Oakland Tribune, Apr 20, 2007 by Kristin Bender
… Praise Dance, the dance form dedicated to
religious worship that emerged from predominately African American churches, is
growing in popularity, with the establishment of several Praise Dance companies
in the East Bay. It's growing up, too.
"We want the level of technical
representation in Christian dance to reach professional levels," said
Joseph Washington, vocalist, musician and co-director with his wife, Shereel
Washington, of Ixalt! The company's mission is to use dance, music, song and
spoken word to share the Gospel. "We want people who are technically
skilled who love God."
With that in mind, the company trains
dancers in technique, rhythm, movement and choreography. In celebration of
National Dance Week, Ixalt! is sponsoring Dance Jam, a day of dance workshops,
and a forum exploring sexuality, culture and ethnicity in the church.
The Dance Jam will offer classes in hula,
Praise Dance with modern technique, jazz and lyrical dance.
Joseph Washington pointed out traditional
cultures, in Hawaii and African countries for example, were suppressed during
the spread of Christianity.
"We want to revive cultural freedom so
people can express their culture in their Christian faith," he said.
The Washingtons founded Ixalt! in 2003.
Shereel Washington is an accomplished dancer and choreographer with training in
Congolese, jazz, Haitian, ballet, modern, tap, Guinean and Hawaiian dance.
They also want to increase secular
society's awareness of praise dance.
"We've (praise dancers) been afraid to
come out of the churches," Joseph Washington said. "We need to share
it with the secular world."
Exposing Praise Dance to the secular world,
and vice versa, is still a fairly novel concept. This year Ixalt! competed to
perform in San Francisco's Ethnic Dance Festival.
"The festival features religious and
cultural dance from around the world," Shereel Washington said. "It
was the first time a Christian dance group competed."
While the Washingtons said the judges
seemed a little unsure of how to react to the company, only one said it didn't
work for him. Ixalt! wasn't chosen for this year's festival. But there's always
next year.
"We will continue so people can see
the Christian performing arts, the skill and agility, at any dance event, until
the dancers and the audience get comfortable sharing our talent," Shereel
Washington said.
Ixalt! presents two Bay Area National Dance
Week events at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts:
"Sexuality, Sensuality, Culture and
Ethnicity in The Church," a forum Thursday, 6:30 p.m. in studio D.
"Dance Jam," a full day of dance
classes, April 28, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., studio E. Admission is free for both
events.