This dance was choreographed by me in the early 1990s. It is dedicated to ‘the Christ’ – Christ the King. Not knowing this, and basing their criticism on the lyrics of the song – some dancers suggested it should be called ‘the Princes’.
Leaving that aside I was saddened when I was shown the dance as taught in Findhorn that it had lost its dynamism. The music is very dynamic and the dance reflects this, as well as the circular nature of the tune.
The start of the dance consists of Step Hop followed by four Running steps, repeated four times in the Line of Dance to the Right. At Findhorn the hops were taught in place. This is not how the dance operates. In the Olympic Games the triple jump consists of Step Hop and Jump, an alternative name for the event. This is the nature of the first steps of Le Roi. Following the step the hop covers distance, it is not done in place. This is the style of those first steps.
The dance goes on – for the sake of completeness I include the other sequences here – four running steps on a curve into the centre, followed by four steps directly out in a straight line – again repeated, twice this time.
On the second retreat a Pas de Bas to the right, another to the left, with the dance ending in four straight Running steps in the Line of Dance, which lead into the first sequence of Step Hop, 1 2 3 4.
This ending was changed by British dancers who decided to replace the ending with a turn instead of four steps. They had not given it time to work on them and preferred embellishment instead of accepting the dance as it was choreographed, and discovering what it contained by allowing it to work on them.
The Running steps have a purpose. They thread into the first sequence of Step Hop and Running steps making the dance an endless swirl. By replacing this with a turn the dynamic energy of the dance is again killed, like Hopping in place.
It is a shame that the British dancers have not learned to allow a dance to work on them to reveal its inner meditation. It is not surprising however since mostly they have not been taught that each dance has an inner, as well as an outer, form.
It will be difficult for those who have learned the corrupted form of this dance – hopping in place and turning at the end – to learn to follow the original choreography and allow it to open the heart as the spirit of the dance builds cycle by cycle. I do encourage you to do so, at the very least to introduce a travelling hop rather than a hop in place. There is much joy in this dance to be discovered.