 Well, I guess we could probably get started. Is everybody in here for the dance workshop? Yes, okay. Just making sure. That's awesome. Oh, my name's Betty Condo. Thanks for being here. And when Caleb asked me if I would teach a dance workshop, I reminded him that I would be 38 weeks pregnant. So, unfortunately, we will not be doing dance, but we will talk about dance and the things that we do talk about. You can take with you and dialogue with the Lord and activate and put those things into practice, whether it's here, back at your churches. Are most of you from this area? No? Yes? People from here? Yes? People not from here? Okay. Okay, ready? I know, we actually just moved here. My husband and I, four, five months ago. Wow. Yeah, so I don't know where anything is. But, yeah, I know someone said it's a Mitten, so you just look at your left hand. So I know that we are in the southwest part of Michigan. That's about all I know. Yeah, right here. Right here. Okay, got it. Well, yeah, for those that don't know, my name is Betty, and I am super excited to do this workshop. It's, you know, it's pretty easy to talk about something that you're really passionate about and you love. So I'll try not to... I'll keep an eye on the time. Make sure we don't go too long, but yeah, just thanks for being here. Man, this morning's session was so good, right? I have to brag that was my hubby up there, so I'm going to do some more shit. So, of course it was extra good. Yeah, Anna, I thought what Anna shared today was so good, so powerful. So I'm excited. I feel like this is such a moment in history, especially for Radiant Church, but just for us as creatives and artists, like, oh my gosh, it's like we're making history right now, being a part of this conference. So I'm really excited for what God's doing and what he's speaking, what he's already spoken, what he's going to. So let me just pray for us real quick. God, we just thank you for your love. We thank you for just an opportunity to be here at this conference, this moment in history. Lord, I just thank you that you are a creative God, that you are the Creator. Lord, that just this morning, like as Caleb got up and was speaking during worship a little bit, I just felt that great revelation of the fact that you have given us a creative spirit, that the creativity that lives inside of you, God, lives inside of us, it's that same creative spirit. So Lord, I just ask that as we discuss and dialogue and meditate on creativity and dance and explore what that looks like in the context of worshiping you, that you would give us downloads from heaven. I pray that you would open the canopy of heaven. Lord, that you would give us fresh revelation and wisdom and insight of who you are and how you created our bodies to move in a way that brings you delight and brings you pleasure, God. Insight on how we can share this art form with the world in such a way that they would encounter you, some for maybe the first time. So Lord, I just ask that you would come, Holy Spirit, come. I thank you that the same Holy Spirit that brings comfort and insight also brings creativity. We invite your spirit here, Jesus. Amen. Oh, hey, Rai. Okay, so as I was preparing for this workshop, minus the plies and tendus and leaps and all that, I had to really kind of dive a little deeper. It's weird and it's like, okay, you're going to do a dance workshop but you're actually not going to dance. So kind of you have to shift things a little bit and maybe we could just all put our arms up or something to say that we danced. Oh, good, Ryan. But it kind of provoked me with this question of what is dance? What actually is dance? I think for all of us we'd have different, probably definitions of dance. But as I was preparing and praying and just kind of thinking about what is dance, what is dance to me, I'll share my story in dance in just a little bit, but the word that I came up with is language. You know, I feel like art is such an incredible icebreaker. You know, like most people have some sort of fascination or drawn to either music or painting or dance or something and it all tells a story. I believe it all tells a story of creation and what God's wanting to do in the earth. And I really believe that God is setting us up for a time where he's reclaiming the arts for his glory and his gain. But as I just meditated on what is dance, I really felt like it was language. It's the ability to communicate through movement. And I feel like it's such a unique thing. You know, body language, you can say a lot without saying anything at all, right? So body language is so powerful. And as I was thinking about it, dance is really the only performing art that doesn't have to use words. You can communicate something just by the way you look or just by the way your arm is or just by the way you position your body or just even just with the power of a leap or the force of a turn. And there's just so much that can be communicated through dance, which I love. And as believers, there's so much beauty and authority when we dance. When we dance in the presence of the Lord, when we dance for his glory, whether it's in the context of a church or on stage, you know, in front of an audience of 500 or 5,000, but there's such authority and beauty when we dance as believers because we carry something. We carry the very nature of God and the creativity of God. Historically, every culture has their own style, just like music. And so, you know, I was thinking about this. My husband and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary back in June. Thank you. I know I can't believe it's been almost 11 years, but it makes me feel old. But we actually went to Bali. We were living in New Zealand at the time. We took a trip to Bali for our anniversary. And so we pulled up to this resort, you know, with a taxi, and they let us out, and we're walking into the resort. And here's these gorgeous Balinese dancers welcoming us to this resort. And, you know, most people have probably been on some vacation or something where they've experienced the culture by dance. You know, a lot of places you, you know, get off, whether it's like a cruise or a plane or something in the airport. There's these dancers, and it's representing the culture. And so every culture has a different way of communicating who they are expressing it in the form of dance. Even if, has anyone seen The Nutcracker? Okay, yeah. I've done The Nutcracker, like, umpteen million times. But one of the things I love is, you know, when Clara's taken to the land of sweets, there's all these ethnic dances, and she gets to really experience the world