The name of the dance refers to both the mountain Lion’s Head which along with Table Mountain welcomes visitors to Cape Town, as well as the crest of the Clan Macgregor which is also the Lion’s Head. This dance was devised for Dame Judith Macgregor, British High Commissioner to South Africa, to celebrate her first visit to the Cape Town Caledonian Society for our Burn’s Night Supper. We were later to learn that both Judith and her husband John are enthusiastic Scottish Country dancers who would regularly join us on the dance floor. This dance turned out not be the first one devised in their honour — Susi Mayr had devised “The Ambassador’s Reel” for them when John was the ambassador to Austria.
Christof, who is now 15 years old, composed five reel tunes for this project on request and initially they were just named one, two, three, four and five. This was the fifth tune and when it was linked to this dance, retaining “Five” as the title seemed quite apt.