The Good Samaritan Dance Ministry
The Good Samaritan Dance Ministry has been training children, teens, and adults in ballet, expressive movement, and other dance styles since 1983, with an emphasis on using art and life in worship before the Creator. Dancers are encouraged to pursue excellence and use their gifts to glorify the Savior through service and ministry, in Sunday morning services as well as through outreach.
The dance ministry began when Fr Dan Sullivan asked Valerie Henry, parishioner and dancer, to start a Dance Choir. In 1997, Gwen Prestwood took over as director, with an increased focus on growing children’s classes and emphasis on technique. Karen Watkins became director in 2019, and contributed significantly in growing the Dance Academy as part of the ministry.
Rooted as a ministry of The Church of the Good Samaritan, and offering distinctly Christian dance classes, we welcome all dancers from the community and other church affiliations. In part because the dance ministry is so unique, we currently enroll dancers from 28 churches.
The dance ministry is supported in prayer by a dedicated group of dancers and parents who pray for each dancer, along with other prayer requests from the community.
Why do we praise the Lord with dancing? Perhaps the simplest answer is because we are called to. Embodied worship allows us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, worshiping the Lord with our whole being. Dance classes and rehearsals are also in themselves a ministry of encouragement—mentoring, healing and cross-generational prayer.
The dance ministry, both in the Dance Academy (training division) and the Dance Choir (performing division), is focused on:
- Excellence in dance technique
- Discipling dancers and pointing them towards Jesus, and
- Encouraging the hearts of the congregation
Dance Academy
The Dance Academy offers distinctly Christian dance training in a variety of styles for dancers from preschool through older adults. We intentionally foster an encouraging environment between the dancers.
Dance Choir
The Dance Choir, our multi-generation performance ministry, dances in Sunday services at The Church of the Good Samaritan, as well as guest performances at other churches, schools, and nursing homes, and also travels bi-annually to New York City to perform. Their dance style often blends ballet, folk, and modern.
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