as she's, you know, Nutcrackers is the story. It's a coming of age tale. And so she gets to experience the world through all these different dance forms. And it's just fabulous. It's part of our history and our culture. Dance is what brings people together socially. It brings relief to society. People often turn to their arts in times of difficulty. It brings that sense of comfort and just relatability. So I was thinking of, has anyone seen Titanic? Yeah, okay, probably most of us. And there's that scene, like, the water's coming on the ship, and it's sinking, and you see these musicians, and they're playing this somber music, and, like, in the background, everybody's frantic and running, and I think that scene is so powerful, because it's a beautiful representation of the fact that we turn to the arts when we need, you know, comfort in that sense of bringing us together and belonging. And, you know, the musicians leave, and then, you know, I think they acknowledge each other and say, it's been a pleasure not dancing playing with you this evening, and the violinist starts to play again. And I love that he's playing. I think it's near my god to thee. But they all come back, and it's just this sense of security that the arts give us, the beginning of time. And I remember I was dancing with Kansas City Ballet, and this was, like, 2007 to 2009, and that was considered an economic depression. I mean, things are starting to get better, but it was, like, really then, you know, we were going, I hope that ticket sales are okay, so that they don't have to make cuts, and they ended up making cuts, and I was actually one of them, so I was first one in, first one out. But our director, William Weitner, said, it was so impressive, we were shocked to see that ticket sales hadn't really changed, in an economic depression. The first thing that people are going to cut out is, like, going to the movies, or going out to eat, or going out to the ballet, and we were asking them, like, why do you think that ticket sales are still so strong? They need a place to come to just kind of forget about what's going on in the world, and come and just, like, again, have that sense of familiarity and comfort, and just to even, like, stimulate that sense of hope in, like, a hopeless time. So we need the arts. We need dance. We need dance. I love this. I found this quote by C.S. Lewis. He says, the most valuable thing in the songs, the most valuable thing the songs do for me is to express the same delight in God, which made David dance. I, like, I, that just spoke to me. You know, most of us know this during the Bible where David is just dancing unashamedly, wildly, with such freedom and abandonment, and, you know, for a guy that messed up pretty big, you know, just to have that sense of, like, freedom and vulnerability before the Lord just enjoying the Lord and the Lord enjoying him. I'm like, oh, that's so good. That's what I want to, like, just bottle up and hold on to. So I just want to encourage you. I have always felt like the Psalms really speak to me, and I don't know if it's just because there's that sense of poeticism, but just the beauty and the nature of God and creation, and it almost, like, sometimes when I'm reading the Psalms, I'm like, this is almost like a dance. You could just even picture, if you close your eyes, how it would play out in the stories of the Psalms that David shares. So I would really encourage you to read the Psalms regularly, if you don't want to fact, in the bookstore. There is like a Psalms journal. So it's the whole book of the Psalms, and then you can write. So just as artists and dancers, I would really encourage you to do that. I loved what Lee said last night, and Anna touched on it again, that creativity is born out of intimacy. So if you didn't catch that, that's definitely something to take hold of. We have a real relationship with God that's accessible to us. And like I said before, just the sense that God is so creative and he's just waiting for us to come to him. He's just sitting there waiting for us to come to him and ask him what's on his heart, what moves his heart, what are the things that are important to him. So I could probably go on and on and on and I won't because I know we touched on it quite a bit last night, but I would just encourage you as an artist, just searching for deeper levels of creativity to really connect with the heart of the father, connect with the creator, connect with his creativity. Because there's so much, I mean it's like as vast as the ocean is the creativity of God and he just wants to share it with us. And I feel like, well I'll talk about more, but anyways. Yes, so throughout scripture dance is a part of worship. It's the least joy to release gladness and it comes from a place of overflow that which can only be expressed, I think to the fullness with our bodies. I don't know about you, but have you ever like listened to music or you're in worship and you're like, like almost just shaking, like bubbling up, like oh you just want to move and you can't like, you know, you don't want to contain it, you just want to let it out and I loved Anna talked about that a little bit today too, just that feeling of like you just need to move, you know. And I feel like, oh that's exactly it, just that full expression of worship before a living God that comes from the form of dance. Okay, and because we are created of course in the image of God, we can use our beautiful bodies to bring him glory. Like I said before, I really believe that this is a time that God is reclaiming the arts for his glory in the skin. And just the fact that you know the culvers and the asperes have had this dream in their heart for so many years to have a platform where people can come creatives and just learn about different aspects of the arts and creativity and it's really happening and I believe that it's birthing something in the kingdom so I'm just so excited to be a part of it. So since we're not going to actually be dancing, I have a few questions that you can put in your journal or jot down in your phone or however you like to keep record of things. And the first question is of course the why. Why do we dance? So you can take these questions, meditate on them, dialogue with the Lord, dialogue with fellow fellow dancers but I I don't know if everyone was in here but I mentioned that we have a three year old, a little girl Pearl is her name she's three and a half and she is very spirited very full of creativity and loves to dance and sing and most of the singing sounds like yelling which I'm like shh you have to learn to be quiet there's a baby