Ex-Singer-Dancer Takes Mime Act to Church

Gee Gee Fierro has found God in a silent sort of way.

The former professional singer and dancer who spent much of her life performing in clubs throughout the country has become a mime and now is taking her act to Orange County churches.

The Anaheim woman, who works as a manicurist, wants to lure old and young newcomers to church and, through her 45-minute show, persuade them to give God a place in their lives.

She calls her eight-member Christian mime troupe Silent Ministries.

“My heart was always in the secular field while I was making a living singing and sometimes dancing,” she conceded. The former Whittier College student says the stage gives her an emotional outlet.

“I always had a hard time expressing myself, but when I was on stage, I could do that unconditionally even though I didn’t know anybody,” said Fierro, who said she grew tired of the rigorous life on the road.

She also conceded to herself that “I wasn’t going to be another Barbra Streisand,” and about that time, she went to church with a friend.

That church visit changed her life.

“I met Christ as my personal savior,” she said.

Using her singing talent, Fierro found happiness in gospel music and took to the road again with renewed strength, this time as a member of the Concords, a Christian group that sang contemporary gospel music.

Then she joined the choir of Crossroads Community Church in Westminster, where she is now assistant choir director.

She also took a series of mime lessons from Ministry International, a religious mime troupe, and formed her own group.

Fierro and her troupe have presented shows at half a dozen churches and are looking for more to entertain with their interpretations of passages from the Bible. But churches are not exactly welcoming them with open arms.

“A lot of churches are not open,” said Fierro, who performs in white face, white gloves, black T-shirt, suspenders and pants. “They think mimes are for kids and we are clowns.”

She said that new pastors are more inclined to accept the troupe, and Fierro notes that “a lot of the elderly in church are touched” by the gospel message in the mime presentation.

She added: “People like to be entertained no matter where they are and we feel the troupe can bring in a lot of new people, especially young people, and introduce them to Christ.”

Fierro said she finds personal fulfillment using facial, body and hand movements to tell her story at churches.

“I don’t speak. I have to use emotions to say what I am doing,” she explained. “I feel I’m still an apprentice, but I have stage presence,” a holdover from her years of entertaining which began when she was a child.

“I was always entertaining,” she recalls. “When I was young, I turned our garage into a stage.”

Although they want to schedule more church appearances, “we don’t want to come so fast that we can’t handle it,” she said. “I know it is going to work, but it will take a lot of effort.”

Fierro believes a higher being is directing her efforts.

“I feel God is using me to encourage young people to come to church,” she said. “My mission is to bring in as many souls as I can and help them get involved with Christ.”