Fr Joachim Andrade, of Indian origin, is provincial of the Society of the Divine Word in southern Brazil. The above video is taken from 2009, but Fr Andrade performed again (pictures) at the opening Mass of the Seminar for Consecrated Religious Life, organized by the Conference of Brazilian Religious, on February 26, 2012. Of his dance, Fr Andrade said
Hindu art shows that it is possible to take this ancient Eastern culture and insert it into our search for God, since mysticism and spirituality are above religions. To bring expressions of another culture to the liturgy is to give our celebrations a universal openess.”
This is a Bharatanatyam dance. What is striking about this video is that these particular movements are always performed by female dancers, while the male roles have a different character altogether.
I suspect that this “priest’s” love of dance is due less to his being a religious syncretist and more to his being a homosexual.
What if doing the hokey pokey IS what it is all about?!!
You’re right. What the hokey pokey song is all about is mocking Catholics “Hoc est corpus…”) A dancing fool female impersonator gay priest does a pretty good job of it too.
Saju George, S.J. – The Dancing Jesuit – Performance & Interview
Saju George performances at the 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag in Munich [which CDF Prefect-designate Archbshop Muller attended].
The bharatanatyam is an elegant form of dance with a strong visual impact. Originating in the temples in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, literally thousands of years ago, this dance style is the oldest of the main forms of classical Indian dance. The dancers, through their choreographies, display gestures and movements representative of mythology, philosophy, epics, ancient stories, contemporary themes and other experiences of life.
Originally from Calcutta, Saju George Moolamthuruthil, S.J., better known as the Jesuit Dancer, is a dynamic and unique artist with a rare vision and passion for the art and culture of India and quite simply a brilliant dancer of the bharatanatyam style.
Over the 15 or so years he has been performing, Saju George, S.J. has shown a constant concern to conjugate his dancing with his Catholic faith and his ordainment and considers art as an effective means of spiritual integration and social transformation. In recent years, Saju has given over 200 performances in India and worldwide and adopting both Hindu and Christian themes in his incorporation of images whether of Radha-Krishna and Shiva-Parvati or of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
According to the Dancing Jesuit, this art involves prayer and adoration, self-awareness and divine realization, aesthetic delight and cosmic integration, social service, the promotion of inter-religious peace and harmony, ecumenism as well as other dimensions. He believes strongly in the power of art, and in a special fashion, that of dance and of music.
Saju George is also director of various centers of art, culture and social development, including: Kalahrdava, the Art Peace Foundation and Shanti Nir, in Calcutta.