coming but it's just amazing to see such passion in a three year old and we recently let her watch the movie Leap. Has anybody seen Leap? It's so cute it's such a cute movie but there's this question it's towards the end of the movie and the ballet instructor from this asks Felicia and Camille I can't remember the names she was just watching it the other day and I felt like I was just having all this revelation like oh my gosh this is so good but he asks them each to answer this question of why do you dance and I think it's Camille or Camille or whatever I don't know the French way to say it but her response is well my mother makes me my mother's made me throughout the movie you see her basically torturing her daughter it's like that show dance moms I don't know if you've ever seen that I've taught at a competition studio before and some of that was very real but her response is like it's just out of duty really because it's my mom makes me and then he looks to Felicia and he says like why do you dance it's always been a part of me and it's as a dancer you can feel it in your bones in your very being and your core it's something that you're passionate about it's something that you can't help but share and be a part of and so I love that response and just like even the revelation that I got from my three year old Disney Disney maybe Disney movie just the passion that comes from being able to express yourself and your love for something through dance I remember I grew up just outside Washington DC which was great as a young dancer because all the big ballet companies would come and tour through Washington DC and so I got to see a lot of dance from a young age which I think really helped set me up just for even further fascination of this gorgeous or art fairman I even had opportunities they had this master class program audition for but where each dance company would come through and you could go take a master class so either from their director or their ballet master, ballet mistress and it was I remember this one it was I think National Ballet of Cuba they didn't speak any English and so it's like well thank god there's this universal language and dance because otherwise we all would have been like what are you saying to us but I remember I got to go see American Ballet Theater when they were on tour and the ballet academy that I grew up in some of the principal dancers of American Ballet Theater had trained at our school so I got to go and I got to go backstage and see the dressing rooms the costumes and the hair it was just so magical for me but I remember getting to I don't even remember who it was but I remember meeting this person and somebody had introduced from my studio had introduced me to somebody from American Ballet Theater and they said this is Betty and she has the soul of a dancer and I went wow that's like it just nails it dead on the head it's that passion it's in your bones it's in your soul it's what makes you come alive you know it's like dance is the very thing that I love most on this earth and just the ability to express myself through dance is just such a powerful it's a tool it's a weapon so anyways okay so that's why do you dance why do you dance ask yourself that question the second question I have is what draws you to dance is it about dance that draws you to it and can you remember that first time that you either saw dance or felt dance in your own body or you know maybe you took a dance class as children were drawn to music it's one of my favorite things to do probably is put music on and watch little kids like you know they just start as soon as they hear music they just can't help it it's a part of them it's a part of us and at some point we become aware of our surroundings we become aware that people are watching us that there's potential criticism or scrutiny or whatever and we stop and I think man if we could just get back to that place in dance in the context of worship to feel like we're actually just dancing before an audience of one as if God is the only one watching us and we know that he takes the light in it and he takes pleasure in it and that who cares what anybody else thinks but you just you know you know you know what anybody else thinks but you just know that it's beautiful and it's worship and it's what you love to do and what you feel created to do I looked up the definition of dancer it says it's someone who dances either as a job or for pleasure it's a person who moves his or her body and feet in rhythm to music my third question for you what does the Lord have for you through dance what does the Lord have for you individually through dance so some of you may just dance on your own or maybe studying dance or you may have a dance team or a group at your church or maybe you just enjoy dance but I believe if it's something that we feel so called to and so drawn to that the Lord must have something for us through dance I think the classics are so valuable I feel so privileged to have had the career that I have had and to have been able to perform some of the oldest ballets of our time even some one of my favorite pieces I ever danced was more of a contemporary neoclassical from Gerald Rapinoe of Joffrey Ballet and he said it way back in the 80s he was the director of Joffrey Ballet and I think about all these classics but the reality is God is still creating you know he's not done we're not done as as artists as dancers I was listening to the Housers podcast recently does anybody listen to that if you're not subscribed you should subscribe to their it is so good but you the Housers Dr. David and Melissa Houser they have a podcast and you can subscribe to it it's so incredible I was listening to it walking on the treadmill the other day trying to get the baby out trying to get things moving but he was talking about how people will say everything under the sun has already been created and so I mean yes maybe that's true but there is a whole other realm in heavenly places above the sun that is still yet to be tapped into and I feel like even like what Caleb was talking about a little bit this morning is that we are called to be seated in heavenly places and we have the accessibility to the throne room of God and there's still so much left to be created so yes there's so much value to the classics the things that we love going to the theater to see and even music I mean even in Christian music you watch the progression over the last maybe 10 even 20 years and it's like it is just so much more powerful and moving and I'm so glad that I'm so glad that music has progressed but I believe it should be the same for dance so