Angela's Dance

Written by Angela Pillow; ILA Dance Team Coordinator

When did I know I loved to dance....probably in heaven, before I entered my mothers womb. When I entered this world, dancing became my middle name. I am one of four children the 2nd girl. My mother was raised as a Pentecostal (that’s a religion) and as Pentecostals; we lived a life led by the law. No make up, no colored nail polish, no jewelry, and for a woman, no pants and never under any circumstances could you forget NO DANCING! The bottom line was CHRISTIANS DON”T DANCE! I got popped or pinched in church quite a few times for snapping my fingers to a favorite tune. Church was the life…4-5 days a week. We had to wear dresses to the floor and as for physical education class in school, bloomers or gauchos. Those were the days. I’m sure it is needless to say, we were not very popular with our age groups growing up and there were no Nike or name brand gauchos (Gauchos in my opinion is best described as a skirt on each leg, or in my case a STIFF skirt on each leg looking at the fact they were corduroyed). Coming off my soap box, the great news is while on a long journey of coming into the knowledge of Christ my mom soon discovered the revelation that “not wearing pants” could not get us into heaven and wearing pants could not keep us out, so at the age of 18, we were released! We were free!

Now I am on my own and older able to do what “I” wanted! I can DANCE! I faithfully went to the dance clubs in the city of Lincoln every weekend. This life of partying was not fulfilling and often led me to doors that I did not want to venture…for instance; drugs, bad men, and at one time I even met a group of girls that tried to recruit me into the lifestyle of “exotic” dancing! I know God was with me at that time because I had no money and these girls were my age and already owned a home, and they had plenty of money. The explained to me,”Black girls are really needed! They get paid MUCH more!” Now I can say, “Thank you Jesus for keeping me and for my mother teaching us to NEVER sell or bodies in any way, shape, or form.”

Back then at 21 years old I became a single mother and I had a beautiful daughter my mother named, Diamond. Now tired of the party lifestyle I lived which was dull and empty, I moved to Hastings Nebraska and went to school while working and I knew I wanted a change in my life. I wanted the “real thing.” I began the exciting journey of “seeking the truth!” I was determined to find it. Each day of the week I spent time studying with a different religion. I met with the Mormons’ one day, the Jehovah witnesses another day, I went to a catholic church with my landlord/neighbor and attended the first church you see when entering the city, Assembly of God church. I can say now I was just running an interview to see which religion fit the lifestyle I wanted to live. My focus question was “Is it still ok to listen to worldly music and ok to dance?” Then I realized I was picking and choosing the “religion or beliefs,” that I wanted. “This can’t be right. If this is the case, anyone can find what ever God they want, depending on how they want to live. That just can’t be right.” I prayed to the lord that day to find the truth and so began the journey. I remember the prayer and I surrendered my dances for the world to the Lord but praying if there be anyway I could still dance, to please allow me to do so and I would dance for him instead. This was before Kirk Franklin and LaCrae albums came out. I often think that prayer I sent up is the real reason we now have some of the praise music we have today.

Time goes by and my search for the truth continues. I eventually move back to Lincoln again and found a church. All the while this dance is still inside me. I made some good choices, some GREAT choices, some bad choices, and some worse choices along the way, but I never stopped seeking. Here in Lincoln we have a Juneteenth celebration and once a year a large group of kids from Omaha come down and dance. They were an awesome Drill team. Shortly after their performance, a swarm of children from Lincoln bombarded me stating they wanted a drill team here and they would like me to be a part of it. I already had the same idea, so of course I said I would be honored. I made it very clear to them all we MUST glorify God and they agreed. We made a sign up sheet passed around and before the afternoon, there were about 60 names and phone numbers of interested families. We quickly started the drill team and the Lord gave me the name; PREVAIL with the motto/logo ALL GLORY BE TO GOD. We were blessed to do several performances including the Lincoln Star City Pre parade pre show, Omaha Days parade and competition, and we were able to perform for a few companies. Things were beginning to thrive and flourish and I not only had practice at Malone Community Center we also met at Salvation Army with a whole new set of children. Going back to one of those bad choices I spoke about, I made it when I was 24 years old and it was an attempt of a good deed.

