Our Lord of the Dance Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing

'I don't know of anyone else that uses Irish dancing to praise God.'

'If you tell other dance schools about it,

'they're, like, looking at you,

'and, but, like, "What are you talking about?"'

'I just believe the glory of God comes down

'and can bring the whole audience into that spiritual level,

'and that's...that's when you would find people who would, maybe,'

just start to cry or, you know,

are not even aware, and it's just the peace.

There's just a real peace.

I'm Deborah Anderson and I started Irish dancing

when I was three years old.

I competed all my life in the feis world of Irish dancing.

I danced right up until I got married.

Erm, I think I was about 21 years old,

and then, when I got married,

I just came out of the dance world.

It wasn't until after my third child that

I wasn't really getting over the birth of him

and, I suppose, really,

I probably suffered a bit of postnatal depression,

and that was a very searching time for me.

That was a time when I didn't have the dance world to

fall back into and I just felt,

"I am just not getting myself back to normal, here."

And I really sat in my home one day,

and I thought about God,

and I thought, "OK, God, if you're really there,

"and if you really care, and if you really care about me,

"you have got to show me,"

and that's how my faith started.

# Something inside of me... #

People would say to me, "Deborah, what are you?"

You know, in the religious sense.

I would say, "I'm in a relationship with Jesus."

You know, I am a Christian and I believe in the gospel

and that's what I am.

CLAPPING ALONG TO MUSIC

I attend a church called Covenant Love Church in Belfast.

I love to hear the songs and I love to watch them when they dance.

They're not trained dancers, but they just move,

I suppose, as the spirit falls on them, and I enjoy it.

I think it's really nice and it is a form of worship.

You know, and I just enjoy listening to the word being preached.

Father, we thank you so much

for what you're doing through Deborah Anderson.

Father, we thank you for the Zephaniah Dances and the Ministry.

Lord God, bless this precious lady and her Ministry.

In Jesus' name, amen.

# This beating heart

# Like a drum it will beat for you

# This heart

# Like a drum it will beat

# My soul

# And my soul sings for you... #

'Whenever I really came into face,'

really, what was laying in my heart about Irish dancing,

about maybe starting a dance school, and at that stage...

And I believe that was God that was laying that on my heart,

and eventually, I came to the point when I thought,

"Right, OK, I'll do it."

# This beating heart

# I was made I was made for you

# My God Evermore, evermore

# My soul

# My soul sings for you... #

'The Zephaniah Dancing in our school would be a dance ministry.

'God has taken Irish dancing and he uses...

'He uses the Irish dancing as a vessel to minister'

through the children to the people that we would attend for bookings.

# Formed in the secret place

# A mystery born of love and grace... #

Zephaniah 3:17 says about, "The Lord, your God is with you,"

and it talks, also, about him singing over us,

so I just thought, "That's a lovely verse.

"I'll call them the Zephaniah Dancers."

# Like a drum It will beat for you

# This heart Like a drum it will beat

# My soul... #

But they all dance.

That's the main thing they do, but then, out of that comes...

Some of them sing, some of them play the harp,

some will share about their own life, their own testimony

about the coming into faith with God, themselves,

and I think, through this, that God uses them to spread the word.

# My soul sings for you

# My soul

# My soul sings for you. #

CHEERING

Easter is just around the corner,

and the Zephaniah Dancers have been asked to perform

at Drumcree Parish Church on Good Friday.

With only a week until then,

Deborah searches through their back catalogue for a dance

appropriate to the occasion.

'They are going to present a little piece of a dance that they did

'about eight years ago, which is called "Is There A Heaven For Me?",

'and we're going to take about four wee sections of that dance,

'about the crucifixion and about Mary Magdalene,'

and we are going to present that to the people of Drumcree Church.

Some people may think this is just a type of entertainment.

Some people might not be happy at that, but I know, personally,

for myself and my girls,

you know, to call it entertainment is a real...

A bit of an insult for us,

because we've worked so hard

and we really pray about what we're doing,

and we believe that when we do Zephaniah Dancing,

it's like preaching the word of God through our dancing and our singing,

and whatever gifts the girls have.