there's still so much left to be tapped into God is still creating so what does the Lord have for you through dance so I'll just quickly share my story dance so my story with dance really started with my mom I guess if I think about it my mom grew up she was one of four kids always wanted to dance always wanted to be a ballerina and they didn't have enough money for her to be in dance class so when she was pregnant with me she just knew it was a girl I think maybe her pregnancy was different or something but she just knew and I think like she said that she's danced vicariously through me so when I was three she had my little brother and I was not too excited about the new intruder in my life apparently so my mom and my dad decided okay it's time to put her in in dance so I did ballet tap and jazz it's like what everybody starts with ballet tap and jazz and I don't even remember Dolly Dinkle dance studio or something like that in little did they know when they put me in dance at three years old that I would just grow to love it to the point where I decided to make a career out of it and so when I was about nine I auditioned for like the top ballet academy in the DC metropolitan area it was called the Maryland East Ballet and I was I think one of four girls that was accepted in that year and so it was a huge sacrifice for my family walking out it was a huge sacrifice for my family the ballet studio was probably like well we had to go on the the Beltway which is like absolute nightmare in the DC area but I got to train at this ballet academy and continued to be versed in ballet and modern and jazz and character and we had different summer programs and probably by the time I was 12 or 13 I knew I really wanted to pursue dance as a career which is a huge decision to make so what that looked like for me was I would probably dance five days a week four to five hours a day I would rehearse on the weekends for upcoming shows I would go away for summer programs five, six weeks at a time dancing like eight to eleven hours a day but I loved it, I just absolutely loved it there is nothing else I would rather do and then I graduated high school early so that I could spend what would have been my senior year focusing on my career that I wanted to pursue and so I I auditioned for several different companies and decided to go with Orlando Ballet so good I did because I met my husband in Orlando at Starbucks he was not a dancer he was a customer and then became a very more frequent customer after we met but that's another story so I was dancing as a like a trainee or apprentice with the Orlando Ballet and then what's up Caleb and then after that I came back to Maryland Ryan had gone to Kansas City to be a part of the House of Prayer there and was doing the music school he was one of the first groups so he was like the guinea pig for the music academy in Kansas City at the House of Prayer and so I would come and visit him and there was one big ballet company Kansas City Ballet so I remember the day before I was going to come and I think either audition or take class Ryan was actually working at Starbucks part-time and in walks this really tall Colombian guy and Ryan goes gosh he looks like a dancer and the back of his jacket said Kansas City Ballet and he's like what are the odds so he introduces himself and says my girlfriend's actually coming to Kansas City tomorrow she's supposed to audition with the company and he said oh like my wife and I will look after her and it was an instant connection with them it was really cool so I go and I audition with Kansas City Ballet and I got to go just take company class which is great because then it's not like the cattle call where you have to wear this number and you're like standing there waiting for your group and you just kind of it's just more enjoyable and less stressful I think so I auditioned and that was probably in February and I get a call from the director and he says you know my name's William Whitener I'm with Kansas City Ballet and we're very interested in hiring you but we can't offer you a job yet until all the dancers had turned their contracts their intent to commit to the following year so he said you know please stay in touch with me so like every month he would call me and I remember it was like the dancers turned their contracts in I think it was like April 10th and I got a phone call from him April 11th and he says we'd like to offer you the job I was like yes Ryan and I were wanting to get married at that point so we were like double yes my parents didn't want me to just move to Kansas City for some guy and give up on my dreams and all of that invested I mean rightfully so and I'm glad that they weren't like sure Mary whoever you want was awesome but you know it's nice to have your parents approval and so I danced with Kansas City Ballet did lots of Twila Tharp so much Twila Tharp I think I'd be okay if I never did another Twila Tharp ballet but it was really great it was my first like real job with a professional company I loved it and as I mentioned before it was an economic depression they had to make cuts I think they cut five dancers and I was one of them and I remember with it I didn't only lose my career I really lost my identity and it was like you know from the time I was three up until now I was you know twenty twenty three twenty four so for twenty years this had been who I was it was you know Betty the ballerina Betty ballerina Betty ballerina and it was it was crushing for me so it was really really hard I danced with a smaller company in Kansas City and I got a job with a ballet company out on the west coast in Oregon Eugene Ballet Company so I got hired there as a soloist and then moved on as a principal dancer so I was like at the top of this company and I'll be a little bit vulnerable here in this story but it like because it was a touring company and Ryan stayed in Kansas City it almost destroyed our marriage like really almost destroyed our marriage like it's the mercy of the Lord that we're still married today and not just because of me taking that job there was other things and the big picture but at the time I felt like man this is like kind of my ticket out of here it's my dream job you know they had built a tutu for me for Swan Lake it was like my dream role as a professional dancer to be like the principal in the company and dance Swan Lake and so you know I took the job and then signed for the following year against my husband's wishes and I loved it I mean it was like I just felt like I was at the top I had made it it was what I loved to do but the Lord continued to like pursue my heart and