Revels Houston

"Lord of the Dance” is the most famous component of the Christmas Revels, and involves the most audience participation. It ends the first half of every Christmas Revels performance, in every show in every city, and for many audience members it is the high point of the show. We begin the song on stage. Then, after the verses are completed, and the refrain begins to repeat over and over ("Dance, then, wherever you may be..."), the cast members join hands in long lines, dance off the stage and out into the aisles. We invite the members of the audience to join us, and many of them do so. We mingle and join hands, moving up the aisles and out into the lobby, laughing, dancing and singing together in a joyful celebration of life and humanity.

"Lord of the Dance" uses the melody of the old Shaker hymn, "Simple Gifts" (’Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free...). In the 1960’s an English writer, folklorist, singer and theological thinker named Sydney Carter wrote a new set of words to this tune, re-telling the life of Jesus in terms of the Dance of Life. You will find the song in many hymnals. For the first Cambridge Christmas Revels performance in 1971, Carol Langstaff (Revels co-founder) and Shagg Graetz (one of the original Revels Morris dancers) designed choreography to go with the verses. Two dancers act out the words of each verse using steps adopted from traditional Morris dances, and the soloist joins them to dance the refrain.

A forerunner of “Lord of the Dance” is a very old carol text called “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”. There are more than a dozen verses, relating all the events of Christ’s life – birth, baptism, temptation, betrayal, etc. – as parts of a dance he performs with his "love" -- mankind. Here is the first verse:

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play
To call my true love to my dance
Chorus:
Sing, O my love, my love, my love
This have I done for my true love.

This is the only traditional carol that has the dance as its theme. The reference to mankind as Christ’s “true love” is also unusual. It may be related to a tradition in medieval mystic poetry that speaks of Christ as the poet’s lover. The New Oxford Book of Carols suggests that the song was originally part of a medieval Mystery Play (a play depicting the life of Christ). Medieval plays often ended with a processional dance in which the audience joined. The actor playing Christ would sing the verses and everyone would dance and sing during the refrain. So in Revels, we have actually returned to the medieval tradition.

Michael Flatley, the former star of the Broadway musical "Riverdance," recognized the power of this song (which was already a Revels tradition) and made it the centerpiece of his own production, also called "Lord of the Dance." In the Christmas Revels, you will be part of the original.