Whispering Winds Blog

That was a first. A woman tap danced to my postlude in church Saturday evening. I was playing a pretty jazzy arrangement of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” on the piano, and I heard some rhythmic tapping. It sounded great, and I sensed a few people gathering together to watch someone near the front of the church. Unfortunately, I couldn’t look up to see what was going on because I had to keep my eyes on the sheet music I was playing. The woman tapped throughout the whole postlude, and then left before I got a chance to meet her. Mim told me it was fun watching her, but she didn’t know who she was. I really enjoyed the percussion sounds that her tapping added to the postlude. I think I had just as much fun playing for her as she must have had by tap dancing.

I wondered what prompted the woman to start dancing. Maybe she tap danced to the postlude because she couldn’t resist the jazzy beat of the arrangement (by Melody Bober – my favorite piano arranger).

Or maybe she did it because of Pastor Jeff’s homily. He talked about having the courage to do what God calls us to do. After all, we are God’s children, and we should have the courage to do what we feel we are called to do. Perhaps for her, she was being called to express her joy, and to praise God through tap dancing.

Or maybe both of the above.

I just finished reading the book, A Song to Sing, a Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice, co-authored by Don Saliers, a theology professor and church music director, and his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls, a folk-rock duo known for their vibrant music and social activism. In chapter 2, entitled “A Sound Spirituality,” the authors say,

The human body with all its senses is the primary location of the impulse to acknowledge the glory and power of God. Rituals, whether sacred or secular, always involve the body and its senses – what is heard, seen, tasted, touched, and given bodily expression in movement and gesture. … Spirituality is not an idea in the brain but rather a disciplined bodily experience that grows deeper with practice. … 

Unless we pay no attention or deliberately suppress our senses, the body is always being touched by music, is always ready to become a musical instrument. (p. 21-22) 

Maybe the tap dancer allowed herself to become a percussion instrument to become a part of the music and to experience its joy.

The tap dancer was not the only person who was touched by the jazzy music at the end of the worship service. Several people talked with me after the service, saying how the lively postlude gave them a physical lift, some extra energy to finish out their day.

The Bible tells us to make music and dance to praise God.

Praise God with trumpet sound, 

praise God with lute and harp.

Praise God with tambourine and dance,

praise him with strings and pipes.

Praise God with clanging cymbals;

praise God with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

[Psalm 150:3-6]

God has given us the gift of music, and has provided some suggestions for how to use the gift.

A couple weeks ago in this blog I explained that my spiritual practice throughout Lent this year is to spend some time alone playing prayerful music on the piano every day. Music is more than a means of offering joyful praise to God. It can be a means of communicating with God, expressing feelings of all kinds. One of my favorite hymns is “My Life Flows on in Endless Song” by19th century American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. Here are some of the words.

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear that music ringing.

It finds an echo in my soul.

How can I keep from singing?

Over the next several weeks, in church (and anywhere) we’ll be singing songs like: “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord,” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” “The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done,” “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today,” “Thine Is the Glory.” The music will help us feel and express emotional extremes as we strive to understand God’s love for us, and learn to reciprocate that love.

Praise God for the gift of music. And tap dancing as one more way of experiencing that gift!