I taught ballet for 30 years – but it was what I taught my students about faith that mattered most

Faith has been such a massive part of my teaching journey that I think it would have been more unnatural not to share it with my students than to share it. I didn’t get everything right, because who does? But I understood my unique and privileged position right from the beginning, as I welcomed so many ballet students into the church our school ran from.

I qualified as a ballet teacher at 18 and opened my ballet and Pilates school at 19. After a few years of teaching from a hall across town, an opportunity to lease my church building (where I’d been the pianist for a decade) arose. It was an Anglican church, and our congregation was sadly being closed due to its small, mainly elderly membership.

I moved the dance school there and converted the building into a dance studio. Not wanting the building to cease being a church, I founded and ran a performing arts church for young people that ran alongside the dance school. I ran weekly performing arts workshops centred around Christianity. So, even if dance students did not choose to attend the church, they heard discussions about it and witnessed excitement over upcoming services or events. I included the performing arts church in dance school productions, so their message and their growing faith were always on show.

READ MORE: In Business: The Pilates socks sparking conversations about Jesus

I think a lot of the time we say too much, and that by showing, we make a much greater impact.

I think a lot of the time we say too much, and that by showing, we make a much greater impact. There were lots of tiny moments with the potential for big impact. Things like using Christian music in ballet classes and letting the lyrics speak for themselves. Each Advent, I choreograph to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel in my retirees’ ballet class, which leads to natural discussion. We also complete an annual ‘Advent Challenge’, which involves taking on a daily Pilates challenge.

Tiny moments like displaying posters of inspirational Bible verses alongside other motivational quotes. I like mixing the ordinary with faith; it can make it more accessible for new ears and hearts. One evening, while teaching a ballet class for teens, a dancer of a different faith asked me about the performing arts church. Others looked awkward, but I answered her, then asked with curiosity about her own faith. Body language changed in the room, and soon we were all sitting and stretching at the end of class together, talking about faith!

READ MORE: I love moving my body with Pilates and I found that paring it with prayer an incredible way to connect with God

There were invitations for dancers in the school to take part in services all the time, and explanations each time a new student joined us. Several times a week, I’d point to the cross on the wall, encouraging dancers to imagine lengthening their spines as tall as the cross vertically, and their upper backs as wide as the cross. We didn’t celebrate Halloween through themed classes or dress-up events like a lot of other dance schools, and I explained why, offering parties and dances that celebrated light instead.

I choreographed festival (competition) dances themed around Bible stories: a balletic trio of Mary, Martha and Jesus, and a solo narrative dance of Jairus’ daughter. I also entered dancers into the Bible-reading section of a local performing arts festival.

READ MORE: ‘Why I don’t do yoga’

I wanted each dancer to know that they were created exactly the way they were meant to be.

I wanted each dancer to know that they were created exactly the way they were meant to be. I’d highlight skills they were particularly good at in ballet class – we called them ‘superpowers’. It’s something that would have helped me growing up: open acknowledgement of what I did well, because, like most teenagers, I knew well enough what I wasn’t good at! In meditation sessions, I’d encourage dancers to study their hands – every line and detail – and to feel awed that they were intentionally made, with no one in the world having exactly the same fingerprints as them!

Did I do enough? All I know is that I tried to let my faith shine as confidently as I could in each situation. I brought numerous dancers to know God and some even to baptism.

After 20 successful years, the diocese reclaimed the church building from me to sell it. A devastating decision.

Something I only realised in hindsight was that the dancers had seen that my faith never wavered in hard times. During one such difficult period, I’d prayed, asking God for guidance. He responded by sending so many new children and teenagers to the church that I briefly had to run a waiting list. And I know, through staying in touch with many who are now adults, that those seeds sown in their childhoods took root. Some have followed me into creative expressions of worship as adults, and others are leading their own children on their faith journeys.

God leads me forward in new directions now, gathering the skills he’s given me and setting me on my path.