My Spiritual Perceptions of Dance

I've been thinking about the risks and challenges involved with the topic of my research which is spirituality. I want to interview and dance with individuals to find out what it is about African dance that they feel is personally spiritual to them. I want to know if they have to be in a religious worship service that involves dance to feel spiritual or if its the technical aspects and the movement of the body that creates a spiritual connection. I want to know what they are connecting to spiritually? Is it God? Is it their ancestors? Are there specific conditions required for a dance experience to be qualified as religious dance or a spiritual experience?

I am finding that these questions are sort of hard for me to even answer myself and I've been dancing for 16 years. I want to ask these questions to myself and see what kind of answers I personally come up with though so that I can see how feasible it would be to ask someone in Ghana these questions. I will answer these questions about my own contemporary/modern dance genre experience.
QUESTIONS

1. What is it about dance that you feel is personally spiritual to you?
2. What are the technical aspects of dance that connect with you spiritually?
3. What are you connecting to spiritually?
4. Are specific conditions required for a spiritual experience within dance?

ANSWERS

1. The body being the instrument for art and expression is spiritual to me. Our bodies are gifts from God and are what make us human and mortal. They are the medium in which we are able to experience trials and progress so that we might live with Heavenly Father again in eternal bliss. In glorifying God and doing my best to follow his commandments I do as the 13th article of faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy [I] seek after these things." I want to come closer to my Heavenly Father and I build a stronger relationship with Him when I partake of uplifting and praiseworthy activities in my life. Dancing can influence so many for good, its emotion and beauty can change lives and inspire change. I have felt those experiences in my life. As I dance I feel I am worshipping God. I am doing my best to show Him that I am grateful for the gifts I have been given and that I am diligent in trying to stand, or dance, in holy places. Wherever I am dancing that place becomes a holy one. A place I can open my heart and feel the spirit. Many times it is when I am using my body and dancing that I can feel God's love for me the strongest. Everything has a spiritual nature, but the arts and dance are two examples I can clearly see the spiritual connection. As I create and choreograph my own movement I feel I participating in another of God's great gifts and that is the power to create. To organize, make beautiful, and produce new material is a quality of God that we can share with Him. (Hmm....actually answering this question wasn't as hard as I thought...but I dance at BYU, a religious institution where thoughts like these are encouraged and discussed. Is there anyone out there who dances but not as seriously as I do who has some thoughts they want to try and share?)
2. The body, music, SYMBOLISM: stretching and opening of the heart space are symbolic of meekness and growth, bounded movement contrasted with free flow is the struggle and epiphany of spiritual growth, weight bearing symbolizes our dependence on others and especially on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, high endurance locomotor movement is a practice in endurance, adagio is a principle of patience and timing.
3. Spiritually I am connecting with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, other people as well as myself, even my ancestors, and other dancers who have danced in the space or company previous to my participation.
4. An open mind and a willing heart, just like other spiritual experiences that do not involve dance. So I do believe that you have to allow spiritual connections to occur, it is possible to dance and not feel spiritually connected.