move my heart in that time and so it got to the point where he had asked me to break my contract with the Ballet Company so you signed for a whole year whether it's nine months and I remember going I just can't do this like this is what I've spent my whole life training for and aspiring to be and and God is asking me to surrender everything to lay it all down you know for his sake and for the sake of my marriage and now I'm going it's like for the sake of our future generation and it was so much bigger than what I could even see at the time but I did it by the grace of God I did it so I broke my contract I did not get to dance Odette and Odile in Swan Lake which is really hard so I came back to Kansas City and you know things were so really really hard in my marriage and God spoke to me about doing this internship through the House of Prayer and so I said Lord I'll only do it if you do baby and see and it was like bam bam bam right away within a week so here I am doing this internship I show up on the first day in the prayer room and they had all the interns step into the aisles and like had people pray and prophesy for them and so this person comes to me I don't remember her name I can kind of remember what she looks like and she's praying for me and she said I know this is really strange but are you a dancer and I said yeah I am actually and she just began to prophesy and say I feel like you've had to she said I saw you like leaping in the air and dancing and she said I feel like you had to lay this down and surrender this thing that you love so much but God has not taken it away from you he's going to give it back to you I mean I just probably was like weeping and weeping and weeping and I remember the second week of the internship because when you break your contract especially on that level you're like blacklisted I mean probably no one's going to want to hire you and I was thinking this is it my career is over my marriage might be over I might be done for like the rest of my life but I remember the next week God asked me to do a fast I had never done like just a water fast but the Lord said I want you to do a fast three days only water and I remember it was like the second day of the fast during the internship the Lord I was in the prayer room and just like weeping and weeping and just being so like ministered to by the Lord and feeling the tangible presence and the kindness of the Lord and I remember him saying Betty you're not only a dancer you're not just Ryan's wife you're my beloved you're the one that I love you're the one that I created and it was out of this place that everything changed and so God restored my identity just even in that moment he restored our marriage which is amazing so Bali was a big celebration when we went we got to renew our vows on our five-year anniversary which was really powerful and so when we went to Bali we celebrated five years married our five years restored ten years married and he even restored my career so I've had the ability to dance and have had really cool opportunities since then just it's this beautiful thing of surrender I feel like this is my story through through dance specifically is just surrendering it to God and seeing what he can do with it because he can do far more than we ever could just in our own strength in our own plans like when we really give it to God and laid at his feet he can resurrect anything and make it bigger and better than we could ever imagine so so that's kind of my story with dance thanks for letting me share it so what I want to talk about a little bit more is extravagance excellence and giving God our best in the context of dance whether it's as a profession or if it's just for pleasure or if it's at our church whatever context there's a reason professional dancers train their entire lives to make this such a huge profession and people are willing to spend so much to see this gorgeous art form so I just want to encourage you if you feel called to dance if you love to dance if you have any sort of a platform I just would really encourage you to get the training needed just because it's if we're dancing before the Lord we really want to give him our best you know it's our hearts desire to give him nothing but the best we can offer him as a sacrifice of worship and praise so you know whether you have a group at your church you know bring somebody in or find a local dance studio that has adult classes you know really get the training needed if you're taking this to a level where you really feel like you're doing this before the Lord before that audience of one like we talked about even in church you know we want to put the best musicians on the stage to lead the room and encounter with Jesus and I believe it should be the same with dance you know we want to offer the Lord excellence and nothing but the best and for some of us it's really a calling like for me because I became a Christian at a very young age I was I think seven when I asked the Lord into my heart and for me it was like wow God's given me this talent that I want to use for his glory but as a Christian I want to further the kingdom of God through the talents he's given me and so I saw this beautiful like marriage or partnership with okay Lord you've given me this gift of dance and I want to turn it around use it for your glory I want to further the kingdom of God so I really felt like it was a calling for me to be a light in the darkness and for some of you you might experience that whether it's you dance on a stage or maybe even in college or something like that but there's so many people that are drawn to the arts because they're trying to fill that void that they have inside of them you know and so they're hungry they're broken they're confused they're longing for that feeling and that fullness that only the Lord can satisfy so for some of us that calling is even bigger than just going okay I'm going to dance I'm going to dance before the Lord but how can I use this gifting that God's given me to further the kingdom of God to help bring healing to help bring encounter with the Lord through such a powerful art form it's really I found it was an entryway into their world you know like a lot of times we might not have an easy path into the world of unbelievers and dance is like a universal like I said it's a universal language everybody can relate to the arts and you know for us as dancers specifically dance and so I think of times that I've been able to pray for dancers I've been able to have a side been able to have invitations to invite them to things and it's just such a great platform I feel like that God gives