This dance class didn't begin with warm-ups and stretches, but with heads bowed and hands clasped.

"May we glorify you with every step we take," Sharry Allison prayed.

She wore a flowing white skirt and a royal-blue sash, trimmed in gold -- a nontraditional choice of dance wear, unless you're in a messianic Jewish synagogue.

Every Saturday, members of Congregation Beth Shalom in North Augusta practice the dances they use at each service.

"Dance has always been part of the Jewish tradition," said Don Lansing, the messianic congregation's rabbi.

The Tanakh and Bible cite several instances of dance. Those verses serve as inspiration for the dance team at Stevens Creek Church in Augusta.

"People have always used dance to worship," said Patti Barcklow, a dance team member. "It gets people up out of their seats and closer to God."

Each week, 10 to 15 members rehearse the dances they'll perform every few weeks at each of Stevens Creek's three Sunday services.

"These are mothers with full schedules but they make the time for it," said Errol Jackson, the team's choreographer. "They get the congregation pumped up and inspired."

He plans months ahead, coordinating the dance with the sermon topic. Each rehearsal begins with a devotion.

"Your body and spirit are connected," Mrs. Barcklow said. "It's an outpouring of the Spirit that I feel when I dance."

She says some of the girls on the team used to go clubbing before they became Christians.

"They felt like they had to stop dancing once they were saved, but it's not like that," Mrs. Barcklow said. "We can honor God with dance. It's just a whole new way to move."

Yet, in some congregations, dance isn't so much about learning something new, but about remembering the old, says Eleni Kountakis. She teaches dance at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Augusta, where a dozen or more kids perform on holidays.

Mrs. Kountakis learned the dances as a girl in her native Greece.

"It's so much a part of who we are," she says. "It's how we express ourselves. We eat and we dance."

Like the messianic congregation, most of the dances are circle dances, but Hellenic dance also includes individual and pair dances.

Dancers wear elaborate costumes with jewelry and headdresses, often representing the family's heritage.

"The dress is a tradition, the dance is a tradition," Ms. Kountakis said. "It is a part of our church."

With Creative Impressions, dance doesn't even have to take place in a church. The youth choir uses dance and step in its performances, drawing on a "repertoire that is spiritual in nature," said its director, Evelyn Ellis.

They perform a variety of songs, including spirituals, choreographing dance to the lyrics.

"It's an important part of the worship of African-Americans," Ms. Ellis said. "There's a message here we want our members to understand and transfer to the audience."

Dance, Rabbi Lansing found, has a unique ability to connect people.

After Sept. 11, 2001, membership took a dive when members of the military were transferred out of the area.

"By January 2002, we were down to eight people," he said.

At a conference, he learned to dance as messianic musicians performed.

"A rabbi from Gainesville, Fla., said, 'Lansing, what you need is dancing in your congregation.' So when I got back, we put up a video screen and started practicing," Rabbi Lansing said.

Word spread, and the congregation has grown to more than 50: "Dance saved us."

Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.