Tripping the Light Fantastic

Anna Pavlova and Michael Mordkin

 "Com, and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastick toe."

 attributed to Milton's 1645 poem L'Allegro

"Before you can say come, and goe,
And breathe twice; and cry, so, so:
Each one tripping on his Toe,
Will be here with mop, and mowe."
in Shakespeare's The Tempest:

In the late nineteenth century the expression became popular from the American song "Sidewalks of New York" (melody and text byCharles B. Lawlor and James W. Blake) in 1894. 

"Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O'Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York."

In 1967, English rock band Procol Harum released its hit song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale " with lyrics by Keith Reid, that included a play on the phrase with "skip the light fandango," casting Milton's light and nimble dancing in a modernist perspective: