Pentecostal commoning through dance: an ethnography of spiritual mobilities, Pentecostal infrastructures, and the body from Kinshasa’s Churches

Dance forms are significant Pentecostal practices that enable Christians to establish, consolidate, and sometimes, break relationships with other humans and with spirits. The social and spiritual work of the Pentecostal dancer capitalizes on various kinds of agencies and dance-generated mobilities. In order to tease out the various types of mobility that Pentecostal dances accommodate, I first describe the ways in which Pentecostal dance activates participation in the spiritual battle. This will be followed by the role of the dancing body in the construction of Pentecostal communities. Here, I will argue that dance is an integral part of “Pentecostal commoning,” a collective effort to materialize a divine timespace, which draws on various hierarchical relationships within the church community. The various parts of this article contribute to an exploration of “Pentecostal infrastructures,” and the design of social and spiritual communities in and through dance.

Publication year:2022

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