Junior’s Cave Interview of The Life Ballet


Dance of the Unborn Babies

Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series
April 2010 Edition

By Isaac Davis Jr., BGS, MBA

In a special and powerful message presented by The Life Ballet of Yahweh Ballet, the organization is expressing the horror of abortions and how the decision can have everlasting effects on one’s entire life. In this candid and opened online conversation with The Life Ballet of Yahweh Ballet, the organization gives Christians around the world a strong warning and a positive message of hope. Here is what formulated.

Isaac: I just listened to several songs off your new EP/CD. What was the inspiration for making your new album?

Yahweh Ballet: The show and its soundtrack were inspired by our love for the Lord and speaking His truth about love, kindness and mercy no matter where you have been and what you have done. We are inspired to tell others the truth about abortion in a loving and gentle way and through personal testimony so people will not make the same mistakes we made. We consider ourselves the real experts (not the politicians, scientists or religious leaders) but those who have had abortions. All of us involved in the show are Christians who have had abortions. Many of our performers who are older (age 30 plus) had to go back and tell their parents that they had abortions back in college and high school (so many years later) in order to participate in the show. These are people who were raised in Christian homes and had abortions in high school because they were too ashamed to tell their parents of their sin. And here they are now years later -- now with families and parents themselves -- going back and revealing their sin to their families. Once we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive and there is no longer any power in that sin.

Over 50 percent of Americans are prolife now. Christians worldwide share this sentiment and believe in the sanctity of life. Our message is gentle and artistic and brings healing to the millions suffering the guilt and shame of abortion. We are not singing or dancing in condemnation, but in sharing the truth of the mistakes we made in believing the lie of abortion. We share a message of hope and healing in Jesus Christ. Our hope is that abortion will become unthinkable when people know the truth of the devastation it brings - even if it is still legal - people will not have them. Abortion does not solve a problem in crisis pregnancy; it will rather create a whole new set of issues including high rates of depression. No one grows up wanting to have an abortion. It's a very bad solution to crisis pregnancy. It doesn't turn back time and make you "un-pregnant" it just makes you a murderer. We want people to know there are other options including adoption that are the very RIGHT thing to do.For me personally, I was so ashamed of my abortions that I suffered in silence and shame for many years, particularly after I became a Christian, which is ironic, because that is the ONE place -- the church -- where in "theory" we should feel accepted and loved. It was the one sin I could not admit to or talk about particularly amongst friends who have children.

Isaac: Who were your influences?

Yahweh Ballet: This has all been very divine. It's really been a direction/leading of the Holy Spirit.

I had never written a song in my life before. My husband and I founded and were/are running a Christian Ballet studio in Rochester, NY, but as I stated before, God divinely dropped this whole thing in our laps, I could NOT tell anyone my abortion story - let alone write a ballet and music about it. Then something really divine took place that only God could orchestrate. I was publically mixed up with another woman by the name of Sandy Arena in Rochester, NY who looked very much like me was accused of murder for a tragedy that had taken place at a local bar. It was all over the news and EVERYBODY thought it was me, including my best friend and the oversight to our ministry!! My first reaction to this public “mix up” was to set myself apart from her in righteousness, until the Lord reminded me that I had murdered, although society did not recognize it as such. I was not publicly accused, tried or convicted for what I had done. Conviction hit. The Lord prompted me to share my heart and this conviction and my testimony of abortion in our local daily read by thousands. I never thought I would share my abortion testimony in this city, let alone in the local daily read by thousands. Now I was really free and this experience prompted me to share my heart and thoughts about abortion in the ballet. We did a precursor show called “Life: Being a Voice for the Voiceless”. There was no character development. It was a mish-mosh of abortion testimonies, song and dance centered on a prolife message. We left the performance that day to see a double rainbow over the city of Rochester. I had never seen one so big or colorful - it was as if God was displaying a gigantic, colorful smile down upon us that day. Then the men and women began coming out of the woodwork. “Thank you for sharing your testimony,” they said adding, “Me too.” I heard this over and over and over and over again from my Christian brothers and sisters. “Me too.”

“I had an abortion too and I thought I would never tell.”