us this ticket into the world of non-believers and people that are just hurting and broken and suffering and longing for Jesus they just don't know it yet and as I as I have been praying and preparing just for this workshop feeling like many of you are called to choreograph has anybody choreographed before yeah so I kind of pray for you guys especially before we're done but I just was really feeling that some of you in here are really called to choreography yeah like when you close your eyes when you listen to music can you see the shapes and patterns of heaven you know like right now God is surrounded by beauty he's surrounded by music he's surrounded by angels and you know people that are declaring his worth and his glory and his beauty and his holiness and I just I really felt that for some of you guys you're called to see the shapes and patterns that are surrounding the throne room of God right now so I I want to pray for you guys afterwards but I feel like man if we could as dancers as artists as choreographers if we can tap into those things like I said above the sun in the throne room of God creating you know encounters where people will come and usher in the presence of God and you know prophetic dance and the power of the gospel like oh man I just feel like it's God's gonna reclaim this he's gonna do it all for his glory and his gain and I feel like it's an invitation for all of us to be a part of it in some capacity my husband and I recently got to go see Grand Rapids Ballet and I have a friend that's a resident choreographer there and so it's been really neat we've only been here for a few months but I feel like I already have this relationship with just been such a gift because I love being connected to the dance world and we just moved from New Zealand and there weren't any performance opportunities so I got to teach there a little bit and had some cool opportunities but we got to go up to this show about a month ago and there were some very powerful pieces on the program this particular program they have a lot of the dancers from the ballet company choreograph and so getting the description of all these different pieces and some of them are just like unbelievably abstract like I would have missed the mark if somebody asked me like okay what was this one about but some of them like there was one that was about about a very recent political issue that happened and just the amount of creativity and conviction that it was choreographed with and then there was another one that was I think it was like about pollution or you know something like that just things that are very relative to today and what's going on in the world around us but I just was left thinking like how much more powerful is it going to be when we as Christians are tapping into the heartbeat and the creativity of God and using that in the context of dance if these non-Christians are creating such powerful pieces without the spirit of God how much more powerful is it going to be for us who are filled with the Holy Spirit with the creativity of God to reach the world and I'm just thinking like gosh theaters filled with people that are just drawn to what's happening on the stage in the context of church to experience God maybe for the first time you know through like I said the power of the gospel or whatever it is but I'm just I'm so excited because God is still creating he's still creating there is an invitation to partner with him in what he's doing to further his kingdom on the earth so just a few more things and then we'll do some Q&A if you guys have any questions for me but as I have been reflecting and even for me I have not been dancing too much recently in my current state but I feel like I'm so thankful Caleb that you asked me to do this workshop even though I couldn't dance but it made me really ask some questions for myself too and going back to that first question of why do we dance so for me there's three things that I kind of in my dialogue with the Lord came up with and the first is that we are created to worship God we are created to worship you know dance is such an expression of the creativity of the Lord and we're all worshiping something right and so I feel like for us as dancers to have the ability and the freedom that I mean not everybody can dance right so it's like truly is a gift if you can express yourself in worship through the gift of dance so the first is worshiping God like I said I just love closing my eyes and trying to okay Lord give me pictures give me impressions of your throne what's happening on the sea of glass right now what are they declaring other than we know that they're declaring holy holy holy but what else is happening we have the ability to worship God through dance the second of why we dance is to share his heart and reveal his glory my prayer before any time I went on stage I'm sure when I was younger too but more recently in my career 10 or 10 plus years has just been that the light inside of me would be felt by those watching in the audience that from the moment that I stepped on the stage that God would take glory in every step that he would orchestrate every step that I took in such a way that people sitting in the furthest row would go there's something inside of her you know there's something inside of that one that I have to know what it is or you know just that the light inside of me would be so explosive that people would would feel drawn to the Lord just through not even in the context of like Christian dancing but even in my professional career like oh Lord please let first let it be worshipful movement but secondly let it reveal your glory to anybody that's watching and the third why do we dance or why do I dance it's for enjoyment like let's be real we all it's it's fun right it's it's that like I said it's just that fullness of expression and yeah it's just like you know it's what I love to do most on the earth but I feel like it's this when we're dancing before the audience of one in such an extravagant way it's a reciprocal expression of enjoyment it's God enjoying us as he's watching us use something that he's given us as a gift and it's us enjoying him in this this gift that that he's given us so I feel like you know anytime you can dance dance as often as you can dance anywhere you can because it is that that sense of enjoyment and I feel like in that place that's where freedom is that's where chains are set free that's where healing happens I think it's it's really cool and you're in a worship service and you hear people just give this like the shout but I don't know for me I feel like it's so much more powerful if I can