"Lord of the Dance" is a hymn written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963. The melody is from the American Shaker song "Simple Gifts". The hymn is widely performed in English-speaking congregations and assemblies. The song follows the idea of the traditional English carol "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", which tells the gospel story in the first-person voice of Jesus of Nazareth with the device of portraying Jesus' life and mission as a dance. In writing the lyrics to "Lord of the Dance", Carter was inspired partly by Jesus, but also by a statue of the Hindu deity Shiva as Nataraja (Shiva's dancing pose) which sat on his desk. He later stated, "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord". It was recorded by Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, on But Two Came By (1968), The McCalmans on Singers Three (1969), The Corries on The Corries In Concert (1969), Donovan on HMS Donovan (1971), New World on the "B" side of the single "Kara Kara" (1971), The Dubliners on Now (1975), Nowell Sing We Clear on The Best of Nowell Sing We Clear (1986), The Bach Choir on Family Carols (1991), Charlie Zahm on The Celtic Balladeer (1999), Blackmore's Night on Winter Carols (2007) and Salisbury Cathedral Choir on Great Hymns from Salisbury (2013). I first learned this in the early 1970's when I was leading a junior/senior choir. It was printed in a small paperback titled Workers Quarterly Volume 39 Number 1 Hymns for Now published in July 1967.