Lord of the Dance

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I’m sorry…everytime I see the title of this thread, I do think of Michael Flatley…
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Freeway4321:
http://bestsmileys.com/stpatricsday/2.gif
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Isn’t there a book: “Why Catholics Can’t Sing” or “Why Catholics Don’t Sing”? …
 
UUuuugggh…That song is as bad as a Barney jingle for getting stuck in your head after mass! Especially the line “It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.” I always get a visual of Jesus doing a jig with a horned devil clinging to his shoulders…not an image I want to exit mass with…:nope:
 
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JButky:
Some info on the song and it’s composer:

stainer.co.uk/lotd.html

No it’s not Irish either. Maybe an adaptation of the Shaker tune also known as “simple gifts” though.

Joe B
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And I’ll add some more:

Some interesting trivia on “The Lord of The Dance”…

…”For example, the theme song for “Lord of the Dance” uses the “Simple Gifts” melody. “And, after seeing the show, I’ve had people argue that this is really an old English or Irish folk tune,” Folger says. “But I’ve done a lot of research into this, and the Shaker tune definitely came first.”

“Lord of the Dance” is a set of lyrics written for the Shaker melody in 1963 by composer Sydney Carter. Carter’s hymn, which is sung in many churches, uses dance as a metaphor for Jesus’ ministry on Earth. But in recent years the hymn was borrowed by Irish dancer Michael Flatley, who kicked Jesus out of the song, then added a mysterious forest spirit and enough special effects for a rock concert.”

freep.com/fun/music/qshaker11.htm
 
Because the words are goofy and contain bad theology - Jesus goes on about dancing on the cross with the devil on His back, etc. etc. The original Shaker song “'Tis a gift to be simple,” is lovely, and so the modern “remake” - “Lord of the Dance” with all its dumb words, drives me crazy.
 
I remember reading somewhere also…and I’ll look for it…but it was that Michael Flatley composed the song as a “dancing ditty” because he was disturbed by what he saw as rigid spirituality in the Anglican Services.
 
I don’t hate the song. In fact, I used to do it occaissionaly at Mass. But it has be done at the appropriate time. I went Easter Mass at a neighboring parish, and heard this song. It’s definately NOT appropriate for Easter. But, if it’s done well, and at the right time, it can be good.
 
This was the last song sung at my son’s wedding. He and his bride chose it. My mother, who was unfamiliar with the church version, ws very upset at the beginning of the Mass to see it on the songlist. She thought there were going to be Irish dancers prancing around the altar. :dancing:
 
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maendem:
Because the words are goofy and contain bad theology - Jesus goes on about dancing on the cross with the devil on His back, etc. etc. The original Shaker song “'Tis a gift to be simple,” is lovely, and so the modern “remake” - “Lord of the Dance” with all its dumb words, drives me crazy.
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It doesn’t literally mean dancing. :rolleyes: As someone mentioned above, it is his metaphor for his ministry on earth, we are all invited to tell of God word to all.
 
Pius X:
It doesn’t literally mean dancing. :rolleyes: As someone mentioned above, it is his metaphor for his ministry on earth, we are all invited to tell of God word to all.
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Ah, and here we come to the crux of the problem…some people just don’t get it. I really like this one. Much, much more reverent and meaningful than this Shaker/Celtic/River Dance stuff…

“Ego Saltarvi Prima Luce…” Oh, the good ole days.
 
Pius X:
It doesn’t literally mean dancing. :rolleyes: As someone mentioned above, it is his metaphor for his ministry on earth, we are all invited to tell of God word to all.
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It’s a bad one. It was hardly a dance. Makes it sound like it was a light-hearted cake walk!
 
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Sanctus:
I remember reading somewhere also…and I’ll look for it…but it was that Michael Flatley composed the song as a “dancing ditty” because he was disturbed by what he saw as rigid spirituality in the Anglican Services.
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Michael Flatley did NOT write this song. As noted, the melody is the Shaker Hymn “Tis a Gift to Be Simple.” The words, as someone else has noted, were written up as a new set of lyrics in the 1960s. I grew up listening to “Lord of the Dance” on Fordham University’s Irish Radio Program-- there was a recording done a lady whose name I forget that was VERY popular in the early 1980s.

That being said, Michael Flatley latched onto the song-- why, I don’t know, when there are simply no end of lovely, catchy, danceable songs that are actually IRISH in origina-- and turned it into this garbled, pantheistic mess of a show…

Also, Michael Flatley is a Chicago-born American, so I doubt he grew up attending Anglican services.

http://bestsmileys.com/stpatricsday/2.gif And just for kicks I had to throw in the Irish-dancing smiley face again… I love it!
 
A reflection I wrote on “The Dance” a few years ago:

Learning this lesson is taking me quite some time. Learning to dance when I don’t feel like it. Learning to let Someone Else lead the dance instead of me. I’ve probably been trying to learn this most of my life.

