“Dance, dance, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance said he....”
The problem with liturgical dance in the Ordinary Form, which just so happens to be the problem of music in the Ordinary Form as well as silence, is that dance, music and silence have to be added to it as an application and somewhat disconnected from the Mass itself. It is external rather than internal.
Not so with the EF Mass. The Mass is the dance! The Mass is the song! The Mass is the grand silence!
The Solemn Sung Mass with deacon, subdeacon, and the panoply of other liturgical ministers is the minuet par excellence. The “lesser solemn” forms of this Mass are a dance too in its choreography.
The Solemn High Mass and certainly the Pontifical High Mass are tightly choreographed and one can tell it is a dance by observing the movements of the priest, deacon and subdeacon.
Thus if you love liturgical dance, you’ll love the EF Mass and its choreography:
3 comments:
I observed liturgical dance in the '60s.
It has no place whatsoever in the worship of our creator during Mass.
AGREED Father!
Fr. Bauer, I have experienced it to in the seminary and then my first parish assignment in 1980. The pastor there at the time loved liturgical dance but was clueless about it. He would invite each Third Sunday of Advent a parishioner's ballet troop of young girls and teenagers to Perform at Mass during the offertory and post Communion. Yes, they were dressed in tutus. I chose to be at that Mass as the pastor was the celebrant. As I observed it I had the feeling that I would love to be anywhere else but there as it unfolded. I was dumbfounded. And the pastor was conservative on other issues. It was amazing he loved and allowed it!
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