it's a grey easter evening driving along the southern state parkway back to manhattan, back to the cats, back to an early monday morning guys and dolls load-in for korrina. this morning the sun shone in through the montauk community church's stained glass window scene of the beach at ditch with the hoodoo cliffs in the background. one of the songs we sang this morning was "lord of the dance" which took me back in time to the folk services of my youth, and which took my sister back to the time she visited the canterbury shaker village. the tune, "simple gifts," is by joseph brackett, part of the shaker community in 1848. (aaron copland popularized the melody when he used it for the score of martha graham's ballet appalachian spring). in 1963 english songwriter sydney carter took the tune and put it to new words, and it's this version of "lord of the dance" which is now included in the presbyterian church hymnal. the shakers never danced to "lord of the dance," but they did dance to "simple gifts."
