Music and the Allied Arts--Dance C

Music and the Allied Arts--Dance C

            The music educator should be cautioned not to make sweeping inaccurate statements concerning the mention of dance in the Bible.  First, it is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments.  Second, there are serious difficulties with the way some of the Hebrew words for dance have been translated in many English versions of the Old Testament.  Third, both religious and secular dancing is mentioned in the Bible.  Fourth, although I do not believe that the Bible teaches Christians to dance, secular artistic dancing is mentioned in the Bible.  Fifth, the Bible is an accurate record and some of the dancing mentioned in the Bible was of a lewd sensuous nature. Several times the dances mentioned in the Bible were used as a tool of harlotry and at other times used by women to arouse sexual passions of the men who watched.  Sixth, extra-biblical sources report that artistic solo dancing by men was allowed at public feasts such as the feast of water libation and the feast of tabernacles, but the Bible never mentions men and women dancing together.

            The Christian musician must study dance in the Bible very thoroughly before mentioning it in the classroom.  The fact that it is mentioned in the Bible does not codify its use in Christian education or in public worship. A host of articles that have been written in Christian periodicals that approved and recommended dancing often have made little or no attempt to give any scholarly proof from the original text of the Bible for their recommendation of religious and secular dancing.  Before a Christian educator teaches that dance is an allied art of music in Christian education or in the worship service, he or she must understand that it was not mentioned in the Old or New Testament as a concomitant of organized public worship. In ancient Israel artistic solo dancing by men was permitted in public at some of the feasts but on these occasions it was never use for sacred purposes.

            As I have often said “direction determines destiny”.  So, when a music educator considers artistic secular dancing to be and allied art to musicing or religious dancing as a part of organized public worship, it becomes almost impossible to philosophically control its use.  The fact that a Christian musician makes the decision not to approve dance as allied to the secular or sacred music in his or her life, does not mean that dance is not a fine art.  It is refused on similar grounds as the refusal to accept some visual art because it is not appropriate in the whole life of a Christian.