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Belma Vardy, founder of Celebration of Dance, demonstrates flagging as part of worship at the
Worship Together conference.

Dancing for joy:
Celebrating the movement of worship

Kelly Henschel
CW Staff

BURLINGTON, ON – For many conservative Christians, dancing is taboo. However, Belma Vardy is out to change that image.
For her, dancing is a form of worship, a way to express her innermost devotion to God.
God created dance, says the 45-year-old worship dance instructor, and her goal is to show others "how to have a real intimacy with Him. Out of that flows movement, passion and devotion to God using our bodies."
Vardy, a member of the Christian Reformed Church of Meadowvale in Mississauga, Ontario, became a Christian in 1983. As part of her personal spiritual life, she would dance, using it as a tool to worship.
What she didn't realize until she attended a worship conference in New Orleans a few years later was that other people worshiped that way too. She started to teach others how to worship using creative movement, including flags and tambourines.
Various worship dance movements represent biblical expressions of worship, she says, which are used in private and congregational settings.
The colours of the flags have meaning as well. For example, purple and blue are the colours of Christ's royal robes, aqua is the colour of the River of Life, and red stands for Jesus' blood.
Eventually Vardy formed her company Celebration of Dance

with strong support from her church. "My pastor had to literally push me out the door to go and teach this," she says.
The fact that she comes from a CRC background has opened many doors, Vardy adds, including opportunities to teach worship dance techniques in Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, United and Pentecostal settings.
"I don't come in and pound them over the head," she says. "It's a gentle walk through it."
Vardy now travels nationwide to give conferences and seminars on worship dance. Since 1991 she has traveled internationally, teaching most summers in Europe. She has also produced six worship dance videos for children, youth and adults, the latest filmed in Germany. Her web site lists sources for the biblical basis of dance and the meaning it has in worship.
"God has totally taken this thing and it's totally outgrown me," she says. "I have a lot of volunteers who help me with this."
She remains amazed at how the Holy Spirit works when people worship. "I see the tears and hear the testimonies, and I'm amazed and blessed. You know it's God, because no human being can touch people's lives like that and change and transform them."
But she says, "my main focus is to spend time every day alone with God. That's where I get my strength."

Celebration of Dance: releasing worship dance within you