You may be asking, “What in the world is Worship Dance and why do some of those who believe in Jesus do it?” God created our bodies for many purposes. One of those purposes is to praise him with dancing that is very modest, uplifting, fun and beautiful.

Do you know that King David from the Bible was the original street dancer? 2 Samuel 6:14 says, “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might.” When you do something with all of your might, you put your whole self into it. King David is our best biblical example of worship dance. His dance was an example of adoration and celebration. He danced before the Lord with rejoicing, expressing an attitude of thanksgiving and praise. He danced with all his might, and in this way, showed his great passion for the Lord. David did not dance for public praise or honor. He was completely focused on worshipping his God.

Psalm 150 says:

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with tambourine and dancing,

praise him with the strings and flute,

praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD.

There are many things that worship dance accomplishes but it is mainly for the purpose of praising our God with all of our being.  Dance or movement is mentioned 366 times in the Bible. That’s once for every day of the year including Leap year. 

Lets explore some of the things that worship dance does. 

1. Worship dance declares our praise to God and celebrates our love of the Lord. Just like a child expresses their love for a parent, we should express our love unreservedly for the Lord.

2. Worship dance is a means to give ourselves totally to the Lord. It requires our mind, will, emotion, and body to worship God in this way. 

3. Worship dance blesses, delights, and encourages those who watch the dancing.

4. Worship dance can be used to reach the lost because of the physical representation of the joy of the Lord and our freedom in Christ. The moves tell a story.

5. Worship dance can bring healing in the mind, heart, and body.

6. Worship dance encourages us to maintain a healthy body.

We dance to worship God in His glory with all of our body, mind and spirit. 

Did Jesus dance? I think so. He attended all the Jewish feasts and festivals and his first miracle was at a wedding and there was much dancing at that blessed event. People in Bible times danced often. They danced before and after warfare, at weddings, after harvest, to celebrate, to mourn and as a form of worship. There is more dancing in today’s world in most parts of the world than in America. Americans are so busy, they have lost the time to laugh, love and live including worship in dance.

There are three types of praise & worship that we generally dance to. They are:

Majesty is a form of worship.   It declares God as king and worthy of honor.

Intimacy is another form of worship. It declares the love of our Father God and Him loving us.

Celebration is a form of praise. It celebrates God’s love for us and our love for Him and is upbeat, fun and usually fast.

There is also warfare dance and travail dance. This is normally not choreographed dancing but divinely inspired freeform.

As worship dancers, our primary goal will be to illuminate the love of the Lord "with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with of all our mind" (Luke 10:27). We use our whole being to worship the Lord and express our love to Him. 

Movement in worship is not for the sake of movement alone. Anyone can dance and do it beautifully but that does not make it worship dance. It must be a true, honest expression of the heart so the difference is the intention of the heart and the anointing of God. Do you know what anointing means? It means to smear. When you think of smear, you think of getting something all over something else. Covering one thing with another. That exactly what we ask God to do each time we dance. We ask Him to smear his presence on and around us so that our dancing brings glory to Him, not honor to ourselves. When this is the case, God is then glorified with our best effort though it may not be perfect.

Keep in mind that Worship dance is not about competition or selfish ambition. It is strictly about honoring God with our bodies.  Though we strive to do everything we do for the Lord with excellence, we concentrate less on doing the moves perfectly and more on praising and honoring God as we dance.