[muawiyah]

Doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with his dancing either ~

But, back to the point, David danced. Whether he danced in a tabernacle or not that would be a relevant question and I didn't find out if he did so. On the other hand, he danced before/around, etc. the Ark.

There was no Temple at the time so it would have been quite impossible for him to dance in the Temple.

I think what we have are two different situations to discuss. One is this business of dancing in an RC church. Another is whether or not dancing is reported in the Bible to have ever occurred in a religious context.

Obviously dancing got a bad rep in the early days of Christianity when Herod was led astray by a dancing girl into chopping off John the Baptist's head. At the same time we can't know if dancing of any kind ever occurred in the earliest churches because those structures were either in India or Wales (with folks in the Mediterranean heartland continuing to use synagogues ~ according to many sources). I do not recall reading any early Christian literature that said anything one way or the other about India or Wales for that matter, but, that's where some of the first churches were as best anyone can tell.

Odds are good the folks in Inda danced while those in Wales sang in the choir.

[Antoninus]

Doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with his dancing either ~

Uh, yes it does. Forgive me, but I assumed you had some knowledge of the passage in question. Go here to read the whole thing:

http://www.drbo.org/chapter/10006.htm

But, back to the point, David danced.

Yes. And my point was that by dancing before the Ark, he did poorly. It was an indication of how haughty, arrogant, and sexually profligate he was already becoming.

I think what we have are two different situations to discuss. One is this business of dancing in an RC church. Another is whether or not dancing is reported in the Bible to have ever occurred in a religious context.

That it occurred is not in dispute. The point is, it was not a good thing. Similarly, there is no tradition of dance within the early Christian Church. If you can produce concrete evidence that the Syro-Malabar rite of the 1st through 4th centuries AD included dance, then by all means, do so. Otherwise, you're just operating from assumptions.