by Dominic Jesse
hen Kathy Thibodeaux embraced Christianity one year after joining
a professional ballet company, she faced a dilemma. She was a
dancer, but felt the sexual and sensual roles that sometimes emerge
in ballet were incompatible with her faith.
So she founded one of the most unusual ballet companies in the country – Ballet Magnificat!, a Christian dance troupe.
On Tuesday, May 12th, Ballet Magnificat! will come to Memphis from their home base in Jackson, Mississippi, and along with Classical Ballet Memphis will put on a show that strives to both praise God and captivate the audience.
Although the two companies are collaborating for the show, their
performances are separate.
Thibodeaux’s group will stage “Savior,” a series of about 10 movements that starts with Adam and Eve and ends with the Resurrection of Christ. She describes the act as “a dance to the Bible.”
Classical Ballet Memphis has chosen “Infinity,” a piece written by Christian composer Don Marsh, where dancers “reach to God” and form crosses to the sounds of Bach and “Abide in Me.” They will also perform “Oh The Glory Of Your Presence,” which incorporates sign language into the movements.
“Our vision is to glorify God,” says Thibodeaux.
Thibodeaux started ballet at age 6 and went on to dance for Ballet Mississippi. In 1979, she says, she “came to know Jesus,” and during the next seven years Thibodeaux avoided roles she felt conflicted with her religious beliefs (she’s even too modest to go into detail). However, after spending her childhood and adolescence with ballet, she felt she had no other career path to follow.
“I wanted to share my faith with dance,” she says.
In 1982, she made some headway toward this goal when she won a silver medal at the USA International Ballet Competition by dancing to “We Shall Behold Him,” a Christian piece. In 1986, she founded Ballet Magnificat! with five dancers, including herself, and began her “touring ministry.”
Although the company had a rough start because of its unconventional approach to ballet, today Ballet Magnificat! tours around the country. Some of its revenue comes from church donations, which are gathered during 80 to 100 church performances each year.
More revenue comes from tuition for the company’s School of the Arts, built in 1989, which has about 400 dance and music students. According to Thibodeaux, the school attracts ballet dancers from around the country who “share the faith” (Ballet Magnificat! has never actively recruited students). The company’s “Summer Dance Intensive” retreat attracts an average of 250 students each year and combines heavy dance practice with daily chapel services and Bible study. Most of the students who enter the School of the Arts do so after attending this retreat; others by word-of-mouth because of the troupe’s nationwide tours.
While Classical Ballet Memphis’ official goal may be “the development of young dancers,” artistic director Pat Gillespie says that Ballet Magnificat!’s and her own ideals run along the same lines, and she sees this joint performance, the first with the two companies together, as a chance to share her values and beliefs.
At her studio, she explains her approach to Classical Ballet Memphis and how it gels in part with the mission of Ballet Magnificat!. “I wanted a company with professional value,” she says. “I also wanted the best values possible,” referring to “God, family, and church.” According to Gillespie, Classical Ballet Memphis has also performed in some churches. In addition, she tries to promote “family values” by arranging practice schedules around family plans.
Pacing the floor, Gillespie counts: “One and two and...,” sometimes adding a clap, to keep the students’ movements synchronized. In a niche away from the studio floor, Bernice Abrans, an 82-year-old wisp of a woman, plays the piano. She plays to the beat that Gillespie chants out.
Gillespie walks around the studio, correcting a posture here, a leg position there. “Use the feet to stretch,” she orders. “Good. Now balance.”
At the beginning of each new step, she demonstrates the moves herself, feet sliding, arms stretching out gracefully. The six students, five girls, one boy, ranging in age from 14 to 18, follow the complex sequences.
“Everything you do must be nice and smooth,” she says, hands to hip, scrutinizing her dancers’ every move. And on the far wall, large black letters on white, are the words, “PRAISE HIM WITH TIMBREL AND DANCING,” and below, in smaller letters, the source: Psalms 150:4.
“Our purpose is to be Psalm 150 in action,” Gillespie says. 
Ballet Magnificat!/Classical Ballet Memphis
7 p.m. Tuesday, May 12th
$15; $10 for students and seniors
Germantown Performing Arts Centre (757-7256)