a poignant dance memory

[HelenaZF]

I was the pageantry leader at a dance conference that was held at Founder's Inn, Virginia Beach (Pat Robertson's complex) in the early 90's. It was a several day conference with a nightly evening service.



Well, at Founders Inn, you know there were other things bound to be going on besides our dance conference. Richard Wurmbrandt, a holocaust surviver and probably known to many through <URL url="http://www.persecution.com/about/index.cfm?action=vom">Voice of the Martyrs was there as well. If you know anything of his story, he was held for years in solitary confinement and tortured everyday, often with the beating of his feet. When he gives his testimony, he tells of how the only thing that kept him sane and alive was that he would dance praises to the Lord all day long in his cell, obviously through great pain at times. The experience left him crippled.



He was invited to speak to the dancers at one of the evening services. After he gave testimony of how dancing was his preservation through the torture, he expressed a deep longing that he would still be able to dance before the Lord, because in his physical condition he was no longer able. Two of the male dancers on the platform came over to him. Standing to either side of him, the two men lifted the frail old man up by the elbows. He began to "dance" in the air with his crippled feet. He began to weep with joy, and the entire room of people wept right along with him. It was a holy moment I will never forget.