Friday, March 21, 2008

The Dancing Archbishop


Few people realize that the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams (or Willsta Wiggle Hips as we called him) used to be part of a very progressive liturgical dance troupe. It was back in the early 1980s and he was Priest of the Welsh Parish of
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. We were in town performing an interpretation of the Flood narrative, and aside from getting very wet (we used a lot of water), he was taken by the freedom of dance and joined on the spot.

He didn't stay in the troupe for very long as he had the tendency to make up his own interpretation and go off by himself in the midst of the dance. I also recall one famous performance where his role was, through the use of a swirling ribbon, to gather all the dancers into a unified group in the center of the stage, which he failed at spectacularly. The problem was he talked plenty about getting us all together in the center, but everyone knew his heart wasn't in it - he always preferred us all over the place, doing our own thing.

All the same he will be remembered as the only dancer I worked with who used two and a half cans of hair spray to model his hair, and that was just his eyebrows.

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