While the world's banking institutions were in crisis and free-fall and politicians on the opposition benches began to blame the prime minister for what has happened in the UK, Springs Dance Company in October was concentrating on a challenging and energy consuming dance in the cathedrals from Portsmouth to Durham. Living the Eucharist has undoubtedly left a trail of faith and love behind it wherever it was danced. That was entirely due to the expertise and commitment of the dancers. A Christian dance company needs the best dancers but also those who are free in themselves to let their dancing reflect their inner stability and love. The demands of the choreography also required an extraordinary inner commitment to this dance. What always matters in dance is not the detailed interpretations we may have but what lies in the dance itself. But if you did not see this dance let me try and describe, in very brief outline, the movement of the dance as I saw it - so that you may catch a glimpse of its fire and love.

The dancers portrayed the response from ourselves to the invitation of Jesus, the present Lord in the church and in the world, to come and worship in the meal of Eucharist with him. Jesus issues the invitation to the meal in a solo to which, eventually a single dancer comes to join him in a beautiful pas de deux of seeking and love. But after another solo dancer was met by Jesus in hope, we were shown our self-centred independence of Jesus by all the dancers - 'we know what to do in worship, Jesus, thank you' - to the terrible pushing away of Jesus, as it were, back to being the crucified Lord on the cross - 'isn't that what you came to do, Jesus?' - to allow us to get on with our own thing in worship.

This also happened in the dance with individuals who longed to be in communion with Jesus, but only perhaps from a self-centred need - when a dancer jumped to embrace Jesus - to the group of dancers who really sidelined the Lord by their self-conscious ritual piety. But gradually, Jesus, who danced with each one of the others in the group, began to win them over to share in his desire that they would come and worship with him rather than on their own and in their own world. The final confrontation of one dancer with Jesus leads to a physical struggle and the building of a round table - which the group, apart from Jesus, had wanted but just couldn't agree on - begins, and Jesus and the other dancers come into real community and celebrate the worship, the meal with Jesus in bread and wine, with ecstatic joy and love.

This was all strong stuff as well as beautiful dancing. There was so much love, longing and joy expressed by the dancers in their own individual roles. The dancer who was lost, looking for something 'more' in life; the two dancers who were willing to 'play' with Jesus in a pas de trois of dance and desire and enjoyment. The exceptional moment when, after an ever frenzied depiction by the dancers of our own understanding of self-centered worship, the whole group of dancers comes to rest and to look forward in a wonderful, peaceful dance movement, reaching forward with body and outstretched arm and hand, with one leg bent and moving,

while balancing on the other leg and foot. These special moments in dance speak to us simply from the movement and rest, attitude and reaching out from the resilience of the dancers' bodies to the viewer to bring hope and the desire for true relationships in love.

A Postscript:

The dance, in its final creation and performance, exceeded all that I had envisioned for it. After the tour there have been many exciting comments, such as, 'Thank you for re-awakening us!', and, 'For those who attended the performance it was a breathtaking 50 minutes!' For those of us who have belonged to the Ewell Monastery community over the years it has been a very humbling experience to see the courage and love with which the dancers of Springs Dance Company gave themselves to this wonderful, very Christian project of the dance. Eucharist was indeed brought 'alive'. Thank you!

Photographs copyright Patrick Burnier.