world is no different from the call to live out one’s faith as a lawyer, a stay-at-home parent, a plumber, or a pastor. So much of our effectiveness as a believer is how we approach and execute our craft. There is a scripture that has been a kind of “blue print” for my walk—Colossians 3:23-24 says: 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.' The bottom line is that we need to pursue excellence and integrity in our work not to make us look good, but to give God glory. Once people find out that you are a follower of Christ, your life immediately goes under a microscope (and that is a good thing!). We need to reveal God’s nature in how we approach life in our successes—and in our failures."

I am very excited, but definitely nervous as this will be the first time in a few years that I have taken a class. I'm determined to go easy on myself, accept my current abilities for what they are and just enjoy moving my body and being poured into by another Christian artist.

Here's a video of Alvin Ailey, one of my very favorite dance companies doing an excerpt from arguably their most famous piece, Revelations.