Inspiring Lives Magazine Spring 2017: Issue 4 | Page 22

GINGER PILLAR:
Dancing Through Life’s Storms
By Jen Forsyth
G
inger Pillar has been integral in bring-
ing a passionate side of worship to life
in multiple churches. She cares for those
coming into this world. She cares for
those in danger of leaving it. She has been
in the position of almost leaving it herself. She has also
been in charge of making change in legislation so other
women are better off. As powerful of a force as she is,
she is humble beyond words as we sit and discuss her
beginnings as a dancer.
“My first performance was at Ingomar Methodist
Church in Pittsburgh, Pa. I started when I was 16.
Northway has always had a dance ministry. It used to
be more integrated. Then when we did all those pre-
sentations, it just became this big huge thing. Then we
would do the presentations at Easter and Christmas, we
cut down performances, and then throughout the year,
we would probably do about three or four in-service
pieces that were special. It’s just always been a part of
our worship.”
“It’s such a blessing to be able to do it. I didn’t have
a huge dance background. I took six weeks of ballet in
early high school. I just had a strange childhood where
my parents weren’t ab le to get me into classes, so I
learned in the church. I trained under dancers who had
degrees from Point Park, master’s degrees from Ohio
State. So I worked under those girls learning not only
technique, but spirituality as well.”
So why does Ginger’s style of dance resonate with
people?
“It’s not totally about the technique. It’s more about the
spiritual expression and what that invokes for people.”
For the past several years, Pillar has been in charge of
the Dance Ministry at Northway Christian Communi-
ty Church in Wexford, Pa. The Dance Ministry had to
be put on hold as she was forced to deal with a personal
struggle: breast cancer.
Pillar was diagnosed in October 2011.
“We were in the throes of rehearsals,” she remembers.
“We had a bunch of little kids who I was choreograph-
ing for, and then we had the adult pieces. When I was
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INSPIRING LIVES
SPRING 2017
diagnosed, first of course, I couldn’t focus on rehearsals.
I started chemo the week of Thanksgiving. Nine days
later, we did our first performance at Northway.”
“So I was worrying when I was diagnosed and trying
to figure everything out—‘What am I going to be like
during chemo?’ I pulled myself out of one of the pieces,
but the one piece I just couldn’t. ‘Praise the King’ was
the piece that we did, and it was the most powerful
piece. And it was my declaration!” Pillar exclaimed. “I
can still praise my King!”
Pillar brought in another dancer as an understudy,
just in case. Thankfully, she was able to perform with
no problems. Her hair began to fall out the Monday
after the performances, eleven days after her first treat-
ment of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, she was too ill
to dance after that. Wondering if she would ever dance
again was one of the hardest things for her.
“I knew, number one, I was getting older,” she
laughed. “As a dancer, longevity isn’t completely on your
side anyway. It didn’t bother me that I was going to lose
my hair. I mean it did some. The first time I danced
when my hair was just started to grow back was after
my double mastectomy. I took the scarf off in the mid-
dle of the piece, and I just had peach fuzz. When I was
choreographing that piece, I got all emotional because I
hadn’t realized even my long hair was part of my move-
ment! Like when I would do an arch, with the long
hair flowing in the back. I am a very visual person, so I
would see what the audience would see, and it was like
‘Oh, I don’t have that prop anymore.’ It was like some-
body took an arm. I didn’t realize I would react that
way, and I’ve learned since then, and you learn to adapt.
But that was part of the beauty of the dance too.”
Physical symptoms such as webbing and lymphede-
ma also cause issues for Pillar, but after five years, she
shows no evidence of disease.
Pillar’s personal experience has made her a force to
be reckoned with. She has become active as an advocate
and involved with several Pittsburgh organizations.
“I started working with Glimmer of Hope when I
was early in my diagnosis. I got involved with a com-