I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter and binds
the isolated to community.I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain,
will, or feeling.Dancing demands a whole person, one who is
firmly anchored in the center of his life,
who is not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates
with the equipoise of all his powers.I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven
will not know what to do with you.—St. Augustine
Lovely poem, but is it actually by Saint Augustine? I would like to look it up. Can you tell me what the source is?
–Steve van Keuren
San Diego
rsvk@meadowgateabbey.com
Hi Steve. Indeed, this poem is by St. Augustine (note the citation at the end of the entry). Our worship leader read this at our church retreat this fall. I had found it by doing a Google search similar to this one.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=augustine+%22i+praise+the+dance%22&btnG=Google+Search
Apparently, this quote made the rounds through the Bruderhof Community (via email, under the title “In Praise of Dancing”), but I haven’t been able to pinpoint its first publication. Perhaps in his Confessions?
I noticed my daughter put this poem up on her wall. But the fact is that dancing was strongly disapproved in the church from the 4th century on, not at least by St.
St. Augustine who said ‘It’s better to dig than to dance’. If you look up ‘Confessions’ you will see that he writes in a completely different way. This is
written in the 20th century and is without doubt,fake