There are two moments that distinctly stand out for me, however, where the Lord has opened my eyes and ears to hear His voice and to follow His lead.

The first moment was when I had recently moved to a new state with my husband and children. We weren’t there long when we discovered my husband’s job was going to be phased out over the next year. We were not very happy campers. We had just moved 1500 miles from our home, our friends, our children’s friends, to relocate in a place we thought we would be until our children were grown. Literally within days of this move we discovered it was not what we thought it would be.

How many times has that happened in our lives? Something turns out to be completely different than we thought it would. This happened to me early in our marriage when we thought we were ready to start a family, only our bodies weren’t cooperating. After two miscarriages and many infertility appointments, we decided to pursue adoption. Because of this, we have two incredibly beautiful children we would not otherwise have had.

Anyway, back to our move. After we received this news we debated a long time about what to do. Do we stay in the new town where there was little opportunity for employment? Do we move again? If we move, where? It was during all this turmoil that I distinctly remember being very mad at God for all of this happening. I was pretty comfortable on my little pity pot, brushing my teeth and yelling at God, when I heard very clearly**: “Think of how different your life would be if everything always went the way you had it planned.” ** Wow. There are many places I wouldn’t have chosen to go on my own. Many jobs I was not excited about taking which ended up being a blessing in the end. Children I would not have in my family if things had gone my way.

Sometimes we sing a funny little song in church called “The Lord of the Dance,” which is an old Shaker song. It sounds a bit like an Irish jig, full of life and pep. The refrain goes “Dance, then, wherever you may be; ‘I am the Lord of the Dance,’ said He. ‘I’ll lead you all wherever you may be, I will lead you all in the Dance,’ said He.”

The Dance is our walk with the Lord. Because this is a happy, uplifting song, I tend to think of it as a song of rejoicing – a song sung in celebration as in Easter time.

Here comes the second time this (dance) lesson has been given to me. This past lent I have been going through a pretty deep reconversion of my faith as I continue to struggle with health problems. During Holy Week, much of what I have been struggling with spiritually over the last year and a half finally made sense to me. So when Easter hit this year, my spirit was ready to dance and rejoice even though my body still felt pretty rotten.

We sang “The Lord of the Dance” at the celebration of Easter Mass. The paradox was evident to me. My body didn’t feel like dancing but my spirit did. Then there are times when our bodies might feel fine, feel like dancing, but our spirits don’t.

Yet the song says “I will lead you all wherever you may be…” I don’t think that is meant to be just where you are physically or where you are spiritually, but where you are all together at this moment in time right now. Whatever you are going through. Whatever hardships you are dealing with, whatever struggles. We are meant to dance and rejoice in the Lord always, no matter what we feel like.

(continued…)
 
(continued from previous post)

The trick is, we can’t do this on our own. In fact, we really can’t do much of anything on our own, at least anything very valuable or good. We need the Lord. And we need Him most when we absolutely do not feel like dancing. If we only ask Him, He will fill us with His Joy, His Love, His Forgiveness, His Mercy, and lead us in His Dance.

One of my favorite Christian songwriters, Steven Curtis Chapman, also has a song entitled “Lord of the Dance.” I think His words say it perfectly:

The world beneath us spins in circles
And this life makes us twist and turn and sway
But we were made for more than rhythm with no reason
By the One who moves with passion and with grace
As He dances over all that He has made

I am the heart, He is the heartbeat
I am the eyes, He is the sight
And I see clearly I am just a body
He is the Life
I move my feet, I go through the motions
But He gives purpose to chance
I am the dancer
He is the Lord of the Dance.

There are some of us who really would prefer to lead, who think we know the steps better ourselves. Wrong. **His Dance is far superior to anything we could come up with on our own. His Steps will lead us to places we never thought we’d go, to people we otherwise would never have met. ** So dance, then, wherever you may be. He will lead, we just need to learn how to follow.

[Maybe this will give some of you a different perspective on this song. 🙂 ]
 
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Didi:
Didn’t mean to kill this thread, sorry… :o
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No…the tune relentlessly screaming through my head :bigyikes: waking me from a dead sleep in the middle of the night is what killed it for me…in fact…I’m unsubscribing so I won’t be tempted to think about it again…It’s driving me batty!!!
 
Didi, You most certainly didn’t steal the thread. As a matter of fact you stated beautifully what the song means. You did this with meaningful prose and I read it twice to absorb it all. I used bombastic sarcasm, to try and say the same thing. I was ashamed of myself after reading your response…but then the reply came, and I see we’re back to where we started…nobody gets it.

I guess you did steal the thread because it was intended to be the bashing of something, that some people can see value in. As usual I think of smart alec responses to things I find inane…I keep having this vision of some peasant after Mass, way back when, lamenting…“OY all this sex, grog, and Gregorian Chant…how I long for the good old days…”

Oh and by the way what’s wrong with a melody being catchy? Better than a soon forgotten durge. I don’t get that argument.
 
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