Dancing with the Women

I must admit, I was super excited to imagine a capable, sensitive, and purposeful woman at the helm in our White House. This vision will not come to pass as soon as I would like! So, I dedicate this newsletter to a handful of other visionary, strong, and faithful women! Please join me in finding ways to bring the soulful gifts of the feminine to our world at such a critical time. 

First of all, I’d like to share about my adventures in New York City last month dancing with my dear friend and mentor, Carla deSola. What an awesome opportunity for me to spend the week with members of the Omega Liturgical Dance Company from the past 50 years. Amazing dancers and amazing spirits! Above you can see pictured a handful of Omega Dancers in their piece entitled, “The Hill We Climb.” Indeed! I put together a bit of a video depicting Carla’s 50 year legacy (as we celebrated in NYC) for you to enjoy. I am so grateful that Carla pioneered the gift of Liturgical Dance and that I can continue to dance in her footsteps! 

And keep on reading for more women to uphold & celebrate!

Carla DeSola – Honoring 50 years!

“I Will Live Until I Die” Video Showing

Another one of my “sheroes” is Sr. Thea Bowman, pioneer in racial & social justice, as well as beacon of light in music and prayer. Now you can enjoy our dynamic depiction of Thea Bowman’s life story in our video showing!

REgister for our zoom showing

Inter-Spiritual Celebration

When we cultivate peace in our selves and in our bodies, we honor the feminine path of wisdom. Then our action in the world can spring from inner sources & re-sources.

It is my tradition to bring embodied prayer to our Seattle Inter-Spiritual Celebration each November. This year we will meet at

St. Joseph Church
Sunday November 24th
at 2:30 pm

Come gather with those from many traditions to share in practices & prayers for peace!

Register for the Inter-Spiritual gathering

Women of Wisdom Grand Finale

When women come together, there is often a solidarity of beauty, courage, healing and empowerment that unfolds. For many years, I had the blessing of dancing at the Women of Wisdom Conference in Seattle. Here you can witness our final celebration of our Women of Wisdom gathering after 32 years!

Ancestors & Archetypes: A Journey Through Expressive Arts

with Betsey Beckman & Kayce Stevens Hughlett
April 21-25, 2025
St. Andrew’s House; Hood Canal, WA

Sneak peek into our brand new offering!

My dear friend, Kayce Hughlett & I have been leading Awakening the Creative Spirit together for the last handful of years, and we have an amazing time wandering in the land of art, poetry, dance, nature, ancestry, and archetype. So, we’ve come up with a brand new retreat … to birth new adventures inner and outer! Here’s a bit of a taste:

Symbol & Spirit. Archetypes & Ancestors. Signs & Soul Guides.

Join master facilitators, Betsey Beckman and Kayce Stevens Hughlett, as we embark on a playful and soul-filled journey through the expressive arts to explore how Archetypes & Ancestors enhance our Spiritual lives. (I personally am calling on our wise & well spiritual ancestors to help us move through this tumultuous time on our planet!)

Our home for the week is the wonderful St. Andrews House on Hood Canal in beautiful Washington State. A private room awaits you, along with lovingly prepared meals, acres of wooded property, and the spirit of the Coastal Peoples.

Enjoy 4 days and nights filled with guided experiences, artmaking and movement, journaling, singing, SoulCollage®, Interplay, solo time and wild wandering.

More info will be forthcoming!

Limited to 12 participants. $1445

Submit a Deposit for registration

In Closing

This October, for the Feast of St. Francis, I had the opportunity to dance parts of the Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) with my dear friend, Vania Bynum. This music is incredibly uplifting, and calls us all to both honor Mother Earth and also hear her cries. I am grateful for the gifts of our Earth Mama as well as the beauty of Brother Sun & Sister Moon! Please enjoy this piece, and if you’d like to see a few more of the selections from Missa Gaia, you can find them here –

Kyrie
Sanctus

May the gifts & challenges of this moment in time bless you, give you courage, and may our mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers, sons, cousins & kin from all countries learn to live in love, respect, honor & peace. Many blessings, dear friends! 

