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Abby Britton Ed Austen Dance Orientation (Dance 261) 5 October 2013 A Dancers Responsibility We have been given many wonderful blessings by our Heavenly Father. The most wonderful gift He has bestowed upon us is our bodies. We each have different challenges with our bodies, but your body, whatever its natural gifts, is a magnificent creation of God (Nelson). The art of dance is the art of thanking Heavenly Father for this great gift. Our bodies house our spirits, and because of that, our spirit[s] . . . [are] able to develop and express . . . attributes in ways that are vital to [our] eternal progression (Nelson). Through this gift, our Heavenly Father has given us a necessary tool to returning back home to Him because without [our bodies], we cannot attain a fulness of joy (Nelson). We need to praise God for our complex and beautiful bodies that He has created for us. Heavenly Father cares about the things we love and care about, and I have seen this in my own life. A couple weeks ago, I really wanted a homemade burger. It was a really silly craving, but it was making me miss home and I could not get it out of my head. Then, when I came home that Friday, my roommates reminded me that there was the tailgate party, and that they were serving homemade burgers. I went and got my burger and it made my week. A burger is a really small thing, but to me, it was a big deal. So, to my Heavenly Father, who loves me, it was a big deal too. I know that the tailgate party was planned weeks in advance,

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and that there was always going to be burgers there, but to me, it was an answer to my un-said prayers. He cared enough about me that He gave me a burger, even though it was not really that important other than the fact that I wanted one. Likewise, He has given me the opportunity to dance. I love to dance. It makes me feel beautiful and graceful. Every time I dance, I am dancing for God, to thank Him for the amazing gift of my body. Through my dance, I want to come unto Christ, and be perfected in him . . . and love God with all [my] might, mind and strength . . . , that by His grace [I] may be perfect in Christ (quoted in Dayley). I want to dance for Heavenly Father so that I can show Him how grateful I am that He has given me this amazing ability, and I want my dancing to bring me closer to Him so that I am able to receive more blessings from him. Not only has Heavenly Father given me this great gift, but He also helps me overcome the challenges I face with dance. Although I love to dance, there have been so many times that I have felt frustrated during a class or nervous before a performance. Whenever I have prayed for relief, it has always come. Heavenly Father gives me the strength to perform in ways that I do not think I could on my own, because He knows how much it means to me, and He wants me to be happy and successful. Heavenly Father also helps me when I am choreographing. I love to choreograph: Creative work is sweet, but it is work! (Maxwell). Sometimes, coming up with the perfect sequence of movements can be a challenge, and the choreographer just has to wait for the right inspiration. It only makes sense that members who have been baptized by the proper priesthood authority have an extra channel open to them for inspiration to come through. The greater our

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sensitivity to the Spirit, the greater our response to beauty, grace, and truth in all their forms which means that, the more in tune with the Spirit we are, the better we will be able to access and utilize the beauty around us (Maxwell). Another responsibility we have as dancers is to plant joy in the hearts of those who are seeking to be like Christ (Dayley). There are people who do not appreciate their bodies the way we, as dancers, do. Through our dance, we can show people how beautiful they can be and how great this gift truly is. Dance that conforms to eternal truths help to deliver on that marvelous promise that men are that they might have joy (2 Ne. 2:25) and help us to have [life] more abundantly (John 10:10) by showing us a more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31) (Maxwell). We have the responsibility to share that joy with those around us, so that they can also find the happiness that we have accessed. This is why I want to go into dance education. Growing up, I attended several dance studios where the dancers were made to feel as if they were not good enough. So many girls were told that their bodies were not the right shape, that they did not work hard enough, that they were no good at dancing. It is really frustrating and hurtful to feel like your teacher thinks that you are terrible at what you love. Often, it makes the dancer feel worthless and beyond saving: like they should not even try anymore. I want to open a dance studio where girls can come and feel safe, and see how beautiful they are. I want to show these girls that their Heavenly Father created them and that He loves them. We are told that if something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing (Bednar). What is

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more destructive to the spirit than hatred toward the physical body? Self-loathing drives away the Holy Ghost, so it is essential that we love ourselves if we want to progress spiritually. As a teacher, I want to help people find the ability to love themselves and know that their Heavenly Father loves them. As artists, we have the responsibility to perform pieces that Inviteth and enticeth to do good continually . . . to love God, and to serve Him . . . [and that] radiate light and [are] filled with hope (Dayley). To do that, we must stay honest to our beliefs and stand firm when enticed to perform pieces that would influence others toward other ends. Even if it might mean that you do not get the best part, integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences (Bednar). As we consider different performances let us make an honest assessment of our heart, our lives, our desires and goals, [and the integrity of the piece] . . . Then we should make a serious effort to set them right, to change directions toward the ideal of integrity and its associate virtues (Tanner). A dancer has to closely examine how the performance makes them feel while performing, and how it makes others feel while they are watching. Just as important, and maybe even more so, we need to examine how we dance when we are alone. We have to be honest with ourselves about the way we use our bodies and as President James E. Faust . . . has taught: we all need to know what it means to be honest. Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, truth loving (Bednar). If we love the truth, we will dance in ways that glorify our Heavenly Father all the time, not just when we have an audience.

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As dancers we have the responsibility to use our bodies in ways to express our love and gratitude towards our loving Heavenly Father. We can do this by creating works of art that glorify our Father and that use our bodies in ways that He intended us to. In return, He will bless us with the strength and ability to do the one thing we love above all else: He lets us dance.