Dancers enliven liturgy

BY PAT PASTERNAK
STAFF WRITER

As part of the annual Family Christmas Eve liturgy at St. Mary's Church in Oneonta, liturgical dancers will dance to a Nativity carol.

The feature has been a part of the Mass for 12 years, said Michelle Gardner, coordinator for liturgical dance at the Otsego County parish. She has taught dancing for more than 25 years at area colleges and high schools.

"I have been dancing all of my life," she said. "Being asked to coordinate liturgical dance was the first time I'd ever been invited to share the gift of dance as a prayer."

Liturgical dance is a simple, uncomplicated form of movement, Mrs. Gardner said, with actions that are a form of prayer.

"The dance is meant to draw the worship community into the prayer," she explained, "not to merely observe what the dancers are doing. The dancers are trained in certain movements that serve to invite the entire community into praise and worship."

"The feedback was, 'This is a great way to pray.' The community was very excited about it," she said.

Mrs. Gardner discovered how important the dance had become to the parish when she considered canceling it one year.

"As our original dancers graduated from high school and left the area for college, membership was down," she recalled. "I mentioned that we might discontinue the dancing. No one wanted us to end it."

Several former dancers who had returned from college for the holidays offered to rejoin the group, and some younger students volunteered to learn from the older ones.

"Now, each year, college students who were liturgical dancers in high school and who are home for the holidays participate in the Christmas Eve Mass," she said. "They've danced at Confirmations and monthly youth ministry Masses as well as other church functions, but the Christmas Eve Mass has become a tradition at St. Mary's."

(The Family Christmas Eve celebration at St. Mary's begins at 6 p.m. All are invited.)

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