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: November 12, 2024 by

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Dancing Into the Woods

What do Little Red Riding Hood, Jack & the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, have in common? They all come together for adventures in one musical entitled: Into the Woods! As you may have guessed, after my Bali trip earlier this summer, I headed to my family vacation in Michigan with all my grandnieces/nephews. We have a tradition of creating a video production each year, and despite our best efforts to go in a direction of simplicity, we ended up being totally enthralled with the intersection of beloved fairy tale characters all engaging in a complex & playful romp in the woods!

There is a lot going on in our world right now. So many clashing struggles and hopes! In this fairy tale, each character has a wish … and each has to go on a challenging adventure to help participate in his/her wish coming true. One of my favorite moments in the play is when Cinderella visits the grave of her deceased mother to ask her to help realize her dreams. With a blend of prayer, spiritual support & commitment, magic can happen!

I’ll warn you that our production is an hour long! But I invite you to curl up with some popcorn and enter into the journey of dreams coming true (with music written by Steven Sondheim, no less!) Creating with these children is one of my dreams coming true, and helps me live in the world of beauty that children open up in our hearts. (Plus the adults in the family are courageous enough to enter the creative journey, too!)

The video is here for your inspiration and entertainment! Below that, please find some opportunities to dance into the fall with me. Blessings!

Into the Woods

SpiritPlay Class in Seattle!

Do you live in Seattle? Come play & pray with us!

SpiritPlay has become a staple of Seattle’s InterPlay offerings! Now in our 24th year, we have developed a wonderful community of faith and foolishness. This monthly series is for those grounded in Christianity who so long for the spontaneity of InterPlay to help us navigate the humble & holy journey of our lives. This year, we are now in a new location at St. Joseph Church! Come explore becoming the Body of Christ together!

Begins October 8th!

For more information or to register, email me!

The Love of Thousands

Praying with Angels, Saints, & Ancestors Prayer Cycle – Video Launch!
Begins October 11th
(two releases weekly for 7 weeks!)

Exciting news! Here at Abbey of the Arts we are releasing a new Video Prayer Cycle!
It is always such a rich process to create prayer dances to help enflesh the material in Christine Paintner’s offerings. And the themes of Angels, Saints and Ancestors are quite potent as we move into the fall. As producer, I am overseeing the finishing touches on the 28 video dance prayers for all our Morning & Evening Prayers. (Woohoo – good thing I love to edit!) This is one of our favorite Abbey offerings – free to all. Enjoy!

Guest dance artists include:
Corey Action, Lorraine Bayes, Vania Bynum, Freya Checchetti, Agnotti Cowie, Jocelyn Horne, Leah Mann, Soyinka Rahim, & Karin Stevens

To access all the Prayer Cycles, click here.

Women of Wisdom Grand Finale

Sunday September 22nd 1:00 – 4:30

For many years, I had the blessing of offering dance meditations at the Women of Wisdom Conference in Seattle. As this journey comes to a close, I am honored to help folks celebrate in beauty. Join us for some memories and mutual inspiration!

To register for the closing ceremonies, click here!

Do you live in or near NYC? I’ll be there the week of October 23-27th for a special celebration of Omega Liturgical Dance Company founded by Carla DeSola in 1974. I’ve known Carla for about 45 of those 50 years! There will be a special liturgy celebrated on Sunday October 27th with Omega Liturgical Dance Company and guests (including me!) Let me know if you can join us for worship (and a visit that week!)

Dancing with the Divine: Celebrating 50 Years!
Sunday October 27th
11:00 Mass
Riverside Church
4990 Riverside Dr. (at 120th St.)
NY, NY

In Closing

A Short Poem!

I must say it is always a gift to engage with my InterPlay community in Seattle. They help me stay sane in a crazy world! Here is a short poem written by Francine Walls entitled “Emergency Poem” and danced by me …. in case you need a little help to survive!

Love and blessings, dear friends!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: September 17, 2024 by

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Balinese Beauty

Blessings of summer! I hope you are having a refreshing and restorative season!

I mentioned in my last missive that I was heading on pilgrimage to the magical island of Bali (in Indonesia.) What an amazing adventure in dance, spirit, and artistry! How blessed that my friend, Agnotti Cowie organized this immersion trip through InterPlay so we could create our own beauty as well as join in the dance, music, mask-making, & shadow puppetry of Bali. 

