What's New

All current news are now posted in our newsletter section.

July 30, 2007

What a summer!

The International Worship Institute in the beginning of July was incredible. The presence of the Holy Spirit was heavy in the atmosphere. I taught classes all four days and I am so grateful to our Lord that He went ahead and had His way in each class. We really focused on finding our identity in Christ and not in the dance or dance ministry as well as building trust and relationship with pastors rather than moving with our own agendas. There was a class on moving from horizontal to vertical worship in which the participants had to move past their fears and insecurities and into spontaneous worship dance. There were a lot of shouts of praise and thanksgiving as people began to trust the Holy Spirit to orchestrate their every step. Freedom! I also taught a dance to Martha Munizzi’s song "Till the Walls Fall". It was powerful warfare through praise.

We are hoping that our next two videos will be ready to film in late August or early September. A lot depends on when the dance wear companies that are sponsoring us with what we will be wearing get those items to us. We are praying that everything flows in God’s time and order.

If you haven’t heard yet about the dance worship conference here in Las Vegas September 13-15, check into it at this website: http://www.rainreinreign.com/2007RRRDanceConference.html

I will be teaching two classes on contemporary worship dance. One will be for adults and the other for kids. We will also have a booth featuring our videos. I would love to meet you face to face.

I am finally "in the groove" with writing my book on starting and maintaining a grounded, Godly and growing dance ministry. Since this is my first book, I was struggling at first. Now I feel as if God has really released me and I just type away. Pray for God’s wisdom to flow through me as I write this. The more people I talk to, the more I see a need for this information.

May 12, 2007

God is so good and continually amazing.

I was in Nashville, TN during Gospel Music Association Week joining with Tymme and Aury Reitz of Word In Motion as adjudicators for the first annual Gospel Music and Praise Dance Celebration. It was wonderful to connect with others in praise ministry and be able to impart technical and spiritual aspects of dance to young dancers. We attended the Dove Awards and had a worship brunch the following morning with the traveling pastor of Casting Crowns. In the evening, the groups who participated in the celebration ministered their pieces at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was a sweet, precious time as God moved with favor to build dear friendships that built on and encouraged each other’s faith. This event will occur again next year with added technique classes and foundational classes, so hopefully I will see some of you there! I had the pleasure of spending time with one of my dear friends and with my parents while in Nashville, an extra blessing.

I flew from Nashville to Baltimore, MD. That evening was the beginning of the Mid-Atlantic Worship Expo hosted by First Baptist Church of Laurel, MD. I was able to meet up again with Kerry Godwin, a friend through LaMar Boschman and the Worship Institute. Kerry was the keynote speaker for the service on Friday. The Pastor’s wife of First Baptist, Diana, is the head of the dance ministry. She and her team had learned "Glorious" and we ministered it together that Friday night. The Holy Spirit also opened the door for me to minister in spontaneous dance during one of the worship songs. Most of the attendees had never experienced this sort of dance before and saw how the "Word became Flesh" as the Holy Spirit guided each movement. It broke the praise and worship time wide open! Kerry shared a powerful word from the Lord that set the foundation for the conference.

The next day was filled with classes on worship. I taught three classes:

"The heart of a dancer" - the spiritual and practical foundations those in dance ministry must be doing.

"Moving from performance to the Presence" - Understanding what it means to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, knowing who you are in Him and what He wants to be to you. We took steps of faith past our comfort zone and trusted the Holy Spirit to guide our steps as we moved into spontaneous worship dance. God really did some breakthrough during this class.

"Learning a full praise dance" - The room was packed with people, but the praise and joy were even more full as we did a new praise dance celebrating the power of Jesus.

I was told after the evening’s closing worship service that there was so much freedom released after the worship dance classes that worshipers didn’t want to stay still during that last service.

The Expo was such a time of release, refreshing, and realization of God’s purpose for worship and all who were a part of it were immeasurably blessed. Again, God’s favor flowed and the fellowship of the saints and friendships that were birthed were priceless. Bryan, the man who oversaw the Expo, has received numerous testimonies of what God has done through this conference. Mark your calendars for April 25-26, 2008 for the next Worship Expo.

