Ballet Magnificat performs tonight at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia.

Ballerina Kathy Thibodeaux has been performing most of her life. But for the past several years, she has been dancing for God.

Thibodeaux, 36, was a member of the Jackson Ballet (now Ballet Mississippi), when she felt “the call” in 1986 to form her own Christian company.

People were skeptical, she said, but since then her company, Ballet Magnificat, has toured in more than 30 states and Canada and given more than 450 performances for churches, civic groups and even a couple of prisons. Last year alone, there were 109 shows.

Ballet Magnificat will perform at 6:30 p.m. tonight at United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia, 400 W. Duarte Road.

In her official biography, Thibodeaux says she felt the Lord increase the desire in her heart to establish a Christian ballet company in 1982, after she won the silver medal in the II USA

International Ballet Competition.

She prayed each year when it came time to renew her contract with the Mississippi group, and in 1986 got the answer she had been waiting for and struck out on her own.

The result is a troupe of six dancers, all professionals who could have worked with other companies but chose instead to perform with Thibodeaux, said Jeff Bieber, business director for the company.

“The company dances professional classical ballet,” often to music by contemporary Christian artists, such as John Michael Talbot, Bieber said. “We work hard at having a quality group.”

There is no admission charge, but a basket will be passed tonight for free will offerings. Even those who dance for God need to eat.

“We survive on those offerings, or on mailed-in donations,” Bieber said. “We don’t have any foundation or corporate sponsors.”