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Kathy Thibodeaux had a problem, a disagreement with her ballet company over her freedom of artistic expression.

The principal dancer in Ballet Mississippi was headed for the 1982 International Ballet Competition, the Olympics of dance, and her chance to go toe-to-toe against the best in the world.

The conflict arose over her choice of music. Kathy wanted to include in her program "We Shall Behold Him," a newly released song by Sandi Patty. But the company's directors were convinced that a song with a clear Christian message would ruin Kathy's chance of winning a medal even before she stepped on the stage.

	The name for Kathy's ballet company comes from The Magnificat, Mary's song recorded in Luke 1:46: "My soul doth magnify the Lord."

The judges would be from all over the globe, they reminded her, some Communists and atheists. Certain judges, they feared, would knock points off simply because of the song.

"They were thinking this was not the time or the place," Kathy says. "[But] I really knew it was something the Lord wanted me to do." It was a major step toward greater plans God had for her. Eventually, he would call her out of the world of secular dance to form Ballet Magnificat!, the first Christian ballet company in the United States. But before any global competitions or Christian ballet, Christ first had to claim Kathy's heart and talent for himself.

The Lord and the dance At the age of six, Kathy Denton, the oldest of four girls, took her first dance class in Jackson, Mississippi. Her three sisters took ballet, too, but Kathy was the only one who stayed with it.

After training at the Jackson Ballet School, she was one of the initial dancers to sign with the Jackson Ballet Company (later to become Ballet Mississippi) when it went professional in 1978.

The Dentons showed only nominal interest in spiritual matters. But when Kathy was 19, her youngest sister, 16-year-old Amy, was killed in a car crash when two drunken off-duty police officers crossed into her lane. Five people died.

During her spiritual awakening, Kathy met a musician named Keith Thibodeaux, a drummer in David and the Giants, a popular Christian rock band. As a child, Keith had played the role of Little Ricky on "I Love Lucy" and Johnny Paul on "The Andy Griffith Show."

Three months after they met, Keith and Kathy married. Then, one night at a David and the Giants concert, Kathy committed her life to Christ. Her conversion raised doubts about her future as a dancer.

"When I became a Christian, I didn't know whether to dance or to give it up," Kathy says. "I felt the Lord had given me the talent, so I tried to be a witness in the secular company. I wasn't a talkative person, so sometimes it was hard for me to express my love for the Lord except in my dancing. But I'd invite dancers to church and when the opportunity arose, tell them what the Lord was doing in my life."

Two years later, in 1982, the International Ballet Competition came to Jackson. Kathy's newfound faith was tested in a very public way.

Not budging on "Behold Him"
As the directors of Ballet Mississippi prepared to host the 1982 International Competition, they selected their principal dancer to represent the city.

Kathy's life-long dream had been to join a renowned ballet company, a given when you win a major ballet competition. This opportunity seemed the means to her goal.

In February, Kathy competed in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of five regional sites. She was the only dancer chosen from the senior division. Now her training stepped up for the big dance in June.

Each dancer is required to submit a three-part dance program in advance—a program that can't be changed once it's in the hands of the officials. The deadline was May.

That's when the challenge came.

The competition began with the required classical selections. Kathy chose "Swan Lake" and "Don Quixote." For the second round, if she made it that far, she chose an 8-minute pas de deux from "Sestetto," her contemporary piece (choreography done within the last five years). Her choice for the third round struck collective fear into her superiors. The classical selection—"Le Corsaire"—didn't raise any eyebrows. But "We Shall Behold Him," submitted as her final contemporary piece, definitely did; it was too "religious."

The directors were thinking about winning a competition. The dancer was thinking about obeying God.

For the next three months, they tried to convince Kathy to change her program. They phoned her. They called meetings and put her on the spot. Even officials of the Ballet International Competition urged her to change her mind.

"It was very hard," Kathy says. "I'd always tried not to offend anyone. This was offensive to them. Quite a few times I'd go home crying to Keith." Few people outside her family knew what was going on.

When the local press reported the disagreement, the pressure increased. The publicity, however, brought a benefit. "The Christians in Jackson were supportive," she says. "A lot of people were praying for me. They'd recognize me on the street and offer words of encouragement."

"We Shall Behold Him" remained on the program.

Dancing the night away
For two weeks, more than 100 dancers converged on Jackson for the international competition. After the four nights of the first round, the judges cut the number of competitors by half.

After the second round, they cut it by half again. The waiting gave Kathy a nervous stomach. Only 25 dancers would go to the third and final round.

The host city's principal dancer survived; Kathy was in the hunt for a medal.