After 45 years passing since I wrote my senior thesis on the Dance in Bali, it was such a gift to come full circle and experience a culture where artistry is sacred and passed down through the generations. Although one can see that this tradition is being invaded by western ways & iPhones galore, still the gifts of the ancient prevail, and the beauty of daily practice coaxes one into a sense of open-hearted awe and gratitude. 

Much is changing in our world today, and the political landscape in the US has opened some new doors, for which I am very grateful! Let us continue to foster our own practices that bring us a sense of openness, awe & gratitude, as well as caring for those on the margins. Truly, every time we touch our feet on the ground, we are walking/dancing on holy ground! 

I made a narrated video of my Balinese adventures so you can enter the magic of dancing in Bali with me!

Interview in Jesuit Magazine: Jivan

I’m so grateful to Fr. Prashant Olalekar, SJ, my dear InterPlaying friend from India who kindly interviewed me for this latest Jesuit publication. You can see a glimpse below, or click here  (and scroll to page 11) to read the whole article!

The Soul of a Pilgrim Prayer Cycle

Here’s a reminder that at Abbey of the Arts we have recently launched our new Prayer Cycle about the practice of pilgrimage. Pray with a whole host of prayer/dance videos & daily meditations for free – woohoo! Such a blessing to share. 

To partake of our morning & evening prayers, click here.

In Closing

For my friends who are musicians, I thought you’d enjoy a peek at the gamelan players at the village festival we attended in Bali. It was a joy to see the orchestra members up close, and to witness our teacher dancing to their music. The surprise was when our teacher called us up to dance … which caught us completely off guard! The raucous laughter of the villagers witnessing our good faith attempts was a true gift. We are all family! 

Next: I’m off to Michigan for some family time in our own traditions. Enjoy your summer and happy dancing! 

Bets

Betsey Beckman, MM

PS … Wanna come dance with me over Labor Day weekend? I’ll be attending InterPlay Summer Camp. You can too!

Posted: July 31, 2024 by

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The Dancing Trinity

Happy Summer! I hope you are having a joyous entrance into the season of gentle journeys & outdoor adventures. I have been wrapping up my projects for the year – so much to give thanks for! And I must admit, I am looking forward to letting go of my full schedule and embracing a more leisurely summer pace. I hope you have some sweetness and space to look forward to also! (Scroll to the bottom for my news about Bali!)

Meanwhile, I wanted to share that a couple weeks ago was Trinity Sunday, traditionally celebrated by Christian Churches on the first Sunday after Pentecost. At my parish, Dcn. Steve Wodzanowski (a dynamic leader in our community) told me he would be preaching on the Trinity, and he discovered some interesting theology. He writes – 

“The very mystical Cappadocian Fathers of 4th Century eastern Turkey (Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, and Basil of Caeserea) developed some highly sophisticated thinking on the TRINITY. It took three centuries of reflection on the Gospels to have the courage to say it, but they circled around to the best metaphor they could find, and the Greek word they daringly came up with was PERICHORESIS, or circle dance.

“They wrote: ‘Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three – a circle dance of love. And God is not just a dancer. God is the dance itself.'”

I love this dynamic expression of the movement of the Divine presence! With Steve’s invitation, this was the perfect opportunity to bring Trinity to life in a joyous embodied way. I was able to invite two of my dancing friends from our Thea Bowman production to be part of a dancing trio with me. (I love how Thea Bowman is continuing to bring new energy and collaboration to our community!) 

In Steve’s homily he explained that the most common naming of persons in the Trinity is Father, Son, and Spirit. But throughout the centuries, there have been other ways of envisioning this dance within the Divine. Julian of Norwich, through her contemplation of the hazelnut, named the Trinity as: Maker, Lover, and Keeper. (At Abbey of the Arts, we have a wonderful Doxology with this imagery which you can enjoy here! ) Another of my favorite ways of naming Trinity is Source of All Being, Incarnate Word, and the Love that Flows Between. Makes me feel like dancing! 