Along this walk I befriended a couple of young ladies that were also my neighbor, members of my church and PREVAIL. They were very dear to me so my older sister and I both took them under our wing. We even call them our little sisters to this day. I have been there for the birth of their children and we remain close even now. They were 12 and 13yrs old when I first met them. When they were attending junior high I started working with them and encouraging them in their studies. They worked very hard and as a reward I agreed to have a slumber party at my house on their behalf. The night of the slumber party, one of the girls drove to my home with her mom in the passenger seat. She had a learner’s permit, and all the girls were impressed she could drive. Later that night we needed more snacks from the store from around the corner and this young lady asked if she could she drive. I reluctantly agreed thinking it would be ok as long as I was in the front seat with her. Next another girl wanted to drive so I stayed in the front seat and we all laughed and giggled as she slammed on the breaks being that she was very unfamiliar with driving. Of course another girl wanted her turn and we did this in a in an empty parking lot. Soon, all the laughing stopped because one of the girls hit a pole. (My little sister) Everyone was ok and no one got hurt, physically. God was definitely watching over us all! I now had a child neglect charge on my record, I lost my job the next day and I now had no car (It was totaled) but we were alive and that’s all that mattered. Thank you Lord!


One day I heard of an opening at Carol Yokum Center looking for someone to run a dance workshop and I applied. To my surprise, I got the job and this would be for pay! Wow! That would be like getting paid to eat ice cream! The last step in the interviewing process was to go through a background check. Due to policies and guideline procedures, I could not be hired due to the “child neglect” charge on my record. With this happening, I knew it was important to let my peers know as well at the directors at the Malone and Salvation Army. Crash! I was devastated. I had no idea this would affect so many things. I now had no dance outlet in effect. We were all sad, but I encouraged the youth and my last words were “Through Christ…I will prevail!”

I continued seeking the truth and I kept going to church. One day, there was no church. My church was no longer a church, it basically disintegrated. My life started to take a quick dive. With all the past mistakes I made, I had learned a lot, but I still had much more to learn. I did just that, even though the bad company and drugs crept in slowly again, I still desired a peace that surpassed all understanding. I braided hair in the community and ended up braiding the hair of an old acquaintance and she was not the same. I had to know what changed her. She and told me of her love of Christ and she invited me to City impact. I started going. Just before this I met a young man by the name of Ken, a single father of 3 boys and he went also. Once again God rescued me. I heard the gospel in a way I had never heard it before; through my kids! Both Ken and I began to seek this peace together and not long after this journey began, we were married and seeking like never before. We did find a church and through the week we attended bible study while our kids went to bible club. We loved it and our kids loved it too!


Of course I still desired to dance. I volunteered at City Impact to chaperone a dance project introducing the children interested in dance to different types of dance, like ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. We ALL had a BLAST! We were given the opportunity to see performances at the Lied Center and I had NEVER seen anything like it! I was SUPER inspired and of course, I had a record holding me back. I prayed for God to make a way to clear my name and through MUCH prayer and supplication I trusted God on my name being removed from the Central registry as “Child Neglect.” As of May 2009 my name has been cleared and I am clear to PREVAIL! Thank you Jesus! November 1st was my first day with the children at ILA with City Impact, and now we will look to the Lord to order our steps and develop into what ever God wants us to do! ALL GLORY BE TO GOD. My story is simply: I love the Lord, I love to dance, and I have danced for the world long enough. I now praise dance to and for my heavenly father and I will bless his name as I proclaim He is worthy to be praised, and I have a lot to PRAISE GOD FOR! I have no idea what God is going to do through dance at ILA and no agenda of my own. I do know I trust the Lord and my expectations come only from him, but I know he is able to do exceedingly and abundantly over and beyond anything I would ask. I only ask for his “guidance” through this new development. Have your way Lord…..Have your way.