Dr. Ray: Okay, are you ready for another show of Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self? Today we're talking about dance with Amy Francis, a dance instructor and a young lady who dances before the Lord with all her might. And not only that, but she does secular dance and, and what we would call dance– interpretive worship dance. All kinds of dancing. And she has some amazing testimonies about how God uses dance to give her breakthroughs and healing in so many areas of her life and how we can truly worship God - even improve our marriages - through dance. This is going to be a very informative show, a very fun show. I hope you enjoy it. Again, this is Self Talk, I'm Dr. Ray Self. This show is sponsored by our college, International College of Ministry. I thank you so much for listening to today's show and I pray this would be a blessing. Be sure and share this with your friends. God bless you.
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Dr. Ray: Welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr Ray Self. Thank you for being with us. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to today's episode. I pray, Father, this show would be a blessing to them and Holy Spirit, you're just so welcome here to open up our hearts and our ears to hear what you have for us today. We give you honor, we give you praise. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen, amen. Well, welcome folks again to Self Talk. Um, again, I'm Dr. Ray Self. Very honored that you're with us and as usual, this show is sponsored by International College of Ministry, www.icm.org, Holy Spirit-filled seminary, now enrolling. Check it out. You know you need to do it.
Dr. Ray: Anyway, I got a very special guest in the studio today and uh, her name is Amye Francis. And Amye Francis actually works for ICM. She is our social media director, she's also my executive assistant, and she's also learning the IT area of our school, so she's multi… multi-talented girl. I appreciate you being with us today.
Amye: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Ray: It's, it's great… great that you're here. Now, what– Amye is a very interesting person and I really thought that you'll be– like to get to know her a little bit better. Amye is very talented, you know, wonderful Christian lady, and very musical. Loves to praise and worship the Lord and you play a number of musical instruments, right?
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: What do you play? Just out– just out of curiosity.
Amye: I play violin and cello, and learning strings as I write music– or sorry, learning keys, keyboard as I write music.
Dr. Ray: So keyboard, cello, and violin.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: Oh, is that all? [laughs]
Amye: Yeah, I mean… for the most part. I kind of know other instruments but I couldn't play it well enough…
Dr. Ray: So yeah, I just don't know that many violin, cello players, and keyboard players so it's good, good to know you… What's– one thing that’s very interesting about Amye: what she is known for is dance, that you are a dancer, is that not correct?
Amye: Yes, that is.
Dr. Ray: And not only do you dance, but you're also a dance instructor.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: And we've been talking and, and of course, I've known you for a few years now, and uh, you believe that dance honors the Lord, that you can use dance to honor the Lord. Even some dances that people will consider to be secular can still honor the Lord.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: How do– how, how is that– how does that work?
Amye: Yeah, so this is actually a journey that I'm still on. I feel like down the road I'll have much more to contribute to this but um, first of all, we see dance in the Bible, like Miriam dances when they're celebrating coming out of the, the Red Sea, David dances with all his might um… and um… something I'm just going to throw this… throw this thing out there: so I have a friend, um, who is also exploring movement and dance as a form of intercession and worship and so we have a lot of conversations together and now some of his thoughts, some of his questions, are becoming some of mine. So one thing that he was telling me was that even at the beginning um, of creation, the Holy Spirit was hovering or moving across the waters. And so even there we saw movement happening. And so it kind of causes me to ask, like, what is the significance of movement? Um… because obviously the Lord created it and He used movement to create um… life around us. So I'm not going to go too much into that ‘cause um… I… yeah, I don't know much yet. So yeah, He created movement and for us to move.
Dr. Ray: Well, so the Holy Spirit moved across the face of the waters. Dance is, is movement.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: But dance carries a message.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: I mean, dance is visual, okay? To, to the people who are watching. But dance to me, you know, carries… it's an expression. It is, it carries a message.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: And it's, it's also a message to God. You know, you know, our words: we can honor God with our words, but our actions and our emotions can also honor God and be a form of worship. Am I, am I getting it?
Amye: Yes, exactly. Yeah, so, um… like, we can express ourselves through movement too. Like, you may be more familiar with expressing yourselves through words or songs and stuff, but movement is a whole nother thing that we can use to express to the Lord how we're feeling, um… and we can even use it, um… to display prophetic messages, um… like we could dance over situations. Um, I remember, um, one time the Lord was speaking to me… so I had this– well, I, I won't get into the details because it's a lot, but basically, things going on with my house and finances and these things all of a sudden started happening and I was like, I have no idea how I'm going to pay for my mortgage. And the Lord told me just dance over it. Um, I think I'm kind of drifting on another trail here, but I just remember that very clearly, like the Lord was like, “dance over it,” um, the situation. And so I really felt like um, there I learned that I could express what the prophetic Lord– words the Lord is telling me. I could not just believe them and speak them, but I could also express them through my movement and kind of live out that victory - display it through my dancing.