just use the body that God's given me in such a powerful and beautiful way to bring that release of healing and freedom and just full expression of worship so anyways yeah we have a few more minutes so if you have any questions shoot and then I'll pray for you yeah good question yeah that's a good question so oddly enough like I mentioned we my husband and I have only been here about five five months October November December January five months coming up on five months we were living in New Zealand for two years serving as missionaries with the House of Prayer in a Y-man base and about a year before we even started the conversation with Radiant Caleb messaged us and said hey Betty I want to pick your brain I mean like Radiant was not even on a radar we were loving life in New Zealand loving the assignment that God had for us there and he said I want to pick your brain we'd like to start some sort of like a dance school or studio place where people can can come and you know bring their children and it's not like you know the booty-shaking competition dance studio probably I could just hear you saying that so you know we probably chatted on the phone for an hour and then fast forward a year and a half later here we are because at the end of that conversation Caleb goes okay so when are you guys moving here like I'm here are there any questions that you have about starting your dance whatever it was because I think you know like I said and they kept saying this has been such a dream and they're hard to have a platform for artists to come just grow an expression of worship and in their craft and so I feel like yes I feel like it will happen I don't know how or when please please no no please do I love that question there's a couple kind of arrangements speaking related to dance and then at the same time that kid was over here at the end and like three days we saw her in like three different random locations she met me and she filled out a worshiping application she was like I'm not at the worships and she was like I dance but you know does that involve worship at the end of the evening and I kind of told her the same thing I was like yeah I love dance I don't know how to incorporate it right now and I'm just kind of asking the question and trying to pay attention to be honest I just have not seen it done and what better shirt is so valuable about it having excellence and purity and pointing to Jesus and I just haven't really seen it done there have been a couple of challenges one I haven't seen it done that well that often and Stu there's just a natural challenge of being in Michigan and where people are at with expression the vast majority of the people are very put off by artistic expression the answer is not to just go insane with artistic expression and force it like a gun on your face and be this way because this is going to freak him out it's not fine everyone's slowly invited to it but the Lord in this swirl like there was like three or four things it was crazy because I don't know I was like okay Lord I'm listening and that's when I messaged Ryan and said you better be willing to talk to us I just so respect because she's an insane dancer just so you guys know she's probably being humble but we're out of the gifted beautiful dancer and we have a heart to train kids but also to see it be released in worship I'm not a dancer you never know Caleb the Lord loves it even in asking ready to do this this workshop and Lee and I have had these dialogues and discussions and it's like we want to see it happen and we don't know how and a lot of people have said let's do it and they don't do it right and they have to pull it back and all the dancers in the community are so we had a chance but it is certain because we didn't set them to talk about it and so my heart I want to see an expression of it whether it's in worship or tied to worship or it's separate to performance that to me because there is something that is so liberating and a couple of encounters where I've seen a room go from honest to free to a moment of being separate so there's a breaker and mounting on it and I have a huge heart for that in worship and so I don't want to do it and Lee is so good at this too but we're really leaving and asking the question and you know we have a couple of people in the community that I've been hearing so much because of their experience and there are people in our community who is dancing and teaching children to dance and dances in the presence of God we have certain outlets and expressions for that so yeah we're moving forward and dreaming it and so maybe you have a breakthrough in mind so we're asking the question and trying to fix that for us so anyway sorry I didn't want to steal that's good thank you I kind of want to jump in your tune because I know that you probably can feel what people always say yeah that's great we're leaning in that and the Lord God is very I know it was for more than awesome to be here I know that that piece is going to tie in take it away I've heard a lot of my own story and yours in the the moment you found out like dance was your identity because I went from like 4 to 18 and that was all I did that was the only thing to Rachel since and so when the Lord asked me to stop I was like ok sure and so I feel like he kind of got ripped away and I actually recently moved down the road from my last dance studio and I was like ok that hurts that's kind of a slap in the face so I guess my question is how did you because there's part of me that's like maybe the Lord didn't take it maybe it'll come back but how did you enter that and enter back into that without just going back to like oh no this is who I am because there's something about it that's when I feel much myself being the most beautiful and free but there's I have a hard time separating like this isn't who I am but this is something that expresses the fullness of me that makes sense yeah definitely makes sense I feel like you know like you said similar I didn't realize how much of my identity was actually wrapped up I mean I knew that I was loved by the Lord I knew how God felt about me but I didn't realize that my identity was actually so wrapped up in me as a dancer that if I if that was taken away that I didn't know who I was anymore and so I feel like it was the kindness of the Lord because I thought it might be done and I didn't know and it was really scary so I think the first thing to do is just start asking the Lord questions and you know I don't know how old you are now but hopefully you've had some time to really wrestle with who am I who does the Lord say I am who has he created