Kathy drew the next-to-last spot on the program the night of the finals. She wouldn't take the stage until after 11 P.M., first dancing the classical piece, then after a short intermission, performing to "We Shall Behold Him." Between dances, Kathy stayed in her dressing room, prayed with her choreographer, and "tried to keep my body warm."

"God gave me such peace," she says. "I was so thankful the Lord had allowed me to make it to the third round."

After a half-year of preparation and months of defending her choice, Kathy danced before the world to the glory of God. The audience, which filled the 2,300-seat civic center, gave her the only standing ovation of the night. The results would be announced the next morning.

The next day at 10 A.M. the judges presented Kathy with a silver medal. "My main goal was to share my love of the Lord with these dancers and judges the best I knew how," she says. "The Lord blessed me with that medal."

God's company
Dancers who win in the International Ballet Competition can dance wherever they want. A lifetime of hard work and dedication to a dream was about to be realized.

But it wasn't important any more. Kathy declined offers to dance in New York and elsewhere. God had something else for her to do—right in Jackson, Mississippi.

In 1986, four years after her medal-winning performance, Kathy resigned from Ballet Mississippi. She wanted to form a Christian dance company. Once again, the directors tried to convince her she was making a mistake. They offered her more money, even promised she could do Christian pieces. But "staying wasn't an option," said Kathy.

She found the name for her new company in The Magnificat, the beautiful song of Mary recorded in Luke 1:46: "My soul doth magnify the Lord." Ballet Magnificat! was launched on nothing but a passionate vision and God's calling. Kathy had no studio, no dancers, no money. But once again, God used the publicity about her decision to rally Christians and provide the resources.

Within a day, Dr. Newton Wilson, the new president of Belhaven College (a Presbyterian school in Jackson), offered free use of studio and office space. Ballet Magnificat! was born.

Growing by leaps and bounds
Today, Kathy Thibodeaux stands in her mirrored rehearsal hall. Ballet Magnificat! no longer is a shoe-string operation cramped in borrowed space on a college campus. A former office supplies warehouse has been transformed into their home.

Keith is executive director of the company. He and Kathy share an office with a real desk and couch. (In the office closet is stored every single episode of "I Love Lucy"—a tape set given to Keith by a TV station that had stopped broadcasting the show.)

As Kathy claps the rhythm, nearly 40 dancers follow her lead. Eleven are in the touring company; eleven are apprentices. The rest are either paying trainees, students in her ballet school, or the younger members of Ballet Magnificat! II or the junior company.

They come from all over the United States, and beyond. One of the first dancers she hired 16 years ago is from Canada. Two newcomers are Christian teenagers straight from the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia who plan to return home when "God says it's right" to start a Christian troupe, too.

Success hasn't come quickly for the company. There have been skeptics in both the secular and the Christian world. Churches had to be persuaded to accept her vision.

The company is making believers, as it were, and "reclaiming dance for God." They travel half of each month, year-round, usually by bus. They dance in churches and civic centers, sometimes taking in $500 for a night, sometimes $5,000.

When they aren't on the road, the members of the professional company and the apprentices—and sometimes the trainees—practice from 10 A.M. until 3 P.M. Each practice begins with a half-hour devotional time, then they work up until a 15-minute break during the noon hour.

Bible verses are taped to walls and doors all around the studio, even in the restrooms.

The troupe takes its job seriously, but the dancers feel like a family, too. On a hot September day last year, as Kathy puts the dancers through their paces, two-year-old Miriam runs through the dancers, stops to imitate them a moment, then makes a beeline to Kathy. Without missing a beat, Kathy picks her up, hangs her upside down, kisses her, then slings her over her hip as she keeps her eye on everyone else.

Miriam's mother is Dina Dryden, one of the dancers; she is five months pregnant with her third child and about to embark on her final road trip before settling in to concentrate on the new baby. Miriam's father, Tim, is in charge of the company's schedule.

Technical skills, spiritual drive
Kathy's role is more than artistic director. At 42, she is light as a feather, lithe as a teenager. She still travels and dances with her company.

One special lifelong student has been Kathy and Keith's daughter, Tara, 19. "She was dancing the minute she could walk," Kathy says. Tara has been dancing with the company for years, making the semifinals in the 1994 International Competition. Currently, she has put full-time dancing aside to go to college.

In 1986, Kathy didn't know any other Christian dancers. Now she knows God's call on her life is to help reclaim the arts for the Lord.

"In the dance world, you're only accepted for your technical excellence. For outsiders, the line was 'If it's Christian, it must not be very good,'" Kathy says. "We stress the technical ability with the spiritual walk. We are Christians who are good at what we do. After all, we're here to glorify the Lord."

To contact Ballet Magnificat! call 601-977-1001 or e-mail: bmag@teclink.net.

A Christian Reader original article.

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
Click here for reprint information.

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