We take it for granted how much gesture and movement there is the Mass. Standing, sitting, kneeling, the Sign of the Cross, genuflection (bending the knee)… Our Faith is as much about the body as it is about the mind and the soul. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us… During this week Jesus will suffer, die, and rise in glory – all in his body. This is the God who “will dance for you with shouts of joy” (Zephaniah 3:17), and early Christian thinkers such as St. Gregory of Nyssa saw Christ as the leader of the dance, restoring Adam and Eve to the cosmic dance of the angels from which they’d fallen. Indeed, the early Christians understood the liturgy as a sacred choreography.

Eliot Smith, a rising dancer and choreographer, is also a Catholic, and his faith has inspired many of his works. I first met Eliot and his company at Westminster Cathedral, at the premier of his MISSA, a work inspired by the gestures and structure of the Mass. Since then I’ve done several collaborations with Eliot Smith Dance which have preached the Gospel to new audiences.

Like all other performing artists, Eliot and his dancers have sadly had to suspend public performances, which is very hard for them, not least financially. But they’re offering us FREE streaming of their beautiful works, and even classes! Just click here.

And on Easter Sunday there’ll be a special streaming of Eliot’s After the Rite, a work precisely about the great rites of Holy Week and Easter. I’ll send you a reminder then. Meanwhile enjoy some beautiful dances by a young Catholic artist and his friends, and see what it does for your prayer.

Fr Dominic OP