Dance is a language unto itself.
It can express emotions and ideas, and for Cheri Orr it’s also a way to connect with God and to help others connect with God.
She and her husband, artist Kristopher Orr, are the co-founders of Jubilee Arts Collective, a faith-based nonprofit that takes dance and visual art into community spaces that might not be exposed to art or the gospel.
“We’ll take it to people in places often unseen or overlooked and bring this as a gift,” said Orr, the group’s executive director. “We want to not just give them a warm, cozy feeling, but invite them into a relationship that can transform their life with God.”
This type of work is not unfamiliar to Orr, a member of Ormao Dance Company since 2001 who also teaches in Ormao’s Dance for Parkinson’s outreach program. Jubilee is a rebrand of Open Sky Colorado, a faith-based, outreach-focused dance company she’s been leading for two years.
The dance collective will offer a free concert Saturday at The Road @ Chapel Hills.
Jubilee also will offer a visual arts outreach similar to the dance outreach. Artists will do group shows themed around the gospel and restoration and go into community spaces to share art and provide opportunities for people to create their own.
The nonprofit Southern Colorado Youth for Christ, a ministry for troubled kids, has sponsored Jubilee for about a year and has brought its dance program to its four facilities: Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center, Spring Creek Youth Services Center, Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center in Cañon City and Pueblo Youth Services Center.
It was the first time Southern Colorado Youth for Christ brought dance to the facilities.
“The kids really loved the program. They were receptive not just to the dancing, but to the testimonies and music,” said Southern Colorado Youth for Christ Executive Director Andrew LaValley.
“It’s something different, but like anything else, these kids respond to the love of God. They know these people care and they talk to the kids in a loving, caring way.”
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The six-person, auditioned dance company, including Orr, goes out into the community once or twice a month, often to homeless shelters, churches, ministry events and women’s and youth correctional facilities. They do a minidance concert, share stories and testimony about what God has done in their lives, and sometimes do dance workshops with residents.
“At the women’s prison and youth treatment center, we were met with please come back, do more dance with us,” Orr said. “They want to show us they have dances they’re working on in their free time. Dance is a common language of experiencing the good and hard things in life. It’s our language we can speak through and it builds relationship.”
The Saturday performance will feature the same repertory they do during outreach and a discussion about how they’ve seen God touch lives through dance.
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“We’ve seen youth that wouldn’t speak to others,” Orr said, “and came up to us and said can I show you my dance.”
The company performs to songs such as “Amazing Grace” and “Rescue,” by contemporary Christian artist Lauren Daigle, as well as spoken word poet Jefferson Bethke’s piece “The Greatest Artist of All Time.”
“Dance is community and bringing people together for the joint experience of joy and freedom,” Orr said.
“When we can gather together and move, I see people open up and reach out to others and know themselves better and connect with God or people. It’s really powerful.”