The Outside Capering Crew Dances

Bacca Pipes

The bacca pipes jig is our trademark dance  fast, complex and exciting. It is developed from an obscure Cotswold curiosity, traditionally performed over two crossed, long-stemmed tobacco pipes. We have several bacca-pipes dances, including versions three or four dancers all performing over one set of pipes  crossing and turning with inches to spare. We also perform our finale dance over the pipes, which ends with dancer Tracy Seelig leapfrogging over the rest of the team in a single leap.

Morris jigs

In the 19^th century, the best morris dancers in the Cotswold region of central England would create their own one- and two-person jigs, sometimes competitive in spirit. Some would have special steps or features not found in team dances. We have followed their example to create several interesting and energetic Cotswold jigs in the traditional idiom, intended to show off the dancers' skill. No gags or gimmicks: just impressive dancing.

Speciality dances 

The Cotswold morris of the 19^th Century featured a number of novelty dances, and we have exploited that tradition to add variety and comedy to our shows.

Broom dances are found in several parts of the UK. We have created two unique variations: one a highly skilled solo dance by Simon Pipe, drawing on early training in circus skills, and the other a comedy turn for two dancers (currently being "rested" after the retirement of Crew co-founder Brian Mander). Both dances usually end with daunting leapfrogs over the up-ended brooms. 

We also dance with chickens. This isn't completely traditional. The dance started as a variation on The Fool's Jig created by Jingy Wells, fool with the ancient Bampton Morris dancers in the early 20^th century, who danced while passing a short stick under his legs. We added various spins and throws, and finished the dance with each dancer holding their stick at either end and jumping over it. Sue Graham had to leave one show in an ambulance after attempting this, with a badly dislocated shoulder. For reasons difficult to explain, we now perform this dance with rubber chickens, as The Fowl's Jig.

Comic dances and audience participation 

Humour has long been a part of the morris and we’re not afraid of having a spot of traditionally-inspired fun.

The Ugly Duckling and our new Knees Up dance both involve hand-clapping choruses and a certain amount of physical contact between the dancers. We have a third clapping dance, Shepherd's Hey, that gives people of all ages a chance to dance alongside us and look gleefully ridiculous.

If the occasion is right (or even if it's not), we will invite audience members to play along for one of our dances on our orchestra of rubber chickens, which have had various musical instruments, such as kazoos and Swannee whisles, inserted into their rear ends.