Strange

This dance came about because some of us liked the tune and thought that it felt right. It took six months to develop the figures and has become one of our core dances. The contrast between the darkness of the sound and the wildness of some moments in the dance comes from the heart of The Ouse Washes and reflects the environment from which the dancing comes. The fenland is the ultimate bland countryside, or so it seems from the horrible roads that cross it. Mile after mile of corn and sugar beet, roads that infuriatingly won’t go straight, drivers in cloth caps who won’t go more than 35, tractors which swing in front of you and stay there forever. But, get off the main roads, get out of your car and the sky towers above you. Ancient stories about Will o’ the Wisps and malevolent spirits seem very real. No wonder when they got together, fenlanders could be a little wild... the tune fits the place.

The complication that we had with the tune was that the B music is four bars longer than the usual 16, which meant having to add a movement at the beginning of the chorus to use up the extra. This means that we have to count during the chorus to make sure everything is done at the right time and this has had a profound effect on our dancing ever since. We do everything by numbers, drink, walk, breathe. You won’t hear us call a dance but if you look carefully at the dancers you’ll see their lips moving like amateur ventriloquists.

Studying the dance from a distance also provided an understanding that it is little things, very often things that you don’t even think about while you’re dancing, that have a real visual impact. Undoubtedly one of the most impressive parts of the dance is the figure called 'The End That Isn’t The End' Why call it that? It’s obvious really. Jim Mollyson who wrote the tune of Strange also wrote a song called The End which is used in Apocalypse Now. So we decided to call the figure after that tune but also the figure took so long to work out that we thought we would never get to the end of it.

The Dance

A dance for eight, the ends "partner" the middle person stood next to them

• Bachelors Button (two on the spot, cross and turn)

• Outside fours chorus (out side dance towards each other for four, right hand turn for eight then left hand turn for eight)

• Set turns round

• Cross and Turn right for eight, cross and turn left for eight

• "New" outside fours chorus

• Charge across, eventually returning to the same positions as at the start of the dance

• Outside fours chorus

• End that isn't the End

• Outside fours chorus

• Zig Zag and Oy!

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