The Ministry of Dance

By Ruth Woodard

FROM THE ARCHIVES PART 9: WINTER 2007

Ever since I was a little girl, my relationship with God and my involvement in church has meant a lot to me. As the youngest of 7 children growing up in Nashville Tennessee, I remember walking to the Methodist Church 2 1⁄2 blocks from my house. My family was hard hit by the depression of the 1930’s and everyone was having problems, so it was particularly meaningful to me to get involved with my church in helping people who had it worse than me.

The pastor of our church wanted to reach out to and take care of children and families in downtown Nashville who were suffering. I remember one family in particular where the husband was very sick and the wife had health problems too. They had several children with nothing to eat. Our church adopted this family. The young adult fellowship of our church got the boys involved in our Boy Scout Troop, and the girls involved in our Girl Scout Troop. As a young adult I was the leader of the Girl Scout Troop. It was in the Scout Troup where I first became interested in Folk Dance for the purpose of recreation and outreach. I didn’t realize at the time how much this would become a major part of my life.

In 1936, my future husband Las, which is short for Lassiter, started attending my church. He had moved to Nashville to work with the Army Corp of Engineers as an Accounting Officer. We fell in love, got married in 1938 and established our first home in Nashville where we lived until 1958.

While we lived in Nashville I pursued my interest in folk dance and even took a ballet class with several other women. Little did I know how much God would use this when Las and I found ourselves in different cultures due to his many job transfers.

Our first move was to Honolulu Hawaii. While there, I took a great interest in learning the ancient dances of the Hawaiians. When we were transferred from there to Okinawa, I made it a point to learn the dances of their culture too. Everywhere we have lived outside the US, from Hawaii, to Okinawa and to Italy, I have tried to learn the dances of each culture and to teach dance and to hold dance workshops as a way of reaching out to people. Every time we moved we sought out a church where we could fellowship and that opened doors for is to use dance as a form of ministry and outreach.

When we were in Hawaii and Okinawa in particular, the church leaders that we worked with realized how much dance meant to the people of those cultures and encouraged us to connect with the native people in that way. When I was in Okinawa I particularly remember a man who came up to me after a performance and bowed in gesture of respect because he was so moved that I would take the time to learn the dances of his culture.          

There were times we opened worship services in Okinawa and Japan with native dances as worship to God. Even when we were in Italy we danced to a hymn as a part of a worship service in a big European fellowship. When I think back on all of this I’m grateful for the opportunities that God has given Las and I to use dance to bridge cultural gaps and reach out with God’s love through the churches we’ve been involved in.