Piecing together Alameda by the luck of the draw
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.