The Word in the Wings
By: Audrey Hammitt
After the company studied Genesis 11:1-9, company artist Audrey Hammitt led a scripture-and-movement activity to foster further engagement with the passage. She conducted her own close study and reflection on the “Tower of Babel” narrative in order to develop a movement prompt that would hold the ambiguities of the text honestly and use movement to express faith-filled responses to God’s word.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Glorify Dance Theatre’s next, short ballet is called Babel, and it’s based on the story of the tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11:1-9. Echoes in this short narrative of the creation account in Genesis 1 raise questions about what God intends for human cooperation and creativity.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
The exposure, enclosure, and generativity that comprise Julian of Norwich’s experience of divine revelation run parallel to the meaning-making mechanisms at play in the performance of Chesed by Glorify Dance Theatre. This work aims to foster knowledge of God’s love through exteriorizing inner experiences as movement, exposing the performance space to viewing on every side, amplifying the enclosure and generativity of the stage, and prompting multiple meaningful resonances between art(ist) and audience.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Several company members share stories about people in their own lives who have shown them chesed, forming a concrete picture of what God’s love is. When has someone shared in your vulnerability in order to share their strength with you?

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Even though Ruth’s ḥesed toward Naomi makes her vulnerable as she voluntarily forsakes her own future prospects in order to stay with her mother-in-law, Ruth’s exposure to loneliness and insecurity gives way to greater security as Ruth is able to provide food for Naomi by gleaning in Boaz’s field. This redemptive force of ḥesed becomes even more evident as Naomi in turn seeks security for Ruth. Together, the two women draw Boaz himself into their self-giving system, and Yahweh works through them to provide security beyond Naomi’s imagination.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Glorify Dance Theatre has begun work on a new ballet, Chesed, that will premiere this March. If so much of ḥesed consists of risk, vulnerability, rejection, and imbalance, why is ḥesed the way God chooses to love humanity, and why is ḥesed the way God calls humanity to love one another? The book of Ruth, set in the era of Israel’s judges, shows how ḥesed drives the plight of two refugee women to redemption. The transformation that loyal love brings to their lives points to the way that God’s ḥesed works to redeem all people.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
At our in-studio Dance & Dialogue event this past weekend, Glorify Dance Theatre and our audience explored how dance expresses emotion and offers a unique way of engaging with emotions that are complex or challenging. This expressive capacity of dance is relevant to Christian faith because sometimes it’s difficult to put words to the emotions experienced in Scripture meditation, prayer, worship, or personal encounters with God. When we need to process emotions that are mixed and difficult to reconcile or emotions that are so big they seem outside our grasp, dance can help to concretize the abstract and externalize the internal.

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Whenever human partners are involved, ḥesed entails the risk of betrayal. How can God sustain ḥesed with human partners who repeatedly reject God and neglect reciprocal commitment?

The Word in the Wings
By: Kaya Weaver
Glorify Dance Theatre has begun work on a new ballet, Chesed, that will premiere this March. The ballet explores different facets of the meaning of ḥesed to explore how humans relate to God and to each other through generous, loyal love. One narrative that illustrates the circumstances and choices that lead to ḥesed is the story of Rahab, found in Joshua 2.