The impetus for this study is a quote from Nietzsche and a scene from 1 Samuel. Nietzsche’s claim that “I would only believe in a God that knows how to dance” is juxtaposed to King David “dancing before the Lord with all his might” (1 Sam 6:14). 

This study offers a theological exploration of dance that can be understood as an extended reflection on the space opened up by these two quotes. 

This study consists of two main sections, analysis and discussion. The analysis seeks to develop a theoretical frame that generates a conversation between a dance project by Nadia Vadori Gauthier called Une minute de danse par jour and the materialist process theology of Catherine Keller. The discussion section applies this frame, which consists of three concepts that emerge from Nadia’s project: daily, ordinary, and resistant and Keller’s concepts of entanglement, apophatic matter, and intercarnation. 

The study explores how and in what ways Keller’s dynamic, process materialist theology might reveal the theological implications of Nadia’s daily dance project, implications that literally embody Keller’s theological approach and extend it beyond academic theology, into the very dance of life