Even with the best of intentions,

the idea of Irish dancing in Drumcree Church,

with its history of upholding strong, traditional views,

has taken a bit of getting used to for some -

none more so than Deborah's friend,

and mother of one of the Zephaniah Dancers, Geraldine McAlinden.

When you first said, like,

"Is it OK if Bonnie and all dances in Drumcree On Good Friday?"

I was actually shocked.

I didn't ever think I'd see the day that

Bonnie would be doing Irish dancing in Drumcree,

but now I understand it's not. It's Zephaniah.

They're telling a story and I think a lot of people would understand

it's nothing to do with religion.

What is it to do with?

God!

Geraldine lives on the predominantly Catholic Garvaghy Road.

Her daughter Bonnie is one of the Zephaniah Dancers

to have joined the troupe most recently.

Before she was born, I always wanted a little girl

and I wanted her to do Irish dancing,

and then, when Bonnie was born,

I used to put ribbons in her hair

and dress her up in little dresses and stuff.

She was a girlie girl,

but she does have a gift and I think that gift is dancing.

When I was wee, I always went to Deborah's shows,

like, in the Waterfront and Portadown Hall,

and it was really exciting to see the girls up on stage dancing

and I believe I was ministered to when I went to see the dances,

and I just believe that I was supposed to dance for Deborah

and be a part of Zephaniah.

A lot of people in our community, round here, on the Garvaghy Road,

would think being part of Zephaniah, it was Protestant,

and it's not.

When Bonnie went to Deborah's,

Bonnie was a young Catholic girl,

going into an Orange Hall, who lived on the Garvaghy Road

and goes to an Irish-speaking Catholic school in Armagh,

so, I think, being a part of Zephaniah is

breaking down those barriers of, like,

you don't have to be one or the other

to come and dance in this, here.

It's your love for God that is the reason why she's dancing in it.

Zephaniah has changed my life

because I've started to grow in my faith with God

and I've become friends with people who are Christians

and who have been Christians their whole lives,

and I've started to live a life like them,

and, like, trying to be more Christ-like.

Like, trying to do more good things

and trying to be more nice and not to just judge people.

From when Bonnie was a little girl,

I've sewed a holy medal into her dresses,

and these are all from Lourdes

when I went with Conor, when he was wee - her brother -

and I just think,

well, when she's dancing, God will help her.

I have always said that, when she does her slip jig,

for the angels to lift her up on her feet,

and so, then, I have the angels on the back of her dress,

to help her, as well.

I don't see nobody else when Bonnie dances,

I just see Bonnie on the stage.

And they're not my trophies, they're her trophies that she wins.

Like, when I come home from a festival and that I have a trophy,

it's Mummy's trophy.

She'll be like, "Oh, that's my trophy. I won that."

I'm not taking her glory for it, it's just,

I'm so proud of her when she does win,

and not only when she does -

also when you don't win,

I'm still really proud of you,

cos you get up and you're showing me something I'd love to do.

You know, it's...

I would love to have been a dancer.

I was a swimmer and, unfortunately, dancing wasn't for me.

MUSIC: Second Chances by Imagine Dragons

Deborah uses the Orange Hall in Portadown as a practice space.

Before today's rehearsal,

she has met up with her most senior dancer, Emily,

who will reprise her role as Mary Magdalene on Good Friday.

Eight years have passed since she last performed the part,

but one dance in particular still stands out.

'The grieving dance is portraying how Mary Magdalene feels at that'

time when Jesus has been crucified,

so it's very important for me to try and get across

how she would feel at the time,

so it does need to be a very powerful and a very emotional dance.

# Hotter than friction

# Subtle as sound

# There'll be no forgiveness

# When you come around

# Oh, these days

# Oh, these days get heavy

# I get older... #

Emily's a young woman now and she's leaving me this year.

She's going to go away to Dundee and...

Don't freak out, now.

Oh, I know, but you won't be about as much, and that is always hard.