Dr. Ray: You know, you know, I've heard for years, uh, many church people say, “You just need to praise your way through, you just need to praise your way through,” you know? “You, you're, you got to praise your way out of it,” and uh, and there's a lot of truth to that, but movement in dance can be worship and praise. And so here you have a situation and the Lord says dance, dance over it. But your dance was actually… He's saying, “I want you to worship Me. I want you to praise Me.” And so you're worshiping and praising the Lord and expressing your heart to the Lord through your dance. And so dance is very uh, expressive. It's very, it's emotional and it's, it's an expression to God. And I know in my church uh we used to get these, what we used to call interpretive dancers that would come in and there would be music and they would interpret the music - you know, it's be Christian music obviously - and they would interpret the music through their dance. But you could also - well, if I'm hearing you correctly - you can interpret your heart, your prayer, your, your feelings toward the Lord. You can show that through the motion of dance and is that correct?
Amye: Yes, yeah. You can express your heart, your feelings to Him… um, you can also partner with Him so if He wants to maybe speak something over the church or maybe if it's in a secular environment like the people watching. We could– you could also partner with Him - what He's speaking to you - and kind of act that out through your movement.
Dr. Ray: Wow… wow. So, you've been dancing a long time and I've seen you dance a, a few, few things. And so, you, you dance as a form of worship. but you, you also dance fun dances…
Amye: Mhm.
Dr. Ray: Which can still even in a way glorify God. But you're, you're known– what, what, what, tell me some of the other types of dances that you do– And listen, folks, not only is she a dancer, but she's a dance instructor and so uh, I want to get her information out if you really, you want to learn some of these dances. But tell me some of the other dances that you do and, and what they're about.
Amye: Yeah, so what I do right now, I do swing dancing, and that can… incor– that can– that's a lot of different types of dances into one main category.
Dr. Ray: Isn't that kind of old-school type of dancing?
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Like it goes way back to like, World War II and Big Band Era? That type of dancing?
Amye: Yeah, that kind of dancing… Charleston like the 20s…
Dr. Ray: Yeah. Wow…
Amye: That’s what I…
Dr. Ray: Yeah, yeah… I love history. I, I love watching those dances. Yeah…
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: So very um… they're very energetic, right?
Amye Mhm.
Dr. Ray: Very active.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Yeah. And uh, do you do also– what's the other type of dancing I've seen you guys do? Is it ballroom-type dancing or um, um, you know, couples dancing?
Amye: Yeah, so, a lot of swing is couples dancing.
Dr. Ray: Okay.
Amye: I do have a little bit of experience in other ballroom styles like Waltz, Fox Trot… I've done Salsa and Bata which are Latin dances, Blues which is kind of in the swing category… um… yeah, I think that's most of it– most of what I've done.
Dr. Ray: And uh… you have um… you have groups that get together and do this?
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: And then you have a group that gets together– you're the instructor, right?
Amye: I am one of the instructors, yeah.
Dr. Ray: Wow, that's neat. So, don't you have to kind of be a little athletic for this?
Amye: Yes, yeah… um… some, some people…
Dr. Ray: …it's very physical…
Amye: …like, they might not dance as often like just a few songs and they're not necessarily athletic people. But yeah, if you're keeping it up consistently, then generally you're going to be– your body's going to reflect the work you're doing.
Dr. Ray: It's very aerobic, in other words.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Yeah, okay. Get you in shape, haha.
Amye: Yeah, haha.
Dr. Ray: And so don't you… didn't you tell me you were teaching some classes in the Winter Park, Florida area?
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: Okay. On Friday evenings?
Amye: I do. Well, I have a pri– private lesson student I teach late Friday afternoons, um, and then group lessons are Saturday nights.
Dr. Ray: Wow.
Amye: I kind of switch locations.
Dr. Ray: Well, I want to put this information in the show notes, but if someone's interested, what's the best way to contact you or get more information?
Amye: The best way… you could… google or look on social media for Vintage Dance Company. Um, and then there's an email, vintagedancecompany@gmail.com.
Dr. Ray: Vintage Dance Company, remember that. Vintage Dance Company. I, I know um, recently I've been to several weddings that you've been at and uh, you know, these were Christian couples getting married and it was just such a celebration watching you guys dance at these weddings. You know, it was just, you know, when I dance it's kind of like I'm sort of making it up as I go and it may be dance, it may just be some kind of motion, I'm not sure what it is. Um, I'm a little rhythmically challenged. But when you guys dance, it is so cool to watch. It really is a celebration.
Amye: Yeah it's especially swing styles are… well– every dance, but I feel like, more so… I've experienced this more so in swing styles. And that it's really about fun. Just having fun.