me to be and is this something that the Lord is giving back as a part of restoring your true identity and the fullness of who the Lord is you are and for me I learned to make decisions because sometimes we can feel like we have a good option and we choose it but it might be the very thing that takes us out of the will of God which was a very sober in reality for me because when I took the job in Oregon I felt like it seems like the door's open I've been praying for a door open but that doesn't mean that it's the will of God and it can be the very door that takes you outside the will of God so as I stepped back into the will of God on God's terms peace was the thing that was my indicator so when I prayed I felt such like I don't even know how to explain it this such a sense of peace that I knew that I knew that it was the Lord and so I would just encourage you I think my husband just picked up my guy she was just at preschool so I would just encourage you to dialogue with the Lord and pray and just see if you feel that sense of peace because who knows maybe the reason you moved to where you are so you could dance again opening that door for you again and if you've completely surrendered it and you feel peace about stepping back into it as a daughter of the Lord restored in the fullness of who you are and your identity then who knows what could happen so I would encourage you to pray talk to the Lord and just use that sense of peace to be your indicator any other questions right at the gender of your baby it's a boy so we have a little girl now we have a little boy it wasn't what she ordered but she's actually already said after the doctor takes the baby out can you put a girl baby in there I'm like okay but just to clarify this is a brother yeah it's a brother but my sister yeah she loves to dance I went back to rehearsals when she was three months old and so she's just grown up around it and loves it actually that was the motivation for potty training she wanted to go to ballerina class when I said well you can't wear well in New Zealand we say nappies you can't wear nappies to ballerina class and that was it she was like on the potty so yeah that was awesome yeah I have a question I know that we've like you sort of talked about this a little bit there's a lot of talk about like prophetic worship and instrumental prophecy and we've experienced that this morning and last night and everything and I just want to know maybe what your thoughts are on like dance being a form of prophecy or being a form of prophetic worship and how you know you would incorporate that into church or into our daily worship with the Lord and yeah just what it looks like and what does that even mean like dance being prophetic yeah I think um yes I think that it is possible and Caleb touching that I have not seen it really done or done well with excellence in the context of church or worship service but I feel like an excellent place to start is in your living room you know if you're reading the word and you just feel this like sudden urge to get up and to move I feel like that is a form of prophetic worship and prophetic dance can be tied into just that that sense of and gift of prophecy but I have such a vision for it I think I've seen it happen a little bit where whether it's an individual or it could be somebody you know just like in the context of a worship team you have a leader and they're the ones that are kind of like trumpeting what's happening and really helping guide where the spirit is leading them as a team so I feel like we will see that in the context of an act of worship in the church I'm believing for it in the name of Jesus but I have seen glimpses of it where I'll see a group of dancers and there's somebody leading and you can see they're just so in tune with the Holy Spirit and the way they move and it'll be like you know maybe four or five dancers behind them or with them kind of carrying out this move and it's almost this like call the battle you know we're doing this together and the authority of the Lord and so I don't know exactly what it's gonna look like but I think it starts in your living room and just keep asking the Lord God what does that look like what could it look like what are the possibilities it's gonna happen yeah any other questions last chance okay I'll pray for you and can I just the ones that really feel called to choreography could you just stand up I really want to pray for you yeah and maybe if people around them just want to put their hand on them if you feel comfortable with that yeah so Lord I just thank you for for the gift of dance Lord I just thank you for the downloads from heaven God I ask that you would give us an eternal lens Lord I thank you that we as creatives as dancers have the ability to worship you and to enjoy you in such a way that brings excitement and joy to your heart Lord I pray that that our dance would be an overflow of your heart and your love and your passion and God I just pray for these ones right now that feel called to choreograph to to put into motion the heartbeat and the rhythms and the patterns of heaven the very movements that are happening around your throne room Lord I just thank you that everything under the sun has not been created that there's a whole another level that we can tap into Lord I thank you for the creative spirit inside each and every one of us as believers Lord I just ask for dreams in the night Lord I pray over these ones that feel called to choreograph God that you would give them dreams that they would see movement that they would see shapes and patterns that they would hear music Lord that has that has maybe not even been written God I pray for divine collaboration with you and Lord I just pray that you would open up doors that no man can shut in in the way of dance and Lord that as dancers that we would bring healing and that we would bring freedom and liberation and just such joy in the form of worship God I thank you for each and every one that's here today Lord I just ask that you would deepen our revelation of who you are and how you feel for us God who you made us to be and how just what you have for us Lord as it relates to dance on this earth and an eternity God that you would give us glimpses into eternity of what you have in the way of dance God Lord I pray that you would stir up creativity in each and every one of us God we love you we bless your name Jesus we thank you for the gift of dance we thank you for it God we thank you that we can enjoy it and that we can worship you with it Lord and that we can give you glory and we just say everything is yours Lord In Jesus name Amen