It's always difficult

and I remember Emily's whole troupe of girls that were in this,

when they left me for university,

a lot of them went away to Scotland and England

and down in the south and that, and it was just awful.

You know, I actually was...

I was grieving and I remember being with the teacher

and just saying, you know,

"I just don't like teaching dancing any more.

"I just don't have the heart for it."

And she says, "What's wrong?" and I says,

"I have no idea what's wrong with me. I can't do it.

"I think I've lost it."

And she says to me, "Have you lost senior girls?"

And I says, "Yeah." And it's, just, "You're grieving."

So, erm, it's very emotional and it's lovely to have this dance.

You know, it's very, very special that we've got it.

It's not just Emily who's returning to old material.

Joining the current Zephaniah troupe will be

some now-retired senior dancers,

and it seems the novelty of being back in Deborah's class

is holding up the process.

Get back and go again, and you need to be quiet.

Girls, I have no time!

Because Zephaniah dancing is just that wee bit more special,

we've been able to create a really close bond together,

and it is nice to come back and dance again together,

after all this time.

Like, we've got girls, including myself,

who haven't been in this dancing room in, like, three years,

so, it's just getting people and girls who haven't danced

with each other or been in a room with each other,

just, to get it all together,

but, hopefully, by Friday... What you see now will be

completely different to what you see on Friday.

Stop. We need to try and do this.

Right, right, girls, come on.

Hayley and Katie, you come.

Well, if we're going to present the gospel, it has to look right.

You know, there will be a lot of carrying-on in the class,

but we are all aware, underneath the carrying-on,

it has to be right, and I refuse to put work up if it's not ready.

-STICKS RATTLE

-No, no.

I would.... No, no, no, no. It's too quick going into that.

I would have went on with that.

Girls, you just want to see the shape of you...

Deborah, she's been stressed out, but she hasn't been,

like, crazy, crazy, and that's something that I've taken from it,

is, like, how not to stress.

At the end of the day, it's not me that gets to decide what happens,

it's God that gets to decide, so I should leave it up to him, really.

It's helped me deal with loads of things in life,

like school and music and things like that. I don't get really,

really stressed out about them, because there's no point.

It's going to be what it's going to be.

As well as dancing with Zephaniah,

Jasmyn often sings Christian songs as part of the performance.

# I was lost

# When you found me here

# You pulled me close

# And you held me near... #

I love music. I just...

It just made me so happy and it just gives me such peace,

and I obviously love to dance. I've been dancing since I was six.

Dancing is the first gift that I can recall ever having.

I could dance before I could sing.

I could dance before I could ever play an instrument.

Zephaniah gives me the opportunity to use my gift for God's purpose,

and his advancement, so I guess

I'm so thankful to Zephaniah for that

that I don't use my gifts for selfish purposes,

but they're for a greater purpose.

# All I have is all from you

# And all I want is all of you

# Your grace... #

I see myself as a messenger for God in everyday life,

and everything that I do,

so, of course, dancing's a big part of it.

It's another way I can show the gospel, through,

other than words,

and the purpose is to save the lost

and people that don't know God,

and to bring those who do know God joy and refreshing into their lives.

I feel like whatever God gifts you with,

you should use for his glory and, yeah, some people may not

understand it, sometimes, but God sees our hearts

and he knows why we're doing it and he sees our minds,

so I think God loves it.

-Back on the Garvaghy Road...

-Hello.

..Geraldine has been waiting for Bonnie's return from school.

An important letter has arrived in the post

from a local university that Bonnie wants to attend.

I opened it, now.

-Isn't that brilliant?

-Yeah.

-A wee interview!

That's really good.

I'm just delighted that she got an interview

cos it's been every single day,

she's been texting or phoning, "Has the post come yet?"

And I'm having to go, "No."

It's been a very stressful few weeks.

I was waiting for my interview for Queen's.

It's where really want to go

and all my friends had got their interviews

and I hadn't, and I was just very...

Not a good time, but I'm sure it's in God's plans.

