Ask Lorenzo Waters how he became a liturgical dancer and he tells of an indirect route.
"I began dancing in college as a member of a dance troupe, just to increase my flexibility," said the former hurdler.
It wasn't until he saw an African-American male dance troupe perform at a Fort Washington, Md., church that he realized dance could be a ministry. "The first time I saw it, it brought tears to my eyes," he recalled.
Waters performed with the two other members of Men of Faith, an independent, Washington, D.C.-area troupe at a recent "Men Standing in the Gap" afternoon service at Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
They are part of a trend that has evolved over the last decade among black men who have found their place in the church is leaping, twirling and kicking in physical praises to God.
In a domain dominated by women and whites, black male liturgical dancers bring congregations to their feet as they add a new dimension to the worship experience.
"Americans have this sense that dance of any sort is automatically feminine and effete and when most people see African-American males, I don't think that's what they perceive," said John Thomas West, an African-American Catholic who directs the multicultural Valyermo Dancers in Los Angeles. "I think there's something very visceral about a black male performing and that performance is rooted in ... a unification of soul and body."
| Continue Adelle M. Banks' Religion News Service (via Contra Costa Times) article "African-American men take up liturgical dance"
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