This dance is one of the more recent of the 'traditional' Mirkmere dances. The Molly dancers found in several other Fenland villages around Plough Monday in early January have long been held in considerable contempt by the Mirkmere dancers. They feel, very strongly, that Molly dancing is crude and over-Rustic for any person with an ounce of self respect to perform in public. In fact, there have been occasions of wandering troupes of Molly dancers coming too close to Mirkmere and coming to a damp end at the hands of some of the rougher elements in the Mirkmere team.
The Mirkmere Molly Dance was developed as a satire on the Molly style and as a demonstration to other villages that if mid-winter Molly dances must be performed, then this is what they should look like -
Tune :
The Cross Hand Polka ( a Comberton Molly tune) played fast.
Sequence:
The normal Mirkmere sequence (qv) - six or eight dancers - neither hankies nor sticks
Chorus(DF):
- tops face and dance one exaggerated "Molly style" double step
- middles repeat (if eight dancers - the four middles do it together)
- bottoms repeat
- all repeat together
- odds all jump high and turn to face out with hands on knees
- evens do likewise
- all turn to face with four stamping steps - hands on belt
The important factor is to overdo the Molly steps and the stamps - really make the ground shake at each step of the chorus. the common figures are, buy contrast, in normal Mirkmere style and stepping.