“Baptists don’t dance.” Ever heard that one? Growing up, it
was a running joke among my friends in our Baptist congregation, thrown around
more like an excuse when someone’s attempts to “dance” fell into the
embarrassing category. I had heard of the days when that statement was true,
when dancing was strictly prohibited for those in my particular denomination,
but I didn’t think that strain of legalism still existed in the 21st
century, at least not in my church—that is until I heard an elderly church
member make a comment that let me know it was still alive and well.
When some friends and I started our own dance group, I
quickly learned that I had to be careful, given the fact that my dad was on the
ministerial staff. People could get the wrong idea, and if Baptists don’t
dance, Baptist pastors especially don’t. It didn’t matter that the type of
dancing our group enjoyed was about the least scandalous type of dancing you
could imagine—historical dances from the nineteenth century. For some reason I
could sense that there were some who would raise a stink if they knew we got
together to dance as our preferred pastime.
Even though we knew there was nothing wrong with what we
were doing (and in fact there was a lot right), we still had to counter the
negative perception, launching into a lengthy explanation whenever we talked
about what we did once a month. And that frustrated me exceedingly. Why should
I have to think twice about posting photos or videos of my family dancing
together? Why couldn’t dancing be evaluated on its own merits, with the
acknowledgement that not all dancing is made alike? Why was the wholesome and
the unwholesome all lumped together into this single category that therefore
became taboo? Why were outdated, now inaccurate mindsets so entrenched?
Shouldn’t we see if the Bible has anything to say about dancing before we make
it a shameful thing? I say we should. So let’s look.
There are 29 verses in the Bible that mention dance/dancing:
24 in the Old Testament and 5 in the New, in the books of Exodus, Judges, 1 and
2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Interestingly, only 2 of these
verses are prescriptive, meaning they state what someone should or shouldn’t do. The rest are descriptive, meaning they
simply describe something rather than instruct. Since the descriptive verses
are the large majority, let’s look at those first.
Twelve of the verses contain a historical account of someone
actually dancing. These include Miriam and the Israelite women when God brought
them out of Egypt (Ex. 15:20), the Israelites at the Golden Calf incident (Ex.
32:19), Jephthah’s daughter upon his return from battle (Judg. 11:34), the
women of Shiloh at an annual feast of the Lord (Judg. 21:21, 23), Israelite
women celebrating David’s victory over Goliath (1 Sam. 18:6), Amalekites
celebrating a military victory (1 Sam. 30:16), King David when he brought the
Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:14, 16; 1 Chron. 15:29), and Herod’s
daughter at his birthday feast (Matt. 14:6, Mark 6:22). Only the Israelites at
the Golden Calf and Herod’s daughter, who ended up using her body to gain favor
and to manipulate, fall into the less-than-savory category of dance. The rest
were dancing in pure celebration and joy, and some were even directly praising
God with their dancing.
Three other verses allude to actual dancing: 1 Samuel 21:11
and 29:5 speak of dances that the Israelites used in celebrating David’s
victories, and Psalm 87:7 refers to “singers and dancers” who praise the Lord.
Three more are found in parables or teachings of Jesus: the characters in the
prodigal son scene dance upon his return (Luke 15:25), and figurative people do
not dance in the simile Jesus uses to describe what the people of his day were
like (Matt. 11:17; Luke 7:32). In Job 41:22, dancing is used in an
anthropomorphic way to describe how terror reacts to the Leviathan. And
Jeremiah 31 contains two verses that tie dancing to a promise of future
blessing where the people will “go forth in the dance of the merrymakers” (v.4)
and young women will “rejoice in the dance” (v.13).
Finally, six verses reference dancing to paint a picture or
make a point: Job argues that the wicked prosper in spite of their wickedness
and points to their children dancing as evidence of their prosperity (Job
21:11); Solomon asks why others should look at his beloved as they would at “a
dance before two armies” (Song of Sol. 6:13); and Isaiah prophesies that “wild
goats will dance” in a ruined Babylon (Is. 13:21). Others contrast mourning and
dancing, with Solomon stating there is a time for each of them (Ecc. 3:4),
Jeremiah bemoaning that dancing has been turned into mourning (Lam. 5:15), and
David rejoicing that mourning has been turned into dancing (Ps. 30:11).
Overall, most of the descriptions suggest that dancing is a
positive, or at least neutral, thing. But there are still two verses remaining,
and these are the ones which use “dance” as an imperative, i.e. a command.
Psalm 149 begins, “Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in
the assembly of the godly!” (v. 1) It goes on, “Let them praise his name with
dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!” (v. 3). Similarly and
more blatantly imperative, Psalm 150:4a reads, “Praise him with tambourine and
dance.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if God commands
something, we can be pretty certain that it’s not wrong.
Of course, these commands are directly tied to using dance
as a means to praise God, so just as these verses do not condemn dancing
neither do they say that all dancing is therefore good and right. Dancing is
like money—it’s not inherently good or evil in and of itself; it all depends on
how you use it. Certainly there are types of dancing that are engaged in out of
a motive to stir up misdirected desires in someone else (or ourselves), to draw
attention to oneself in pride or self-centeredness, or to manipulate others for
our own gain, and followers of Christ are rightfully opposed to such uses of
dancing. But there are other ways dancing can be used as well, ways which
uplift, strengthen community, and bring a pure delight in the Lord and in His
good gifts of music and movement.
When the Church blacklists all dancing, it does so without
any Scriptural backing and falls into the trap of legalism. Instead, prudence
can and should rule the day, whereby reason helps us see that it is abundantly
possible to dance and not to sin. With this foundation laid, I’m excited to
share some of the beauties I have found in dancing, how it brings delight to my
life and to my relationship with the Lord.
But for that, you’ll have to stay tuned for Part 2!
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