For our dance of Trinity, we chose to interpret a beautiful song entitled: How Wonderful the Three-in-One with lyrics by Brian Wren. In this song, the poet names the three persons as: Lover, Beloved, Empowering Friend. We thoroughly enjoyed responding to these qualities in the dance, and also drawing on the image & colors from the artwork by Mary Southard, CSJ, pictured above. 

I give thanks to Dcn. Steve for bringing such beautiful imagery and invitation to our St. Joseph community! I hope you enjoy the dance, and scroll down for a few more celebratory stories from the season!

Thea Bowman Video Showing!

We had an awesome showing of our Thea Bowman video this past week here in Seattle! Catch a glimpse here of the joyous energy. We plan to do host a zoom showing in the fall – so stay tuned!

The Soul of a Pilgrim Prayer Cycle

Exciting news! Here at Abbey of the Arts we have just completed the launch of our new Prayer Cycle! In these 14 visual and audio podcasts, you can dive into the practice of pilgrimage through song, word, dance, gesture, & silence. Pray with a whole host of prayer/dance videos for free – woohoo! Such a blessing to share. 

To partake of our morning & evening prayers click here.

We Have Got a Van!

My husband, Charlie and I have been supporting our friends in Tororo, Uganda in expanding their Dance, Music and Artistry for the children at Ma’s Junior School and beyond. This week, we helped our friend, Bernard Omuse purchase a van for their community. Enjoy this amazing outpouring of gratitude! May we all be filled with this spirit of gratitude for the gifts of life!

In Closing: Dancing in Bali!

One of my summer adventures coming soon is that I am heading to Bali! When I was in my senior year at Georgetown University, I was studying Sacred Dance as part of my BA in Theology. I wrote my senior thesis on the Dance in Bali as Religious Expression. Now, 45 years later, I get to actually travel to this beautiful Indonesian Island with a group of InterPlayers! We will be practicing InterPlay in the mornings and studying Balinese dance in the afternoon, so I will have lots to share in my next newsletter! Have a joyous summer and keep dancing!  

Blessings of the dance,

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: June 19, 2024 by

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Dancing Into New Dreams

Happy Easter season! I hope you are enjoying the flowering of Spring and the gifts of resurrection in your life. I have so much to share! 

Mostly I want to say that we did it! We completed our Thea Bowman play – I Will Live Until I Die,written by ValLimar Jansen and performed by a cast of 50 folks here in Seattle! What an amazing adventure! I am so blessed that the project was supported by my new parish, St. Joseph, and that we had the opportunity to stage the play in our former church sanctuary of St. Patrick’s. What an awesome story of resurrection for our St. Pat’s community and building. For two sold-out nights, we brought together Latin chants & Gospel music, nuns & drums, dancers, actors, & choirs to embody the dynamic gifts of Sr. Thea Bowman, African American nun and energizing gift to our church and world! (As you may remember, she is being considered for candidacy for sainthood in the Catholic Church. May it be so!) 

When I looked out to see a full house both nights, with audience members beaming with music, laughter, tears, and raucous song, I truly felt that I had a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. There is definitely gonna be some dancing in heaven ... and not all those angels are “white!” And besides the joy of performance, it was also a significant step for me to become producer of such a large event with engagement from three different parishes, Seattle University and the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center. My heart is full of gratitude! 

You can catch a glimpse of “Sing When the Spirit Says Sing!” in the video below. We hope to schedule an online viewing of the whole show sometime this fall, so folks everywhere can partake! In the meantime, if you are in the Seattle area, please check out our in person Video Party below! 

Read on for a few more sweet stories, and opportunities. And whatever the challenges facing you in this moment, may the gifts of color, beauty, dance & embodiment give you a taste of dancing into new dreams on the way!

If you are in Seattle, I hope you can join us for our video showing (with popcorn!) of our Thea Bowman production! Please email me to RSVP, or with questions!

The Soul of a Pilgrim Prayer Cycle

Exciting news! Here at Abbey of the Arts we have a new Prayer Cycle launching! In these 14 visual and audio podcasts, you can dive into the practice of pilgrimage through prayers of song, word, dance, gesture, & silence. You can pray with a whole host of prayer/dance videos for free – woohoo! Two new podcasts are released each week for 7 weeks. Such a blessing to share. 

To partake of our morning & evening prayers, click here.

