Leadership

JAN DYER (UK)

Jan is married to Graham and they have three grown up children and six grandchildren. Jan has been dancing for the Lord for over 30 years. She joined CDF Britain at its inaugural conference in 1990 and soon after was elected Regional Coordinator for Midlands West. During this time too, Jan was coordinating Children‘s Ministry, Dance Ministry and leading All Age services in her church. Jan then served as National Coordinator for CDF Britain for six years before being appointed ICDF Joint-Coordinator in 2011.

Jan has a heart to see people of all ages released into engaging in worship through the creative and dance arts.

SAARTJIE DE WET (South Africa)

Saartjie has been involved in Christian dance for the past 26 years as dancer, teacher, group leader and administrator. During this time she served 7 years as Regional and National Coordinator in South Africa, and as Joint-International Coordinator for 6 years. She has been trained in classical ballet but her passion is free worship and intercession through movement. Besides being a Christian dancer she is also exploring ways to express her Christianity through the visual arts. She has recently started a dance school dedicated to serving different sections of the community. Saartjie has been married to a farmer, Chris, for 40 years and they have three adult children.

Liesl Townsend (South Africa)

Liesl became involved in Christian Dance when she joined the Christian Dance School with Rosemary Raw in 1981 (later known as Christ Light Dance Company) in Cape Town. She has fulfilled leadership roles in CDFSA as the Provincial Coordinator for the Eastern Cape and Gauteng and the National Coordinator of South Africa from 2009. Her passion is evangelism through dance, and teaching the Basic Foundation Course in Christian Dance which she has developed. She runs a dance group and is also part of her local church’s dance team.

Liesl is married to Rory and they have two daughters, Zoë and Jesi, and as a family they have supported her in the ministry with choreography, music production, websites and other multimedia tasks. Liesl is a Social Worker and works as a Client Relationship Manager supporting companies with their Employee Wellness Programmes.

LUCY ANDREW-PARK JARASIUS (Australia)

ICDF Asia Pacific Connection & ICDF Documents

Lucy has worked for over 25 years with CDFA (Assistant National Coordinator 1992-98) and ICDF (Coordinator 1997-2006; Joint-Coordinator, with her husband, Andrew, of the ICDF Network for Creative Arts and Social Concern 2006-2013). As part of her role, Lucy is looking forward to forging new connections as well as encouraging existing CDFs and contacts. Her work with indigenous peoples helps bring unique perspectives to her future ICDF training projects.

BARBARA WOOD (Ireland)

Special Projects

Barbara served as National Coordinator for the Christian Dance Fellowship Ireland (CDFI) before joining the ICDF Steering Committee in 2003. She is based in Ireland, but travels frequently. She has five children, four of whom are in Ireland and one in France. At present she has eight grandchildren.

She loves almost all forms of dance and goes to classes three times a week. She has a passion to see people released in free-movement in worship.

SUE SUTHERLAND (UK)

Committee Secretary

Sue has served ICDF Britain since its inception in 1990. Becoming regional co-ordinator for her region of the North West of the UK. As conference secretary she planned the 2009 ICDF conference in St Andrews, Scotland. Since stepping down as a director of ICDF Britain, a post she held for five years, she is now excited to take up the role of secretary for the ICDF steering committee. She loves to explore how the creative arts can work together to create something beautiful and is passionate about seeing people freed in all areas of creativity.

Noël Filemon (Suriname)

Publications

Noël lives in Suriname (South America) where, for many years, he served as the National Coordinator of the Christian Dance Fellowship Suriname. Noël travels nationally and internationally to help strengthen the Body of Christ through worship in all its forms. He provides education, training and workshops in Christian Dance and movement. He has a heart for the prophetic, for leading others to find their true calling and for reaching men for dance in worship. He is also a singer, writer and preacher of the Word.

Noël has been active for more than 25 years in dance ministry, and intensely desires that the Lord comes to His full potential in the life of every born-again Christian. 

REBEKAH DYER (UK)

Rebekah has supported our web presence since 2013. Rebekah grew up using the creative arts in worship and has been involved in ICDF for many years. She enjoys tinkering with technology and works closely with the International Joint-Coordinators to keep the website user-friendly and up-to-date. 

Kaye Strauss (UK)

Kaye was born in the UK but grew up in South Africa. There Kaye was mentored in dance and went on to lead three dance groups. After returning to the UK, she led a Youth Dance Group in her Church and travelled nationally and internationally on mission with the Northern Messianic Dancers.

Kaye has been supporting ICDF in prayer for some years now through the Roots Dance and Creative Arts Group in her Church. She is a member of CDFB.