Dr. Ray: Just having fun. So it's happy dance.
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: So you're dancing because you're happy or you dance and you become happy?
Amye: Yeah, either one.
Dr. Ray: And you get in shape?
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: But you, you've also been telling me some interesting spiritual things too. That you, you've kind of discovered– of course, you know, dancing's in the Bible, we know that dancing's in the Bible - David and Miriam - and uh, dancing is– was definitely a form of worship, you know, in, in scripture, uh. But you're telling me also that even some of the, what we call secular dances, you know, the swing dancing and the ballroom style dancing, I think you call– what you call it, Sala, Cha Cha, um, that some of those can even glorify God.
Amye: Yeah, it's something I've been exploring with the Lord.
Dr. Ray: Yeah.
Amye: …um… I remember after the– that moment when the Lord told me to dance over my situation, He specifically highlighted to me jazz moves. Like what I do solo dancing and like for Swing style music. And through that, I kind of like, learned I could go into a secular environment, to this perform– say performance I was hired to do. And I could connect my heart to Jesus and start actually interceding over that area through my dancing. And I remember um, this moment where um, I was dancing at an art museum in St Pete Florida and like, I just started connecting to– thinking, like, thinking about Jesus as I was dancing and just like bringing my, like - the joy that I have from knowing Him - bringing that into my dancing. And like, I could feel a shift internally in myself or like, in, in my heart I guess… like, like I was suddenly more aware of His presence within me. Um, so that's one thing: like realizing I can actually intercede while I'm just performing a dance performance. Um… and then I've also, I've been seeing my cousin, one of my friends, and just other places, I've been seeing more now, people are using dance to show… to convey stories of the Gospel or from scripture. So like, I have a distant cousin who would tell stories from the Old Testament using like, Afro Beats dancing and Hip-Hop dancing and just… yeah, I feel like there's a lot more to be discovered too.
Dr. Ray: You know, I think that's just really interesting. I think sometimes more traditional Christians, they see dance as uh, something that's, you know, risque. But dancing doesn't have to be risque, it can actually be clean, it can be joyful, and it can even be used to honor God, you know, as King David...
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: …okay? And um, you know, mo– motion, expressing God with motion– It’s interesting. You know, I'm a– my wife says I'm a professional talker, but I am. I'm, I'm a preacher, I'm a teacher. And when I talk, even now I'm talking to this microphone and my hands are moving, you know. There's motion, moving. And so I, I really like the concept that communication involves motion, and motion can be communication. And so dance really is communication. You're communicating joy, you're communicating love, you're communicating uh, worship, you're communicating, you know, glory to God, uh, you're communicating prayer.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: All through dance.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Or communicating a story through dance. I think it's, it's amazing.
Amye: Yeah, yeah, it, it definitely is, um, a way for communication. Um, kind of going off of that, I also recently had someone - this is a very unique idea - I had someone actually have me come teach a dance class, but it was– the purpose was to teach communication to married couples at a workshop.
Dr. Ray: Oh, cool.
Amye: And so that was a very, like, unique way to like help people really learn and discover about communication. Um… yeah…
Dr. Ray: So couples can communicate with each other through dance.
Amye: Yeah. When we're dancing. It's - especially swing dancing - it's like you're not doing all the– like, there are moves that everyone knows but a lot of the times it's just like, it's not a choreography. As a follower, I'm just following whatever my leader is leading and so it's kind of like this um, learning… The leader's job is to kind of like learn how to better lead, like, clearly communicate to their partner what they want to lead, and then followers, we– I love, I love this because it's very much like following the Holy Spirit. It's like, I don't know what my leader wants to do next so I'm constantly having to tune into him, like watching him, feeling him, making sure I'm connected in the right places so that I can react to whatever he wants to lead.
Dr. Ray: Wow, that's a that can be a story of marriage, you know?
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Um, I, I've seen that before, that, that marriage really is like a dance and uh, you know, the husband is the leader - should be the leader…
Amye: mhm.
Dr. Ray: …and the wife following - not that one job is more important than the others, it's just different. Jobs you can't have two people leading.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: If you're dancing and both people lead, then it's just- it doesn't work. It's disjointed, it's just disjointed. But it's a beautiful picture of love and marriage and uh, togetherness, um, you know… dance.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Couples dancing. A beautiful picture.
Amye: And one thing I taught at that marriage workshop too, was like, this is more so true for swing than some other styles but like, the follower, like, I could choose to not follow my leader. It's not always going to be the best– not always going to end up the best, but I can choose to not follow him or I can choose to like, just throw in like my own random styling or something. And he's constantly watching what I'm doing too so if I do like, some fancy footwork and he's like, “Oh, I like what you did there,” then he might be inspired to build off of that.
