Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ballet Magnificat

heroes of the faith, ballet, holy times of worship

ballet

Today I want all of my thanks to go to God who raised up great men and women of the faith who blazed the trails of Christianity with sacrifice, faithfulness and service. I especially am grateful today for the lives of Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom.

If you have never read their story, I beg, even plead with you to get it today. It is the best book I have ever read and it changed my life. The only thing is: Forever after you will use it to measure all books that you read and there are not many that can even come close in my estimation. I have provided links in the paragraph below to Ballet Magnificat and to the story of The Hiding Place. After going to The Hiding Place website, if you will click on HISTORY there is a short synopsis of this most amazing of stories.

At our church tonight we had a presentation given by the group, BALLET MAGNIFICAT. It told the story of Corrie and Betsie in The Hiding Place. The dancing was world class, the music incredible, the atmosphere -- one of worship and awe. Thank you Ballet Magnificat for bringing this glorious production to Arkansas. So I am also thankful for ballet, especially ballet that is dedicated to the glory of God.

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Before I arrived at the ballet I prayed that I would be able to get at least a couple of shots of the ballet that would be good enough to share since I knew there would be no flashes allowed.

I arrived 45 minutes early to get a good seat and there were probably 200 or 300 people in line ahead of me. By the time I could get in, I could not get a good seat at all. The place was jam packed. I think they had to turn away a hundred or so people. I could not see well at all where I was sitting so I stood at the back wall. There were quite a few people who stood through the whole production and we were there about 2.5 hours.

At intermission quite a few people left because it was just so crowded. I then was able to get a seat down front about 4 or 5 rows back so I was able to get the two good shots above. --no flash--I was so happy to get those!

They had dancers from all over the world and Corrie's part was played by a lovely young woman from Japan.

The most incredible thing happened toward the end--Because of the crowded conditions, they brought in carpet for many of the children to sit down front in the altar area so it would free up seating for more adults. As the ballerina in jubilation was dancing her last dance and the praise song was playing, the children stood up and started performing sign language to the praise song. It was an incredible, touching sight.

I am thankful for heroes of the faith, ballet, and holy times of worship, not orchestrated, just spontaneous worship. How joyful! Well, I love the orchestrated and rehearsed worship also. The children just especially touched my heart last night.

Dianne


holy experience


UPDATE: I just found this YouTube video that will give you a glimpse of the beauty we saw.