Anointed Movement: How It All Began
Broadway shows, world tours, and $3,000 a week are only fun for a while...
Broadway shows, world tours, and $3,000 a week are only fun for a while. Of course, they may be fun for a lifetime, but when Christ works His way into the center of our lives, desires change and some things become less important. This is why Renee and Peter Liciaga, current members of FBC, left careers that boasted twenty-seven years in the entertainment business – filled with Cats, Dream Girls, Evita and Westside Story performances and dances with Michael Jackson – to use their gifts in a new way.
“I began to wonder how I could still use my talents and be in the world, but not of the world,” Renee says of her thoughts after she and her husband came to know the Lord in their adulthood. “I sensed God saying, ‘Now you’re going to do it for me, for my glory.’”
A few years later, the Anointed Movement praise dance ministry was born. With a core of six women, Renee slowly recruited women from her bible studies, urging them to join the ministry and insisting that the only prerequisite was a heart wanting to bring glory to God. “It’s not necessarily about technical jazz or ballet – it’s about even a hand gesture,” she would insist to women who were active in performing arts ministries like puppet shows and vocal performances, but who had never considered dance as a way of praising God and ministering to others. Now Anointed Movement has been an FBC ministry for three years and God has drawn over fifteen women into the fold, ranging in age from seven to seventy.
The group performs interpretive dances to worship songs, digging into the lyrics and highlighting concepts with their movements. “We pray as we go through the lyrics, trying to figure out which movements would be best,” Renee explains, noting that when everyone combs through the words, real growth happens in the dancers, and they hope their audience has the opportunity to understand the song differently when it is set to movement.
“Once you have committed yourself to the Word, it’s not just about the mental and the spiritual, but also the physical,” Renee says. “We are commanded to have our bodies be a living sacrifice, and God put it on my heart to express my emotions through dance and drama.”
The group has ministered to hundreds in the South Jersey and Philadelphia region, through Christmas and Easter dramas and performances for children’s church, nursing homes, and foster care, sometimes as full programs with singers, musicians, and a speaker. But the ministry has not come without challenges. No matter how big of a stickler Renee remains by telling her dancers to pull up their low-riding pants, loosen their tops, and lengthen their skirts, there have been some who try to challenge her rules about modesty, Christ-centered lyrics, and the group’s commitment to let God have the glory.
“It’s not about entertainment, it is a ministry – just because you’re a talented dancer doesn’t mean you’re called to the ministry,” Renee reminds girls who are eager to join. But even for those that do seem called to the ministry and not just drawn to the stage, there can be real issues with the old nature still hanging on. Renee attempts to overcome these tendencies through prayer, strong leadership, and group accountability.
“It’s so important that the leadership is there and everyone is on one accord, whether through Bible study or accountability groups,” says Renee. “It’s always about us checking our hearts. We have to make sure that it’s not about us, and that we’re never causing anyone to struggle or stumble.”
Although Renee was not always concerned with such things before she came to Christ, God did plant seeds of performing arts early in her life. Originally from South Jersey, Renee grew up in a home where people like Patti LaBelle and Marvin Gay were regular visitors. With her mother a singer in doo-wop group and her father a musician and song writer, Renee was seemingly destined for the stage. At age twelve, she declared that her goal was to be on Broadway, and she began auditioning at local theme parks, including Hershey, where she met her husband.
Even though she has stepped off Broadway, Renee hasn’t completely turned her back on the city. Recently she was in New York teaching workers at TD Bank a dance routine. “I take the gospel wherever I go,” she says. And she will take the gospel and her style of proclaiming it to Moorestown in March, where she will run a workshop in praise dance for those interested in starting their own dance ministry.
“Dance without the Holy Spirit is just movement,” Renee reflects. But dance with the Holy Spirit is a beautiful form of worship, and Anointed Movement continues to bless us with stunning, redemptive movement every time they perform.
