When Kolton Ruyter started ballet at age seven, it was more out of necessity than out of love for the dance form.

Myriam Guevara Mann still remembers looking out to a crowd of 800,000 people before she danced the biggest show of her life. 

When Christine Mrakuzic enrolled her three-year-old daughter Mia in dance, the idea was to help her overcome anxiety.

TORONTO - Franck Waille still has the posture of a dancer. When he stands, his back is straight, his shoulders are squared and his feet are pointed out — a more relaxed version of ballet’s first position.

I looked over at Santos, my dance instructor; he was pouring sweat. I prayed to God I didn’t look the same. The sun was beating down on us and on the blacktop roof where we danc ed salsa. We were at Hav an a Nights, one of the parties Santos and his crew hosted in the summer, bringing a taste of Cuba to Toronto. Our backdrop: the downtown skyline.

VATICAN CITY - David Rider still does the occasional barrel roll, but now he usually does it wearing a Roman collar. He's kept his tap shoes since entering the seminary, but his goal has changed dramatically.

"I just want to be a normal parish priest. What I see myself doing is the thing I'm preparing to do, which is celebrate the Mass devoutly, hear confessions, baptize babies, and bring God to people in their suffering and their joy," the 27-year-old New York archdiocesan seminarian said.

TORONTO - Students from Toronto’s Loretto College School and surrounding high schools joined together to Give Peace a Dance.

About 300 people filled Loretto College’s auditorium on March 7 to promote awareness about violence against youth, bask in the talents of students and raise funds for the Plan Canada Because I am a Girl initiative.

“It’s a safe-school campaign against youth violence in and around school communities,” said Paulina Onilla, a youth worker at Loretto College who first organized the event seven years ago. “We invite our fellow schools from different parts of the city to come and join us on the campaign and create awareness that they are their schools and they need to take them back in terms of safety.”

MONTREAL - Alisha Ruiss knows very well that the performing arts community needs Jesus.

But while Catholics need to realize that God is calling out for people to evangelize the arts community, Ruiss believes He is also calling just as loudly for Christians to discover His presence in the arts.