Is dance compatible with christianity?

I was asked by a young woman the other night how I reconcile being a Latin Dancer and a Christian Public Leader. “Does the sensual nature of the dance go against your religion? Don’t Christians believe that we are supposed to be pure?” I know these questions well; and I have been asked these questions accusingly as well as in the manner this woman asked—seeking truth about herself and about God. They are beautiful questions, and they demand thoughtful answers. 

I have been a Christian all my life, and I have been a dancer almost as long. When I consider this question of whether or not dance is compatible with Christianity, my answer is unequivocally “yes!” 

Because I believe in a God who created the Heavens and the Earth, who hovered and brooded and danced above the unformed waters of the deep, who created me from the earth and breathed life into me to animate my being so that I would be capable of dancing (Genesis 1 & 2). I believe in a God of art and creatively, who paints brilliant sunrises and cares for the details of the tiniest blossoms that decorate the field (Matthew 6: 28-29). I believe that I was made in the image of a creative, artistic God, and dance is one of the deepest expressions I know of this divine creativity I am honored to reflect in the world. 

When I dance, I feel closer to God than perhaps at any other time. Dance transports me to the realm of the Divine where I feel the Spirit and honor that it is in God that I live and move and have my being (Acts 17:28). When I dance with another person, this feeling deepens with the reality of a joint expression of honoring another אָדָם (āḏām, earth-being) that God breathed life into as well. It is the microcosmic stage on which I practice the greatest commandment—Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…[and] love your neighbor as yourself (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37-39).

This commandment is the lens through which we are called to evaluate all in our life as contributing to שָׁלוֹם (shalom)—our wholeness in God—or to sin, our brokenness from God. When I dance, am I honoring the creative and loving work that God put into forming my body and mind and breathing life into it? Am I using this body to express the profound truths of moving prayer, the miracle of life I embody, and a desire to use the gift of dance God gave me as opposed to burying it deep where it cannot bless others (Matthew 25:14-30)? Am I reflecting God’s nature in this dance—the profound, beautiful, creative, expressive, and humble nature of the Divine?

When I dance, am I honoring the other with whom I am dancing? Am I fully present to listen to his invitation, respect his boundaries, and care for his body and spirit in the dance the way I wish my own body and spirit to be cared for? Am I recognizing with wonder the interconnectedness of this web of life God created in and through us that allows for this beautiful synergy that is present in few places outside of dance? 

When I dance, am I honoring myself the same way I honor the other? Am I setting boundaries and communicating my own contributions in a way that acknowledges our equal artistry and equal worthiness in the eyes of God? Am I respecting my body, my mind, and my spirit—not from some human-made construct of purity or asceticism, but from a place of deep knowing of myself and of my relationship with God? 

When I answer “yes” to these questions, I answer “yes” to dance being compatible with Christianity. 

​Still, I honor and respect that my answers to these questions may be different than yours. I honor and respect that the way these answers show up in my dance may be different from the way they would for you. I honor and respect you as I honor and respect myself because this is what it means to live out the second greatest commandment of God on and off the dance floor. 

But I want you to know that when this lovely young woman and I were done talking, I witnessed her release shame that had been weighing her down for years; and from this freedom I watched her dance the most beautiful, liberated dance; and in her dance I witnessed God.