Dance: Arabesque

Despite my love for dancing in high school, I did very little of it in college. And after college, I entered the monastery. It looked like my dancing days were done.

In 1984-1985, however, I was sent to St. Louis University for a special program for men and women like me who were in formation work, recruiting and training new members for their religious communities. It was a great year in which I tried all sorts of new things, including taking an aerobics class. Perhaps because of that, I joined a small liturgical dance group. This was totally not the same as school dancing, more of a reflective activity, semi-ballet, semi-jazz, semi-Tai Chi contemplative movement. I loved it and it opened the door for dancing again. When we had parties at SLU, I danced wildly. People were amazed that a contemplative friar could do so.

Some years later, when I was in the monastery in Chicago, the formation program that had been in St. Louis moved to Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park. As a graduate of the program, I was invited to give talks and to act in the occasional advisory capacity. One result was that I wound up overseeing the 30-day retreat with which the program ended in 2000.

On my long drive from Chicago to the retreat house, I heard for the first time the song "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. When the retreat ended, I celebrated the final Mass and used lyrics from the song to express my hopes for those students who had taken part, men and women from all over the world. After communion, after we sat for a few moments in silence, we played the song, which I had surprisingly been able to find in the one tiny store nearby.

Beforehand, I had asked four or five of the retreatants to help me out. When the song began, after a few lines, a couple of people stood and sort of danced in place, just moving gently. No choreography, nothing fancy. Just moving. A few lines later, another person stood and danced, then another, then another.

At that point, without being asked, others began to stand one by one until everyone in the group was standing and dancing. Two women came forward and took me by the hands, had me rise from the presidential seat and join them as we moved together around the altar.

It was the sort of thing that lots of people would have hated. In that place and with those people, it was magical.

Here are some of the words of the song:

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance.
Never settle for the path of least resistance.
Living might mean taking chances,
But they're worth taking.
Lovin' might be a mistake,
But it's worth making.
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter.
When you come close to selling out,
Reconsider.
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance.

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance --
I hope you dance.

Here is the Ronan Keating 2004 version.

I hope you continue the dance.