Sunday morning, First Baptist of Laurel, MD invited me to minister in dance in its 2^nd and 3^rd services. Diana, the pastor’s wife, and I ministered "Here I Am". Just before he brought the message on corporate worship, Kerry Godwin played spontaneously on his guitar with a loose arrangement of "Oh, The Blood of Jesus". I ministered in the spontaneous dance as he played. It is so beautiful to flow in worship and adoration of Jesus with other worshipers. The unity of the Spirit is so sweet, satisfying, and pure.

I took the next few days to visit friends who live in the area. I lived and taught school in Columbia, MD from 1990-1992. During that time I also drove to Pennsylvania to meet with the president of one of our distributors. God is so good! During our 3 ½ hour meeting, this man asked question after question that opened the door for me to share testimonies about the miracles God has done in our family’s lives. These really made him think and ask more questions. I was walking on clouds as I felt God orchestrating every minute.

During that time, he also asked me to put together dance wear that they sell to create contemporary liturgical dance garments. He also asked if I would design some for them. I agreed. So, if you have any particular thoughts about praise and worship dance garments and would like to share them with me, I would love to hear from you. I want to know what is needed or wanted by dance ministries from different congregational backgrounds.

This is indeed a fresh, new season of favor. Wiesiek is putting the finishing touches on the cover of the video "Treasure of Jesus", I am still working on my book, we are planning to film 3 new videos this summer, Wiesiek will begin editing a stretch and flexibility video we filmed with a friend who was trained by Cirque du Soleil, and I am preparing for teaching at the International Worship Institute July 3-6 in Dallas, TX.

We cherish your prayers and communications.

March 27, 2007

When we moved to Las Vegas we hoped that our friends and family would come to visit us often. We have been blessed to have this become a reality. We counted that from the middle of December through the end of February, we had company staying with us for over 2/3rds of the time. It was wonderful, but we have been a bit exhausted.

In January, Dawn and Jean joined with the Las Vegas Liturgical Dance Network in worship dancing down the main street of Las Vegas in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. It was 5 hours of worship in below freezing temperatures, but God really made a break through in the atmosphere. We are believing that "Sin" city will soon be "Grace" city and worship will fill the air changing this city forever.

In February we began a children’s class on praise and worship in our church. Each week Dawn is seeing the kids move more and more into understanding thanksgiving and praise. It is a very exciting time as they will be ministering in worship over the Easter weekend and Mother's Day.

We are currently working on two dances that should be filmed this spring. One will a warfare dance that comes through praise and the other a dance easy enough for children but powerful and freeing for adults as well.

In April, Dawn will be in Nashville during Gospel Music Association Music Week. She will be an adjudicator at the Gospel Choir and Praise Dance Celebration. Then she will fly to Maryland and take part in the Worship Expo in Laurel, MD. Pray for her as she ministers in dance and teaches at the expo. After the expo, she will get a chance to visit friends in that area. Dawn taught school at a Christian school in Columbia, MD for two years and is really looking forward to seeing everyone there again.

Pray also as Dawn is writing her first book on starting and maintaining a healthy dance ministry. This is a new venture and we want God’s wisdom and truth to flow wonderfully through it.

We are excited to announce that Worship Steps videos are now teaching people how to worship in dance in over 33 countries! We are in awe and so grateful to God at what He is doing. We get many APO orders as well and do not know the locations of the military bases to which they are sent. God is moving through dance ministry in our national defense and in countries that only He knows.

