The Foundation released a new dance on World Dance Day 2020 in response to the pandemic called Apart... yet together.
Apart... yet together is the ICDF Foundation’s gift of encouragement to dancers worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This dance was shown in Paris 27 Wednesday 27 April on International World Dance Day 2020. The International Council of Dance (CID) a partner of UNESCO called for videos from dancers all over the world on the general theme “Youth-Dance-Video”.
The Chair of the International Christian Dance Fellowship Foundation, Jennifer Dennis, invited Celine Urquhart to dance a solo for International World Dance Day in a church on the theme: Hope, Faith and Love.Celine Urquhart’s aged 16 is an Australian Ballet student with the John Cranko Schule associated with the Stuttgart Ballet Company, Germany, since May 2019. Like dance students across the world, classes have been closed and Celine has had to return to Sydney for the foreseeable future. Ballet training continues on the back deck of the family home coupled with class being zoomed from Germany late in the afternoon once a day. This is a huge disruption to the training program of young elite dancer.
The Foundation commissioned a film of Celine dancing in the oldest church in Sydney. The Church on the Hill (formerly known as St Philip’s Church) is of historical importance - being built on the site of the earliest church in the colony. This church provides the backdrop to a dancer’s journey of faith.
Corinne Urquhart, a choreographer and trained RAD ballet teacher, developed the dance to the song, “You Say” by US singer and songwriter Lauren Daigle. Called Apart yet Together, the theme of the dance is the spiritual journey of a young dancer from insecurity and introspection to the comfort and confidence of faith in God. The ICDF Foundation anticipates that this dance will be an uplifting prayer for young dancers worldwide who are affected by the pandemic.
While this dance was filmed in an unusually empty church on a lonely Sunday morning in downtown Sydney, the light from the stained-glass windows shone on the white clad dancer reminding us of our vulnerability yet strength we have in our Lord Jesus. While Celine danced her prayer for dancers worldwide, the usual church service was being zoomed into homes and apartments across Sydney- also apart yet together!
We hope you will also be blessed by this dance!