She's got a place in Stirling

and I don't really want her to go to Scotland

cos I like to be involved,

and I think, probably, going off to university,

that's the scary thing,

that I won't be involved any more,

you know, and I think that's why I want you to stay at home,

cos I want to still be your mummy and look after you

and bring you places and do things with you.

This is our time, going to festivals -

Mummy and Bonnie time.

For all the Zephaniah girls,

competing at festivals runs alongside their Dance Ministry,

and even with the Good Friday performance happening tomorrow,

the competitive circuit must be given its due.

We're at Ballyclare Festival,

where Bonnie and Emily are both competing against each other,

so the girls will be fighting for

-first, second and third place, tonight, won't you?

-Sure.

-As friends?

-Yeah.

Ah, well, we'll see.

VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYS

And I think the competition's good for the two girls, you know?

It's hard if you're not the adjudicator's choice or

the adjudicator's style,

and, tonight, we have a really strong festival adjudicator,

and I feel Emily has more of me in her,

more of a feis style in her,

and then, I have Bonnie, that was born into festival dancing

and she has a wee streak of me,

so, erm, it'll be interesting to see how the results go, tonight.

VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYS

Bonnie is only young into this age group,

but she's standing out tonight.

She's very, very natural, very controlled,

and so I've been writing on her mark-sheets a lot

about the strength of her legs, the control of her feet,

the precision of her turning.

She never... She never falters.

FASTER MUSIC PLAYS

BELL RINGS

Clearly displaying the adjudicator's preferred style,

Bonnie picks up some silverware. APPLAUSE

The true recipient may be in question, though.

You're acting like it's your cup.

I heard someone say well done to you.

-You didn't get up and dance.

-But I dance in my heart.

I dance, when I'm watching you, I am dancing in my heart.

You didn't get up and dance, though.

-You didn't work hard.

-I know, but, it's, what do you call it?

A consolation prize cos I don't get up and dance.

-A-star for effort.

-A-star for effort.

You can tell your kids you're proud of them, but I think

bringing Bonnie to festivals and watching her dance,

that's... That's my pride.

That's... I just...I love it.

For Emily, who didn't place so highly in this particular competition,

it's all about perspective and having the right attitude.

'If you don't do the best at a festival,

'you just have to get over it.'

Tomorrow, it's not about competitions,

it's about our Zephaniah Dancing, so we just need to focus on that,

and focus on what we're doing.

It's Good Friday and that's what's important.

BIRDS TWITTER

The next morning, Drumcree Church has opened up to let

Deborah and the Zephaniah Dancers in for some rehearsal time.

OK, let's go. Let's go.

Making her way up the aisle of the church has brought back

fond memories for Deborah,

adding extra significance to the upcoming performance.

26 years ago, I got married in this church.

It had been mentioned that I would stop dancing, at the time,

and I did stop, you know, for a time, and I never,

ever thought the day that,

when I was kneeling up there at the altar,

that I would bring a pile of Irish dancers into this church.

It's a wee bit of a miracle.

It's like God's just way bigger than how we think, at times,

and that's quite amazing, and it's...

It's just really nice to see.

MUSIC: Curlews by Grasscut

It's different

and, for some people, as I've been hearing already.

some people are not happy,

because it is dancing, you know,

and the church stable think

that that's un-respectful,

but at the same time, they're informed of what we're doing,

and they'll make that decision, themselves,

of whether they'll want to come out or not.

Obviously, whenever you mention Irish dancing,

everybody has their own thoughts on that,

but I think that times have changed.

A lot of people are concerned about, you know,

the world coming into the church,

but I don't see it that way.

I see it that the message, the word of God, is still the same.

It hasn't changed,

but just because we dramatise it or because we put a bit of music to it,

whether that be contemporary music

or whether that be traditional music,

I don't think it really matters.

To me, it's the meaning of it - the heart behind it.

-MAN'S VOICE:

-Into your hands, I commit my spirit.

Into this flesh...

We're not here to offend anybody.

We're here just to worship God and that's what tonight is all about.