Finally, our newest release, "Treasure of Jesus" to the song of the same title by Steven Curtis Chapman, will be released around the end of April/beginning of May. Here are our first endorsements:

"The Treasure of Jesus" DVD proves that anyone at any age, with a heart of worship, can dance before our Lord. Dawn's exceptionally definitive teaching style is so easy to follow, that all skill levels can benefit from this demonstration. The simplistic background and 'view from behind, while watching the front in the mirror' camera angle makes all the parts of the dance very 'doable' and reproducible. It was nice to see not only the entire dance done in costume, but also to see the dance being broken down into its various components. Watching the instruction and then viewing that part done to the music was very helpful and inspiring. I would recommend this video to anyone who wants to learn a lovely worship dance and I give it a two thumbs up!"
Pastor Lynn M. Hayden - Dancing For Him Ministries

"Dawn's dance, set to this simple love ballad, opens hearts to the love of Christ and creates a worshipful atmospheric change. Take a look at it, I think you'll want to use this dance at your place."
Bob Sorge, www.oasishouse.net

October 5, 2006

The video, "Only Getting Started" is finally out. Thank you, God!

We are finally beginning to meet dancers who are believers in town and are interested in dancing in our future videos. Moving to a new city without connections is difficult. We are still trying to make friends and build relationships here. We are praying that God would surround us with a network of close friends here in Las Vegas.

God is increasing our influence at our new church. We were careful not to push our ministry onto our new pastor and staff. We let God open the doors when and how He wanted to do it. Dawn was asked, and the opportunity arrived, to teach a weekly class on dance ministry as well as minister in dance at the church. She is researching and writing a weekly curriculum guide and study sheets for dance ministry. The new dance group at the church gets to be the guinea pigs on which the curriculum is tried. Wiesiek was asked to help with the church media department and has worked with the worship pastor in various meetings. We see how important it is to be careful so as not to shut the door to our ministry or gift, but rather be a door opener by humbling ourselves and speaking only when God tells us.

The Las Vegas Liturgical Dance Network is beginning to finally grow and take shape. If God has called you to begin a network bringing people in movement and worship ministries together in your city, be faithful to press on. The birthing process may be time consuming and long in developing, but it will be worth it. Having the Body of Christ unified, supporting each other, and working together to establish God’s kingdom in the city is a noble cause of Christ.

If you are ever in the Las Vegas area, let us know.

July 25, 2006

Our time at the International Worship Institute was sweet and precious. Dawn taught two 4-hour long dance intensives. She was able to teach a new hip hop/pop style dance to Parachute Band’s song "Getcha". The joy of the Lord filled the dancers as we enjoyed the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are now recruiting dancers for the demo portion of a video of this dance.

Many questions were asked during the intensives and so great discussions were held. 
Questions such as: How do you get your dance team to worship rather than perform?

Answer: Begin each rehearsal with worship, praise, prayer and Bible study. If we are to do worship and praise dances and lead others into the presence of God, then we need to live that in our daily lives. Our coming together should first be worship unto the Lord and building that relationship, learning a dance should be secondary.

Take the team through Bible studies on dance, worship, authority, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, etc. and assign them homework so that they are investigating these topics for themselves and can share it at the next gathering. For in depth study of words like: rejoice, clap, leap, spin, lift hands, stomp, stretched hands, dance, etc. check out the website: www.biblegateway.com or www.crosswalk.com  You can type in the word and ask for an old or a new testament. It will give you the Hebrew or Greek names, definitions and references for the scriptures where that can be found. Also, practice worshiping with spontaneous dance unto the Lord as a group. Take time for all to pray and time to worship in song until you feel God’s presence, have basked in it and He dismisses you to work on your dances.

There were two other classes Dawn taught during the week. God opened our eyes in both classes. "Keys to knowing when and when not to dance" and "How do I choreograph a dance" were the subjects of those classes.

The worship was so passionate and real. Often worship came forth from the participants that was spontaneous and pure. The messages were relevant, to the point, and so applicable immediately. A highlight for our family was when LaMar Boschman, the Dean of the International Worship Institute, lead worship and asked Dawn to dance during worship. That same evening the session was being broadcast live around the world on Day Star Network as well as recorded for a worship CD.

Other news:

"Only Getting Started" is ready to be pressed. "Treasure of Jesus" is being edited. We are praying for the financial resources that will allow us to get them pressed and license fees paid. The summer has been very difficult on us financially with low video sales. We have been very blessed to be able to send videos to dance ministries in various countries in Africa that could not afford to buy them, but desired the instruction for their worship dancers. It is great when we hear back from them as to what God is doing. It is amazing to see what God is doing around the world. As more and more ministries declare freedom, praise, God’s sovereignty, our need and passion for Him through movement and word, it feels like a powerful unity is taking place in the spiritual realm throughout the globe.

