By Eden E. Woldearegay and Sam Guzik
Specials to DNAinfo
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — On a recent Sunday, Rev. Melvin Miller looked more like a dancer prepared to leap onto the stage at the New York City Ballet than a pastor ministering to his congregation.
As he stepped onto the pulpit dressed in a white shirt and tights with the choir singing beside him, Miller began to dance. For six minutes, he swayed, leaped, pirouetted and used sign language, covering every corner of the brightly lit podium.
While some pastors use fiery sermons, Miller preaches through dance, part of a new ministry launched in the fall of 2010 by the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights. Aiming to provide congregants with an alternative path to spirituality, the new ministry expands the church’s arts-based approach, which combines artistic expression and worship.
“Something happens when I take that first step; something I think that is so amazing when the spirit and the body and the mind come together as one,” Miller said. “God and I are able to move together.”
At some services, Miller dances alone, using expressive motions and sign language to respond to the week’s liturgy. Some weeks, Miller is joined by lay people performing pieces he choreographed. Nearly every Sunday, however, a dance piece is included in the worship.
“There’s something really powerful and visceral about dance,” said Chanelle Schaffer, the director of music and worship arts. “There are ways in which I think music speaks to people in a way that’s deeper than the text itself and there’s a way that dance communicates things in a way that music can’t.”
The church, located at 729 W. 181 St., celebrated its centennial in 2009 and has a history of exploring alternative forms of worship. Since it began, dance has become a regular component of the church’s Sunday service, but the full ministry does not perform every week.
The seven parishioners who make up the group’s core membership vary in experience from professionally trained dancers to novices looking for a workout, and range in age from teenagers to senior citizens.
Within the congregation, the dance ministry has received high praise for its inventiveness and accessibility.
“It is a way of expressing your faith and your belief,” said Delphina Arias, a congregant who has attended services at the church for several years. “It’s a way of expressing your love for God.”
Gloria McCulley, a member of the church for 25 years, said she found the dance worship spiritually uplifting, but recognized not everyone would be comfortable with it.
“When I was a child, dance would never be in the church,” McCulley said. “That wasn’t even in the dance halls—that was the devil’s stuff."
Though Fort Washington’s dance ministry is still a work in progress, both Miller and the church's senior minister Rev. Charles D. Morris, see it as a natural extension of the church, one that fits in perfectly with their mission.
“The word given to us by the previous director of music was ‘let’s go for this but let’s understand that everything we do must be done well,’” Morris said. “With our dance specifically, we’ve tried to do it well and now with Rev. Miller, that is just going to continue.”
