Welcome to The Dancing Word
Connecting your body and Spirit through movement, prayer, creativity, and scripture
Do you long to feel more at home in your body?
Do you sense there is something sacred waiting to be expressed through movement?
The Dancing Word invites you to reconnect body and Spirit in a way that is creative, prayerful, and deeply life-giving.
Through guided dance videos, live classes, retreats, and beautifully crafted resources, you’ll discover how movement can become prayer — and how your own body can become a place of joy, healing, and sacred expression.
You don’t need to be a dancer. You only need a body — and a willingness to say yes.
Take your first step and enter the dance.
Explore
Explore dance in worship and discover what 50+ years of embodied ministry can offer you.
Explore the dance
Dance with Community
Connect with a global circle of Dancing Monks through Abbey of the Arts.
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ConnectWe Shall Be Known
This dance, entitled We Shall Be Known by MaMuse, is a gorgeous anthem about the Great Turning choreographed by my beloved friend Karin Stevens, and filmed outdoors here in Seattle at a park where nuclear submarine fins have been repurposed to emerge from the ground like whale fins. This dance prayer is exquisite, and I’m super excited to share it with you! This piece was created to accompany the Cultivating Seeds of Liberation Prayer Cycle from Abbey of the Arts.
Holy, Holy, Holy
Our latest collection of dances at Abbey of the Arts accompanies Christine Valters Paintner’s beautiful book – The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints & Ancestors Walk with us Toward Holiness. I am currently working on completing all the dance offerings to embody the songs on the accompanying CD: The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints & Ancestors. When I began to dream about how to depict the ecstatic feeling of dancing with a whole collection of saints on the “other side,” what came to mind is a church in San Francisco called St. Gregory of Nyssa where the rotunda is full of beautiful icons of saints through time — all depicted dancing together in a ring! I just knew that I needed to step foot into this holy place and join in the dance with this circle of heavenly saints.
The Dancing Word Video Collections
In collaboration with Abbey of the Arts we’ve created a series of DVDs and videos to inspire your dancing.
The Love of Thousands: Dancing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
Birthing the Holy: Dancing with Mary and the Sacred Feminine
Monk in the World: Moving with Mystery
Earth, Our Original Monastery: Dancing Our Way to the Divine
The Soul's Slow Ripening: Dancing the Sacred on a Celtic Path
Dancing with Monks and Mystics