We want to hear from you!

Is there a song on which you feel God has a dance anointing? Pass the song along to us and we will look into choreographing a dance to it. We are also looking for powerful Christmas and Easter songs. We get requests for dances that could be used for the holidays, but finding the right song is difficult.

May 11, 2006

The video “Here I Am” was released on May 9^th.  We are excited to hear how blessed people are who have already purchased it.  We are editing “Only Getting Started” and are praying that we can release it in June.  This one has a large licensing fee so we are praying that God will release finances for the licensing and the pressing for a quick release. 

The Las Vegas Liturgical Dance Network will have its first meeting on May 20^th.  We are so excited about this.  God has a window of grace open in the Las Vegas area and we want to dive in while the window is open.  The church population is growing here as well as the hunger in churches to reach the community and establish God’s Kingdom.  This network is one way we see God uniting the Body of Christ in the Las Vegas valley.  You can find out more about it at:   http://www.lvdancenetwork.com/

It’s Dawn’s birthday this month! 

April 2, 2006

The Here I Am video has been edited and is in the process of being pressed.  Yea!  It will be released on May 9th. The video Only Getting Started is in the editing process now.  

Dawn is joining with Rekesha Pittman of Rain Rein Reign Ministries to begin the process of gathering together dancers, youth, and worshipers from churches all over Las Vegas into a unified dance powerhouse to minister in the city.   The group will do outreach to the community, spiritual warfare in the city, encourage local church movement ministries, and be a resource for local churches and ministries.  Please remember us in prayer.  We need God's strategy.

March 9, 2006

Wiesiek is editing the videos filmed in November. He will also be working on their graphic designs.

Dawn will be working on a manuscript for a large scale musical production. She will also begin choreographing three new dances for filming in the spring and for teaching at the International Worship Institute in Dallas, TX in July.

February 1, 2006

We stopped duplicating our DVDs on the computer and had them commercially replicated (pressed), like DVD movies, with the full color imprint on the disk.

December 11, 2005

We packed up and moved from Washington state to Las Vegas, Nevada. We are now near family, something we had missed for the past five years. We love living here and found that many of the dreams and visions God has given us over the years have the ability to come to pass here in this city.

November 5, 2005

We filmed three new dance videos. They are now in the editing and licensing process. Hopefully we will begin to release them by spring.

"What are the videos" you ask? We'll tell you.

First is a dance to the song "Here I Am" by Kara on the Integrity Music label. It is a passionate cry of offering to the Lord. The first part was choreographed as a lyrical dance that can be done by two or more dancers. A portion of this is done with ribbons. The second part of the song fuses the lyrical with hip-hop dance and allows dance groups to choose whether they want to finish the dance in just the lyrical style or blend it with hip-hop. It also is a wonderful chance for dance groups to incorporate the youth into the hip-hop portion. It is a very exciting dance that draws people to the feet of Jesus.

The other two dances are to songs off of Steven Curtis Chapman's album "All Things New" on the Sparrow Records label. One dance is to the upbeat song "Only Getting Started". In this song, he talks about how vast God is and how much more of Him there is to know. The music is really fun...so is the dance. My daughter, Jean, says that it is her favorite. It combines hip-hop with facial theatrics and just a hint of country. It is a very encouraging piece.

The second song from that album is the sweet, tender, almost childlike "Treasure of Jesus". I cry whenever I hear the song as it is so much the story of my love for Jesus. This is a lyrical dance with modern and ballet base. It can be done as a group or solo. The instructional portion teaches how to do this dance either way. Our demo is done as a duet with my 8-year-old daughter, Jean, joining me on the chorus of the dance. This song will take your audience back to the innocence and purity of loving Jesus.

Prayer Requests

We ask that you would pray for us as we push on with the amazing things God has laid before us. We need protection, health, creativity, open doors, finances, and many blessings.