#576. Hand Dancing
Jul 9th by JonI didn’t intend to become a hand dancer. Looking back on the path that brought me here, the steps I took were small. The warning signs quiet, the telltale marks of hand dancery subtle. I didn’t wake up one Sunday Morning and boldly declare, “Today at church, during worship, I’m going to hand dance!” It just kind of happened.
Our church is not really conducive to flat out dancing in the aisles. They’re pretty tight rows and although I’ve definitely seen some serious swaying, I’ve never seen anyone get down, really just let loose and like the Black Eyed Peas sing, “step on leprechauns.” (I’m not sure if that phrase technically means “dancing” but I’m trying to look relevant so please pretend that it does.)
But some Sundays, the rhythm gets me, much like Gloria Estefan warned me so many years ago. So when I stand up to worship and Steve Fee unleashes some sort of insanely awesome song and I feel the funk in my feet and hear that tiny voice inside say, “Do the robot, do the robot,” the only way I can quiet that inner tiny dancer is to channel it all to my hands. Which isn’t difficult, because if my hands are not engaged doing the ninja worship move, they’re resting lightly on the back of the chair in front of me.
Suddenly they start to tap.
“Hey, look at us, we’re keeping rhythm on the back of this chair,” they think. “What if in the second verse we switched it up and tried a little freestyle? Ohhh let’s pretend to breakdance and pass a mini wave from one hand up the shoulders across the neck and back down the other arm. Feeling it, feeling it. Go ahead shorty. It’s your birthday.”
I try to clap my hands instead but no one likes to be the only guy in a 25-person radius that is trying to clap along to a song. (And trying to clap along in beat to a fast Steve Fee song is like trying to catch flies with chopsticks. If those flies happen to be on meth and your chopsticks are made of wet spaghetti. It’s impossible.) So without a clap to fall back on I get lost in a moment of hand dancingness.
I want to stop, but it’s too late. Like Philip, the pop n’ locker on So You Think You Can Dance, I start to break it down, using the back of the seat in front of me like the customized cardboard mat me and my friends used to breakdance on in the fourth grade. It’s over. There’s no turning back. I’m hand dancing.
If you ever see me at North Point Community Church, please don’t stare directly into the hand dance, it’s like looking at the sun. You’ll get blinded by the brilliance.
Am I the only one that does this?
What do you do with your hands when you sing songs at church?
Comments
Wow… thought I was alone here…you definitely described me there!!!
I like the fist pump for accenting certain words or cymbal crashes, but have to admit I don't use it very often. I only air drum when in the car by myself. Phil Collins is my fave to air drum to.
I play the piano at my church, so my hands are pretty well occupied… sometimes I think we pianists get off easy because on the occasions that I'm not playing the piano, I never know what to do with my hands…
Jazz hands anyone? What about some spirit fingers?
I usually clap or raise me my hands. Although, I have been guilty of a little hip movement during some of the faster songs. I just tell myself God made my hips and I'm moving them for him.
I just press on… say the heck with everyone, and keep on clapping. I force the issue.
I let my left hand rest in between the fingers of a sign language "I Love You" from my right hand. That way, I'm not interlocking fingers with myself so my hands aren't sweaty during the turn-and-greet moment and simultaneously I'm telling Jesus I love Him…all in beat. Is sign language speaking in tongues?
When do you go and where do you sit? I have to see this in action.
Sometimes, when I get too excited, I find myself almost "jumping" in place.
Hand dancing is my specialty, though.
I watch all of you who hand dance, and smile on the inside. I admire your confidence and openness. Keep it up! One day I hope to join you!
WV:testu (How fitting!)
@Bruce IV- I am also a non-dancing Wesleyan (well, at least I was…). I've been known to get down with a hand dance, though.
We're not a "hand-raising" kind of church and sometimes the Spirit'll get me. But I sufficiently quench the desire to raise my hands by forcefully keeping them inside my pockets at all times. Woe is me if I come to church on Sundays with no pockets.
But I do like to pretend I'm the drummer. Interestingly enough, no one looks down on that. While you, my friend, might hand dance, I'm playing my air drumming heart out. If there were competitions for air drumming, I would be laying in a kiddie size pool of money right now. Instead of furtively typing this comment at my cubicle…
OH yes, I definitely am a hand dancer… top of the line one too. I always have to make sure no one is sitting in the row in front of me… and if I don't have chairs I will alternate between the snapping and clapping and clapping one hand on a fist… it is definitely keeping the rhythm though… I am definitely a hand dancer.
wv inessess, not creative enough for a definition right now, but i thought it was funny…
I just love that to Christians dancing means jumping up and down…I have never seen that at any dance party i've been to
I hand dance all the time! I feel bad for the chair sometimes. It didn't do anything to me, but I'm dancing all over it.
yep. hand dancer here. so glad to hear there are many of us.
I'm in choir, so my hands are holding my music. It might possibly be the reason I joined choir.
@Janet said
And @mo, good call bringing up the song "Undignified" — a great song for middle schoolers to let it all out!
Mo: No not middle schoolers all of us.
JUST LET GO AND DANCE FOR GOD! STOP WORRYING WHAT OTHERS THINK AND LET GO AND LET GOD!
WV: arain
Let the Holy Spirit fall on you as arain!
The church I attend now is quite a bit less "charismatic" than the one I grew up in. So, I volunteered to emcee the elementary kids' service. Now several dozen kids and me (and the other volunteers who secretly love it too) get completely undignified every week. So by the time I go to the adult worship service, I already had a chance to get my praise on. Hopefully, over time, the kids will influence the culture enough to warm things up!
(Now, I'm secretly conspiring about how to light up the youth service.)
Someone has to capture The Hand Dance on video. I need a visual.
I'm on the worship team, and I keep it pretty tame on Sunday mornings. (Though some might disagree–I'm black, so I suspect my propensity to "get down" is filed away under "ethnicity.")
But during Saturday night rehearsal I'm known to break out the robot, throw in a dash of the cabbage patch, and–when necessary–add a whiff of the snake. My fellow team members pray for my salvation regularly, and I'm grateful for their tender condescension.
I tap like there's no tomorrow… usually on my legs cuz my church meets at a high school and we sit in bleachers.
i'm crying because i'm laughing so hard. just like i cried when philip left sytycd.
I handdance all the time!! cant help it start with a little tap and then suddenly get big whacks going and then a bit of a head bob lol!!
i agree i hate to be the only one clapping…tad awkard so the handtap works fine for me…i pretend noone notices…hopefully
playing the air keyboard. so much less cool than air guitar, and it looks slightly like i'm autistic. the most unfortunate thing is when the worship band misses a chord that i got right while playing air keyboard…
There is a man at my church who sits on the front row with his daughter and they dance during worship. Sometimes, he even twirls her around (gasp!). I always wish I could join him, but I think my family would disown me!
I don't hand dance, really, but my feet are always moving!