REBECCA'S JOURNEY: IMAGINING THE "UNIMAGINABLE"

Rebecca Beayni dreamed of going to Boston College to attend a graduate level workshop on liturgical dancing. The seed of that dream was planted a few years earlier when Fr. Bob Vereecke and the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble (BLDE) visited Regis College at the U of T. Over their two visits to Toronto, Rebecca witnessed the beauty and spirit-filled nature of this professional dance company and immediately wanted to learn more. She also came to realise how she and the Spirit Movers -- the liturgical dance group to which she belongs -- had much to offer the BLDE when the group was asked to actually lead some of the dance on the second event at Regis College.

Realizing this dream required a great deal of thought and planning for Rebecca’s mother, Susan. In order to avoid predictable barriers, every little detail was researched, including the physical challenges of travel. In an effort to make the journey more comfortable, the group traveled by van. The first leg of the trip included a ferry ride aboard The Breeze from Toronto to Rochester. Accompanying Rebecca was her mother, Susan, sister, Nicole, and fellow Spirit Movers Michael, Kim, Anna, and Steve.

The Spirit Movers were spread out over three apartments on campus residence, but often arranged to eat meals and tour Boston together. One evening they traveled an hour to Providence, Rhode Island for dinner, and a spectacular fire and water show on the river.

Boston College was established by Jesuits in 1863 and is perched atop Chestnut Hill, the same hill that marathoners call “heart-break hill”. Susan imagines they must not have used wheelchairs within the community back when the college was first established. Despite the challenge of pushing wheelchairs up and down the hill for two weeks, the view could not have been more beautiful. Rebecca truly enjoyed life on campus.

Fr. Bob’s classes were made up of 20 students, each with different gifts and different backgrounds. Some were trained dancers while others claimed they had “two left feet” and would have preferred to sit and just listen to the theology. Fr. Bob assured them that the classroom community would be supportive and welcoming if they summoned the courage to dance. With Rebecca and Michael providing inspiration, it was hard for anyone to say that they could not at least try. Fr. Bob and two dancers from the BLDE taught the group to interpret scripture and music and walked the group through the movements with exquisite skill and sensitivity. Along with the study of liturgical dance, its history and meaning, individuals were asked to present improvised dances throughout the week. Choreographed pieces were rehearsed and incorporated into the weekly liturgies at the college. Over the course of two weeks of sharing, emotionally and spiritually, the group bonded into a deeply caring community, which made leaving very difficult at the end of the session.

During one of the liturgies, IREPM (Boston College Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Minitry) associate professor Helen Blier spoke the following words: “Matthew tells us that Jesus couldn’t do many works in his own neighbourhood on account of their unbelief. There’s an unmistakable connection between the capacity to wonder, to act “as if”, to court the unthinkable, imagine the unimaginable – and the inbreaking of God’s gracious presence, the holy and liberating, delight-filled encounter with the fullness of life …” Helen spoke of a friend and his wife who had a daughter with Down Syndrome. Helen said it “wasn’t just in the daughter’s presence that the grace came, it was in the letting go that was required to create a hospitable space for her arrival, which was something the parents had to do themselves. The letting go of expectation and presumptions about how things were and were supposed to be. And the grace mediated by her presence was known to those who were able to do that.” Helen continued, “the question mark that allows us to imagine the unimaginable – that the gift of God’s presence can be incarnate in someone so familiar to us, that where we thought we should be is not where we’re supposed to be, that little girls with Down Syndrome are created in God’s image and likeness too, that people in wheelchairs can dance. God’s abundance is so much more than our limited presumptions could ever comprehend. What we are called to do is to turn and turn again ‘til we come to know the delight of that grace and in that find ourselves in the right place”.

Certainly Rebecca and the rest of the Spirit Movers gained so much from their experience at Boston College. Rebecca and Michael were the first two dancers using wheelchairs to ever take the course and there was an energy that came from dancing in such an inclusive group of people. In those two weeks, Rebecca and Michael’s presence also gave so much to the class. Many of them spoke of a transformation where instead of merely accepting Rebecca and Michael in the class, they really began to see them as dancers with immense strength and gifts to share. Leaving Boston, it became clear that Rebecca and Michael must continue to do the work of helping people imagine that which they once thought was “unimaginable”.