I Cannot Dance Unless You Lead Me is a layered song based on a saying of Saint Mechtild of Magdeburg (1210-1282), a medieval mystic who shared visions that inspired and shocked her contemporaries for their sensuous, intimate language of relationship with the Divine.

“I cannot dance, O Lord, unless you lead me.
If you wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see You dance and sing.

Then I will leap into Love
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,
That sweetest Fruit beyond all human sense.”

There I will stay with You, whirling.

- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women

I simplified and adapted the poem, inspired by Jean Janzen’s hymn beautiful hymn paraphrase, I Cannot Dance, O Love. I find her substitution of ‘Love’ for ‘Lord’ expands the scope of the text significantly, allowing many more people to faithfully sing it without losing intimacy and beauty.

It’s a challenging layered song that’s anchored by the lowest part, which should be taught first. While it can take time for the other parts to come into focus, when they lock in the song takes on a joyous life of its own and doesn’t want to stop, as you can hear in this recording and see in the video below, both taken at this year’s Village Fire singing festival. Sheet music is available for purchase here.

Part 3: I cannot dance unless you lead me
Part 2: I cannot sing unless you teach me, O Love
Part 1: I cannot leap unless you hold me, O Love