We only get a few verses about “Miriam the prophet” and the dance she leads. Dr. Anathea Portier-Young, a biblical scholar, unpacks those verses in some depth in a lecture and academic paper with the same title: “Miriam’s Dance as Embodied Prophecy.”
When Miriam leads the people in dance (Exodus 15:19-22), “…the coordinated responsive and artful movement of bodies through space and time also mediates the people’s praise to God. In so doing, this dance is a mode of what philosopher Karen Barad calls intra-action — not just interaction, intra-action…for Barad this is a relational becoming, in and through which subjectivity and agency are formed. That’s to say that God’s and the people’s very being — identity, awareness, and capacity for action in relation to one another — these take shape in the dance.
“In this dance prophetic performance reinforces cultural identity and values for a people on the move. It assigns new meaning to traumatic memory and forges patterns of responsive relationship for, and movement toward, a life in covenant, freedom. The dance is not merely expression, it is creation. It is shaping, making, and becoming.” — A. Portier-Young, “Miriam’s Dance as Embodied Prophecy” (around 14:00 into lecture, link and details below)
“According to the narrative in Exodus, the women who celebrate YHWH’s victory at the Reed Sea are survivors of individual and collective trauma. Their bodies carry the memory of enslavement, state violence and terror, and maternal bereavement. Though they had collaborated to deliver children safely into life, they and their children were not safe and their bodies had not been free (Exod 1:15–21). Their dancing enacted freedom in community, awakened bodily memory and knowing, and created opportunity for integration, connection, and healing.” — A. Portier-Young, “Miriam’s Dance as Embodied Prophecy” (p.223, full citation and text below)
Lecture
“Miriam’s Dance as Embodied Prophecy,” took place on June 15, 2022, at Sewanee: The University of the South.
The video link also provides a transcript, for those who find reading easier; the lecture also includes a few charts and other visuals, which can be helpful for those who can access them. The content is very similar to the published article, which came out two years later: lecture is less formal and more direct in some ways, but contains no footnotes; paper is very clear, if more academic, and full of additional details and citations.
Dr. Anathea Portier-Young teaches “Old Testament” at Duke University. She is author of The Prophetic Body: Embodied Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature (Oxford, 2024; previewed , which is previewed can be found in substantial preview on Google Books. Find more from this author on TheTorah.com. The hosting School of Theology is accredited as a seminary of the Episcopal Church. It is located in Tennessee and expresses its relationship to the U.S. South in a number of ways (see, e.g.. about).
Article
The Journal of Biblical Literature published “Miriam’s Dance as Embodied Prophecy (Exodus 15:20–21)” by Anathea E. Portier-Young, in 2024. vol 143, issue 2, pages 207–227.
The article is available through Gale Research papers via many public libraries; also linked here for convenience — with so much gratitude to my local, DC Public Library and librarians who are a great help in all kinds of research.
"A Song Every Day" 