Article on Dance & Spiritual Direction

I had the honor of writing an article for the Canadian magazine, “Journey”. This issue is about Creativity in Spiritual Direction, and it has a wealth of information about the arts! My article is entitled: “Dancing Our Way to the Divine” (first page pictured below.) If you’d like to download a pdf of the whole magazine, click here!

Awakening the Creative Spirit ~ We Did It!

St. Andrew’s Retreat House, Pacific Northwest with Kayce Hughlett & Betsey Beckman

This LIVE experiential retreat is one of our signature courses at Abbey of the Arts! We had an awesome group this year! Do you think you might be up for jumping in next year? It is such an honor to lead this program with my friend and colleague, Kayce Hughlett. We are considering offering this (or possibly another retreat next spring.) Let us know if you are would be interested, and stay tuned! 

To read about the program or for inspiration, click here.

In Closing

Celebrating 50 Years!

The first play I ever performed in during high school was Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by my now long-time friend, Michael Sparough, SJ.  It was a stunning production, and in it I played Mme. de Cuigy (with the lace hat!) as well as a page/ pastrycook dancer, and a nun. We performed it in the chapel of St. X High School in Cincinnati … and this all took place exactly 50 years ago, May 3-5, 1974. This past week, I hosted a Zoom 50 year reunion of the key players, and we had an amazing time reflecting on the gifts from that shared experience and how they have continued to travel with us through time (not to mention that I just completed yet another full stage production in a former church sanctuary!) I hope you might enjoy a few images from the start of my career 50 years ago!  

Blessings of the dance, now and forever!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: May 9, 2024 by

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Dancing with a Prophetic Voice

Blessings of Lent to you! And blessings of Black History Month too! I’m sending out a quick note to you to invite you to two events celebrating the life of Sr. Thea Bowman, an amazing woman of faith and prophetic voice! She is one of six African Americans who are on the journey to sainthood in the Catholic Church. And to bring Thea Bowman to life, I introduce to you my beloved friend, ValLimar Jansen, a dynamic playwright, storyteller and amazing singer.

When Spirit taps you on the shoulder with an inspiration, you sometimes just go for it! That’s what happened for me in bringing ValLimar to Seattle with the musical she wrote on Thea Bowman. I have never taken on the role of producer for such a sizable project! How amazing to be bringing parishes, Gospel choirs, dancers and actors together to create this beauty. Not only that, we are staging the play in our former church, St. Patrick’s, which was closed over a year ago, and new life is being born in our beloved sanctuary! 

There are two offerings below … one online and one in Seattle! Please read below and join us in body or spirit for our upcoming adventures!

Abbey of the Arts Retreat on Thea Bowman

Friday February 23rd | 8-10am Pacific | 11-1 Eastern

Online offering!

ValLimar Jansen will be guiding us in this engaging, participatory mini-retreat for Abbey of the Arts. You don’t have to leave home to be infused with a bit of Thea Bowman’s joyous & prayerful inspiration.

Information and registration

Thea Bowman Musical!

March 1-2 Seattle

ValLimar Jansen, is not only a gifted singer, but also a playwright with a call to create community through the arts. She has written this musical about Thea Bowman, and with the help of various communities, we are bringing this show in Seattle! 

In the play, we follow Thea’s journey from Canton, Mississippi, to the all-white community of La Crosse, Wisconsin, 

where she became a nun and eventually a world-renowned pioneer of intercultural awareness, unity and acceptance. 

Near the end of Sr. Thea’s life, she addressed the Conference of American Bishops and delivered a stirring message, including moving all the Bishops to join in singing and swaying with her. Some say it was her first miracle! 

ValLimar plays Sr. Thea, and the musical includes 14 beloved Spirituals, four classic Gregorian Chants, with a talented cast bringing to life the story of Sr. Thea.

And of course, I’ll be dancing! 

Hope you can join us!

Listen to a radio interview with ValLimar & me about our show!

Get Tickets

In Closing

Here am I telling the story to spread the news for our upcoming show. Catch a glimpse of some of the beauty! And please keep us in your prayer. May we walk with Sr. Thea into a world of beauty, courage, cultural diversity and dancing the way of peace.

Blessings!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: February 22, 2024 by

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