My Quaker-inspired Solo Dance Piece “The Message” (video)

Yesterday at San Francisco Quaker Meeting, after the morning worship, I performed for the first time publicly my solo dance piece “The Message” before an audience of about 30 people. This is a personal piece that comes out of my experience at Quaker Meeting for Worship, particularly what Quakers refer to as “sharing a message” or “vocal ministry.”

I got a lot of good feedback from people afterwards. Only a couple of people were totally puzzled by it.  Most felt some part of it resonate with their own experience of Quakerism.  And several noticed things in the piece that I myself had not thought of, but that made sense.

i was most concerned about the hip-hop movement and music, a contemplative piece by DJ Shadow called “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt.” Much of my audience was in their 40s or older.  But a quite elderly member of Meeting came up to me afterwards and told me how much she enjoyed it, and how it reflected how she thought Quakers support one another’s leadings.

I’m sad that the video I took of my performance didn’t work. But this latest rehearsal I think fairly closely matches what was performed on Sunday.  I hope you like it.

Thanks so much to the San Francisco Monthly Meeting for allowing me to share this with the Meeting.  Such a wonderful and supportive community.

[November 2022: updated with HD version of original video]