Later that week, the spirit of God dropped down upon me like never before in dreams and revelation. 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17). I had dream where I saw a pregnant woman dancing on point in front of a tank of water in which a child was synchronized swimming like a fetus would in the womb. The woman was in turmoil and it was a dance of decision. In the end, she danced away from the child. In another dream, I saw a group of children dressed in white dancing behind a dove, like the Chinese dragon dance, except it was a dove, not a dragon. I saw another group of dancers flagging with mini flags that moved so fast they looked like birds. I saw a vision of an army of children all dressed in white entered heaven. I would wake up mesmerized and frantically jotting down what I saw in a feeble attempt to recreate heaven on earth in words and thoughts. We see all these things in The Life Ballet. That's where I saw the dances -- in my dreams!

Then the music started to flow.... The week after Voice for the Voiceless, I visited the church where we held the production to say thank-you and return a few things leftover from the production that day. I was sitting with the congregation with my family and the pastor began to speak about the aforementioned situation with the “other” Sandy Arena. He had conducted the funeral of the young man the other Sandy Arena had been accused of murdering. As I sat listening to him talk, my entire being filled with a song….the words, the melody. I was overcome. I kept playing them over and over in my head, for fear they would go away. I had never experienced such a thing. I could hear the song and see the words to Destinies Lost....

Oh my child, oh what could have been? A chosen life. A name. A plan. I was young, did not know what to do. A broken soul. Was there room for you. Destinies. Millions of destinies. Crushed and torn. Ripped out, not born. Who am I to take what was His? Oh my God, oh what could have been? I lay my sin in the palm of your hand. I need to know that you will always care. For my precious one whose with you up there. Destinies. Millions of destinies. Crushed and torn. Ripped out, not born. Who am I to take what was His? From there, the rest of the songs kept coming. I often times pray and then my prayer turns into a prayer in tongues and then a melody and words emerges. Those were the songs I wrote!

The song Baby Lost was written by the gentlemen who has produced all the songs for The Life Ballet so far whose name is Steve Petrovich. He never told me he too had an abortion testimony. I found out a year later when we were back in the recording studio working on The Song of the Unborn Babies, and he said very nonchalantly, "Hey, I wrote a song." Then he let us hear Baby Lost. That song is a father's perspective on the grave losses of abortion which is great because we didn't want the show to be only the women as "victims"...I was like "Wow! Why didn't you tell me? All these hours we had spent together working on the other songs -- my testimony -- and he didn't share!" It's easier to unload in a song that is for sure...

Isaac: What do you consider to have been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?

Dance of the Silent Scream

Yahweh Ballet:

Highlights = I am no longer ashamed to tell others of my abortions. I have hope that my suffering will help others not make the same mistakes I made. I am excited when people are receptive to this very TOUCHY topic.

Low Points = Being called a hypocrite by people, particularly Christians, because I had an abortion. If I was a hypocrite, I would still be having them! We've walked through a lot of rejection and hardships with this show and the music and mostly from the Christian community -- Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven, but it's just frustrating when it comes from people who should be on your own team! One prolife group -- who is national -- for example - asked to have their name taken off our show poster - they were to be the recipient of our show proceeds, at the time. They were offended because we had used the verse "Thou Shall Not Murder" on our poster. There's so much shame surrounding abortion. It's the dirty little secret. The pink elephant in the corner. It's like the holocaust. There's a holocaust story of a church that was situated along the railroad that carted the prisoners to the death camps. They just sang a little louder when the train went by. It feels like that to me now. Everyone is just singing a little louder and no one wants to talk about it. It's like it's shameful - even to Christians - to talk about abortion. It is shameful. It's shameful to NOT talk about it, particularly when there are thousands of human beings dying every day. The ultrasounds prove that life begins at conception. It's there in black and white. I was told it was a blob of flesh when I had my abortions. I am now 44 years old. Now ultrasound shows that is not true. We actually believed that, which is crazy. The baby in the womb has fingerprints, major organs. It feels pain. I could cry just thinking about what I did to my own children.

Isaac: Brief history about your background plus the style of music you play.

Yahweh Ballet: Style -- Holy Spirit directed.