Dr. Ray: So you mean– tell me the different types of dancing you do again. One more time. So you, you call swing dancing, which to me, reminds me of the Big Band Era back in the 30s and 40s, uh, what other type of dancing do you do?
Amye: Yeah, so that one, the big band is Lindy Hop.
Dr. Ray: Lindy Hop, okay, okay.
Amye: Then there's… stuff danced to similar or the same type of music are Balboa which is a very close connection, it was designed for really crowded dance floors. There's shag, which kind of, there's different types of shag. The one I'm most familiar– familiar with, Collegiate Shag, was developed on the West Coast by young people. And there's Charleston, there's a 30s version and a 20s version of that, and then there's blues music that developed to blues dancing, so…
Dr. Ray: Yeah, yeah. I was raised around a lot of Blues up in Memphis, Tennessee.
Amye: Oh yeah. Yeah, that Delta area.
Dr. Ray: Born and raised near Beale Street, home of the Blues. So, well, this has been really interesting. You know, uh… Again, I'm talking to Amye Francis, okay. Uh, it's called Vintage Dance?
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: Is the name of your company?
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: Vintage Dance. And that's vintagedance@gmail.com?
Amye: Vintage Dance Company.
Dr. Ray: Vintage Dance Company. vintagedancecompany@gmail.com. Also, google Vintage Dance Company, okay? Uh, to get the website and get the information that you need. Um, I would say go join and it's not– it's fun, it's aerobic, there's a connection, uh, it's good for couples, it's, it's can also teach you to, to worship. You could learn how to worship through dance, connect to God through dance, and you said even dance over your troubles?
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: And get breakthrough?
Amye: Yeah, hahaha.
Dr. Ray: Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff.
Amye: And actually, I did have one more thought since we were talking about, like, purity, like, um… dance can be used in impure ways but also pure ways, um, like the enemy really distorts it. But I had like, a testimony I thought was really cool ‘cause it just broke my box… um… on that, ‘cause I was dancing with this friend from California. And when he dances he does it from a pure heart, like, there's no– nothing about self or anything sinful in the way he dances, which, a lot of other people when I dance I can feel something, but… But I was dancing with him and I literally felt like the Lord, like I was transported out of reality into a completely different dimension. Like the presence of the Lord was so strong. And this, this friend, he led me into this, like, really close cheek-to-cheek embrace -which normally I'm a little wary of that - but in this case, I felt like I should um, allow, allow that. And in that moment, I felt like just this pure love, um, like the purest love I've really ever felt. And I started asking the Lord about that later and He showed me that Jesus was actually dancing through my friend, that it was Jesus dancing with me. And… I'm getting a little hoarse now, but, and He, um, He ended up using that moment to like, break off all these past hurts and like, fill me with what I was lacking in that moment. So He brought healing through that and that's just like a testimony to what can happen when you're submitted to the Lord.
Dr. Ray: Dancing with Jesus.
Amye: Yeah.
Dr. Ray: That is terrific. Well, Amye, it's been great having you here today, and– on the show, and uh, again, I'm Dr. Ray, you've been listening to Self Talk, uh, with Dr. Ray Self and my special guest, Amye Francis. Be sure and look up the Vintage Dance Company…
Amye: Yes.
Dr. Ray: …and google it. Uh, you can also email vintagedancecompany@gmail.com. Take some lessons and learn. Uh, what a great show and a great testimony. Lord, I just thank you for Amye. I thank you, Father, that we can use dance not for um, a perverted way but for a godly way, Father, to give you glory, Father. In Jesus’ name, amen. Well, thanks again everyone for listening to Self Talk. Thank you, Amye Francis.
Amye: Thank you.
Dr. Ray: God bless you.
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Dr. Ray: Hey, it's Dr. Ray again. Thank you so much for listening to today's show about dance, worshiping the Lord with dance, breaking through with dance, getting free with dance, having fun with dance, a lot of benefits to dance. Expressing ourselves to God with dance, using dance for Godly reasons and for good reasons, not, not the perverted version that so much of the world has made dance into. God can be glorified in a lot of things, folks. So I hope you enjoyed today's show. Again, it was sponsored by the International College of Ministry, icmcollege.org. College of Spirit and truth, now enrolling. Check it out. If you got a call of God on your life, I think this is important for you. Also, I'm excited to announce I have a new book coming out in about one month. It's called The Call. God has called you, what do you need to know? I think you're going to enjoy this book a lot. Again, I want to thank you so much. Be sure and go to our website for the show and that also is icmcollege.org/selftalk. That'll take you to the show website. There you can subscribe, you can give us a review - which will help us a lot. Be sure and share this show download and share the show with your friends, it really helps us get this message out. Again, hope this has been a blessing to you. Thanks again for listening to Self Talk. I am Dr. Ray. God bless you.