It's about worshipping God,

and what He has done for us and what His Son has done for us,

and Irish dancing can do that, so whether people perceive it as

it's the right thing to do in the church or not,

or whether people perceive it as a different culture or not,

they're seeing a church that's doing something in a different way,

and maybe they've been hearing preachers before,

about hellfire and damnation and that -

and I'm not saying that's wrong - but what I'm saying here

is that this is the story being told in a different manner,

to embrace all people.

Don't sit behind a pillar, whatever you do.

And it seems like all people have caught wind of what's

happening in Drumcree this evening.

As the congregation pour in,

Deborah is realising the performance has become a talking point.

'I think this is all very normal that we're dancing here tonight.

'This is all very normal to me,'

but the more I'm hearing of people that's coming into the church,

they're all like, "Is this really happening here tonight?"

There's a real sort of buzz going on.

Heavenly Father, we just pray for tonight,

and I just commit all these girls to you,

and I pray, Lord, that you just look after them,

and we pray that they be a blessing tonight in Drumcree,

and that you are glorified.

-In Jesus' name, amen.

-Amen.

-Amen.

-Let's go.

As the dancers begin, the eyes of the congregation are on them,

to see just how Irish dance can deal with

the most important event in Christian history.

STICKS CLICK

Innocent!

Innocent!

Guilty!

Guilty!

-MAN'S VOICE:

-Jesus is led away to be crucified.

We talk about Irish dancing,

and we all know that it would normally be put down to

a certain group of people, and yet, to see the story being told

the way it was told tonight was incredible,

and what an impact, and it couldn't not have an impact.

STICKS CLICK

STICKS CLICK

STICKS CLICK

STICKS CLICK

-DEBORAH:

-People, they didn't expect,

you know, what was going to happen, and I always find that with people,

they just have this face on them, as if, like,

"What is actually happening in front of us?"

I suppose, tonight, for the first time, I really sort of

tried to sit down and watch them,

and, erm, yeah, I thought they were lovely.

I have to say, my favourite bit is after the tomb, you know,

and Emily coming down, or Mary Magdalene coming down,

and dancing down and picking up the girls.

I just thought that was special to see that happening here tonight.

FAST TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC PLAYS

From the very beginning, I don't know why, I just got so emotional.

I've just... I was crying from the very beginning.

It was just... It's not something I would normally do.

I wouldn't normally be here, do you know what I mean?

And now that I am here, it's...

Something else just took over. It doesn't matter.

I was born a Catholic, but that doesn't mean to say

I have to go to a Catholic church,

you know, and I don't have to go to a Protestant church,

or any other kind of church.

You can praise God anywhere

and Zephaniah has taught me that, there.

-Hiya, are you all right?

-Yes.

-That was brilliant.

'It's funny, when people say to me, you know, "Why do you do this?"

'And I don't often think about that.'

I just think, I'm doing my dance class, and I'm just doing

the next thing, and I'm just doing Zephaniah Dancing.

I never really stop to think, you know, "What am I really doing?"

until someone really stops me in my tracks and says, "This is great."

I don't think any of us really know the significance

of what has actually happened here tonight.

We've seen what can happen, not just in this church,

but in any church, and it's just where we come together,

as a group of people, and worship freely,

and that's what has happened here tonight,

and the Zephaniah Dancers have been key to that.

Easter Sunday, however,

came with a slight sting in the tail for Zephaniah.

Unhappy with the direction their

church had been taking recently,

some parishioners walked out as the girls got up to perform.

Unfortunately, it ended up in the newspapers,

and there's just a wee thing here,

it says, about the dancing in the aisles,

"It was the final straw that broke the camel's back."

You know, I guess the people had had enough,

and I can understand that if they're passionate about their tradition,

and about how things go forward, but how can I stop it?

Because I really believe that God started this ministry and I love it.

It's challenging. It's a lot of hard work.

Sometimes I feel I'm crazy,

but I just feel that God has really did a big work...

a big work in my life,

that it's just a natural part of me

and I hope and I pray that it lives on.