Isaac: How easy is it to gets gigs for you as an artist? What is the live music scene like in your area?

Yahweh Ballet: Gigs are kind of hard to get because of the topic. We've performed to a lot of urban churches in our area and for designated prolife events -- but where you are really just "preaching to the choir". We've produced several of our own shows that have been very well attended, and will be appearing on the Miracle Channel in Canada next summer. We are trying to get our show into public schools and colleges. If they have Planned Parenthood, they need to bring in our message too. (We have a version of the show that does not go into the healing part of Jesus Christ for those who have had abortions, but is rather factual and crafted for teens and young adults. No scriptures. No Christianize. Just the facts told in song and dance that abortion is a really bad idea and there are other options).

Isaac: What do you think of the state of Indie music at the moment? Do you listen to radio much at all? Has the Internet helped music grow or hindered it in your opinion?

Yahweh Ballet: I think the Internet has been wonderful. We can develop our own fanbase and get our message out electronically. The show is amazing to see live, but the message is effective online, as well. I listen to KLove Christian Radio Station and I also just browse around for offbeat music to use for our shows (our ballet company is called the Yahweh Ballet and we other shows besides The Life Ballet).

Isaac: If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?

Yahweh Ballet: Well, it would be more a fantasy ballet company. I'd really like more trained male dancers for our show, and particularly ones who have a heart for Jesus and this message of life. It would be awesome if our small production team had more help and equipment. Steve Petrovich and Scott Dawson who have arranged all the songs and produced them are musical masters. They work for peanuts and love God so much. Scott Dawson has gone to jail for the prolife movement. He was involved back in the early days of the movement, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I just hear the songs in the spirit and sing it for them and then they do the rest - add the chords, produce it. I am very blessed to be working with them. I pray God blesses them tremendously. The vocals were done by Scott and also my friend Stephanie Zimmerli. She and her husband are pastors and their three of her four children dance in the ballet (James, Mallory and Katie), along with my own three children (Caleb, Annaliese and Alexis), who is 17 years old. It was very hard to tell Alexis the truth of my past. My Annaliese plays the part of Seraphina, one of the aborted babies in the show, while Caleb plays the part of an Unborn Baby in the Army of Unborn babies in the show. Stephanie's voice is heavenly. Her daughter Mallory plays the part of Sarah, the woman who chooses abortion. Mallory sings the Destinies Lost song live in the show, while Stephanie recorded it. It's a family thing. God is really gracious that way. Only He could take the worst experiences of our lives and turn them for His good and glory and gift us with more children who are in the show. The kids all sang on the Promise Land (Scott Dawson's song) and the Song of the Unborn Babies.

Isaac: What CD's do you currently have available and where can they be purchased from?

Yahweh Ballet: Destinies Lost which is the soundtrack toe The Life Ballet show. There are six songs on it including: Destinies Lost, The Song of the Unborn Babies, Dance of the Silent Scream, Baby Lost, God's Love Song, and The Promise Land.

It is available in about three weeks (just released through Tunecore): Rhapsody; MySpace Music; Lala; Shockhound; Itunes U.S. and Canada; Nokia.

Isaac: Where can fans access your music, videos, blogs, and anything else about you online?

Yahweh Ballet:

Website for Yahweh Ballet: www.yahwehballet.org
Youtube for Yahweh Ballet: www.youtube.com/yahwehballet
Face Book: Search Yahweh Ballet to become a fan
Youtube for The Life Ballet: www.youtube.com/thelifeballet
Electronic Press Kit: www.sonicbids.com/thelifeballet
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thelifeballet


Website and Reviews for Our Training School Where We Rehearse and Train: http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/profile2/amanda-rose-belmont-dance-for-joy-studio

Isaac: Message to your fans?

Yahweh Ballet: Don't have an abortion. If you did have one, there is forgiveness and healing. Shame needs to be lifted so you too can share your story. If you are pro-abortion, please don't send me hate mail. This is a message from my heart and one from thousands more who are coming forward with the truth of their experiences. Having a child doesn't ruin one’s life. Children are a reward and only bring joy. I have three children now on earth and two in heaven. I think about my aborted children every day and can't wait to see them one day.