Abstract

This article analyses ethnographic material gathered in Sweden amongst dancers in the Church of Sweden. With the help of the writings of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil I explore if, and how, dancing could be considered a contemplative practice in the Christian traditions of the Latin West.

Highlights

  • In the newest edition of the Spiritual Dis­ cip­lines Handbook, 75 different practices are named as being part of a Christian path of transformation (Calhoun 2015: 13–16)

  • It is rather so that, along the lines of Sarah Coakley’s théologie totale, this study is informed by the practices of dancers in the Church of Sweden and dance as a particular art form with semiotic abilities and an independent theological ‘voice’

  • What is described by the dancers often comes much closer to what Nina Kokkinen writes, in Spiritual Treasures (Kokkinen and Nyström 2020), about esotericism

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Summary

The space of distinction and union

This article analyses ethnographic mat­erial gathered in Sweden amongst dancers in the Church of Sweden. With the help of the writings of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil I explore if, and how, dancing could be considered a contemplative practice in the Christian trad­ itions of the Latin West. When asked why they dance, more than one of my companions state that it is because, in dance, the physical and the spiritual are united. Even though the musician does not participate in the dancing, what is missing is the conflict between the priest being a service ‘doer’ and giving us ‘the Word’ and me guiding with my words, dance, prayerful movements and creating space for worship. It is rather so that, along the lines of Sarah Coakley’s théologie totale, this study is informed by the practices of dancers in the Church of Sweden and dance as a particular art form with semiotic abilities and an independent theological ‘voice’.5 Dancing itself is in this article, considered as a mode of theological reflection

Introduction
Dance and awareness
Radical attention to the real
The space
An undressing of the self
From consciousness to unconscious behaviour

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