“Ultimately I want every single one of them to feel a burden for the lost, and to commit to pray, give and go,” she said.
“Very few of these students will go on to a professional dancing career, but my hope is anything they do in life they will do for the glory of God.”
For Wooten, leading Doxa represents something deeply personal and restorative.
Despite having danced ballet growing up, Wooten never thought she would return to dancing. Injuries and some disappointing auditions changed her focus after high school.
It wasn’t until much later she realized a new mindset could be applied to dance.
“I thought dancing was something I would do professionally and trained with that in mind,” Wooten said. “I had a very solid spiritual upbringing, but as far as passion, ballet was it. Ballet was very much the center of my identity.
“I eventually realized that I had to surrender my passion for my purposes and goals, and He later gave it back to me in a much more beautiful way than I ever would have achieved if I went for my own goals. It’s extremely fulfilling to me to use it in this way.”
Upon graduating college and getting married, Wooten was asked by a church staff member about creating a ballet-related ministry. A first class of just over 20 students in 2009 slowly became what Doxa is today – nearly 500 students participating in almost 75 classes taking place throughout the week.
In a strange way, Wooten said her students are sometimes the ones who are teaching her valuable lessons.
“They’ve shown me that dancing doesn’t have to consume their identity, and they don’t find their ultimate meaning in it,” she said. “They can work for something with excellence, diligence and passion, but it has no effect on their standing before the Lord. It is a big shift in thinking.
“It’s redemptive for me in a lot of ways and takes memories I have and reshapes things from my past.”
Wooten hopes the unique Gospel opportunity dancing provides will encourage churches to better embrace creativity.
“Dancing crosses language and cultural barriers because you’re not using spoken language, you’re using a visual picture,” Wooten said.
“We hold the most beautiful thing in the world in what Jesus has done for us, and why not use the beauty of performance and creative arts just to adorn that message. We need to embrace the artistic gifts that the Lord has put in our people and raise them up to use those good gifts.”
This article originally appeared here.
