Item 1777 - The freedom to dance

1 p. of textual records

This item is a half-page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘The Freedom to Dance’, published in the Meditation section of the Catholic New Times of Toronto, ON., April 12, 1992, p. 3. The item is from Nouwen's lecture "A Time to Mourn. A Time to Dance" which he gave at Christian Counselling Services' "Celebration 25," on February 4 and 5, 1992 in Toronto. Nouwen begins the article by stating, ‘The Spirit of healing that makes us mourn is the same Spirit that makes us dance’. Nouwen suggests that mourning and dancing are never separated. He goes on to say ‘To heal is to teach people to dance in the awareness that their many losses, when mourned deeply, are the basis of the choreography of their dance’. Nouwen asks, ‘Can you feel the freedom that rises up in you when you have been stripped naked and have nothing to inhibit your movements anymore?’ Nouwen concludes the article by telling a story about a friend of his who visited his father who has Alzheimer’s.

Published in Catholic New Times 16, no. 8 (March 12, 1992): 8-9.
Item is 3rd in a series of 5 articles. Archives only has the first 3 parts of the series. See Published works series, items 1769 and 1771.
The themes of this article were collected in: Nouwen, Henri, 'Turn My Mourning into Dancing', ed. Timothy Jones, W Publishing Group, 2001.

Added by L Joson, 21 November 2017