AJ's Story
I began flagging when I was 11 years old. A girl in my church taught me how to do a forward x/ figure 8 movement. And for a long time that was all I did, just stood and did that figure 8. But I loved to do it. Flagging was so freeing for me.
Around the age of 15, I was in the prayer room of our church and was worshipping to a slow song. I very clearly heard Jesus tell me, "I want you to dance." I had no idea how anyone could dance to such slow music. He replied, "Just do what makes sense." But the only thing I could think of was ballet-type of movements. After explaining to Jesus that this would be 'girly' he repeated, "Do what makes sense."
"But God, I don't know how to dance like that," I protested
His reply- "Then I'll show you."
So I began to move, and it was in a way I had never moved before. But this dance, this whole new expression, began to pour out of me. It was like this dormant piece of myself had been awakened. Like speaking a language that I didn't know I could speak.
From that point, my flagging completely transformed. I began not just to execute moves with flags, but to dance with them. To wield them. And I never looked back.
Since then I have continued to learn as the Holy Spirit teaches me. It wasn't until years later that I learned that there were names for the moves I was doing. I had a stranger who was a professional dancer, someone who is now a very good friend, tell me that while she could tell I was untrained, I was doing things that only trained dancers do. She told me she recognized classical ballet, but it was mixed with other styles in a way she had never seen before. From there I began to find resources to learn and grow more.
After high school, I worked for 2.5 years, and volunteered as a youth leader in the youth group of my church. I then felt led to attend Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, Ca. I attended for 2 years, immersing myself in dance and the arts as much as possible. This season shaped me even more into the dancer I am today and gave me a huge value for community among artists, especially dancers.
While there I met my beautiful wife, Sarah. We were auditioning for the same dance team, and ended up on that team together. We began dating in our 1st year, and I proposed at the end of our 2nd year. We married and moved back to my hometown of Round Mountain, NV.
There we served for a year before moving our family to my wife's hometown of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, expecting our first child. We are now absolutely overjoyed to be parents to our beautiful daughter Storey Abigail, and are establishing ourselves in our new home.
My heart is to see people released to experience the Father through creativity and movement, and for artists to be brought into community- a place to belong- and to form a dynamic force of creativity and change within the body of Christ, able to accomplish more together than we ever could apart. I am excited to see people, and men especially, discover who they are and be released as worshippers and children of God, unbound by fear and full of the Fathers love.
AJ Salazar