Can I have this dance?

This original piece of music seeks to extend theological aesthetics’ focus on literature and representational arts to the artform of “musicking”. The underlying research position is that music-making is an essential form of human meaning-making beyond or even underlying the duality of verbal communication. The specific research question underlying Can I have this Dance? is the value of human sexuality and marriage in a faith that has often been obsessed with the sins of the flesh and undervalued the vocation of Christian marriage. Guided by the spirituality and theology work of Rosemary Haughton, two versions of the song perform the embodied love of God in the Eucharist and the reality of self-giving enacted through human sexuality and marriage.

While there is a growing volume of works about music in theology, there is very little research attempting to theologise through music. Through its specific symbolic processes and semiotic patterning of experience and understanding, music can exteriorise aspects of conversion and Christian doctrine in ways that cannot be accessed solely through theoretical reasoning. Both the genre and lyrics of Can I have this Dance? Challenge negative prejudices about the separation of body, spirit and soul.

These two versions of the song was produced by Multi-Platinum Award Winning Producer Adrian Hannan at The Song Store, VIC; launched at The Cave Inn, Brisbane, while livestreamed to an international audience from across Australia, Asia, Europe, the USA, and Latin America; and released by Willow Publishing Party Ltd. In June 2022, it was published by Bloomsbury as an intrinsic part of chapter sixteen on "What role does sexuality have in Christian faith?” in Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt.

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