Moving Heaven and Earth: A Womanist Dogmatics of Black Dance as Basileia

Abstract

What difference does heaven make for black women? What does it mean for black women to consider heaven? Does an announcement of the difference heaven makes or the assertion even that heaven makes a difference at all, matter for black women when the hellish truth of life too often scars the everydayness of their social and spiritual realities? These are decisive questions, especially for black women in the Black church—those preaching women, “mothers” of the church, Sunday school teachers, powder room attendants, choir soloists, ladies’ ushers, daytime receptionists, pastor’s aides, and pew warmers—all who count themselves