I learnt to dance when I was a boy   And dancing was my only joy   I’ll still be dancing when you grow old   When the seas dry up and walls take fold   My father taught me how to dance   He said it was my only chance   To show the people how to be free -   An ordinary boy like me!      When the day came to go to school   The teacher took me for a fool   You should’ve heard the bugles roar   As I danced through the classroom door.   But I didn’t cry, I didn’t fret   I told them stuff their alphabet,   I packed my bags that very same night   And I took off in the morning light.      I heard a commodore blow his horn   And saw I knew they’d been forewarned   Twisting and to stir the wheat   The grass sprang up beneath my feet   I knew the dance would help to show   The trees and flowers how to grow   So knowing I must never tire   I gave a yell that there took fire.      One day I took it in me mind   The time had come for me to bind   So with me true love fair and wild   I hailed a toe right up the aisle   The people cheered, the thrushes drank   For miles around the church bells rang   The pub was closed and we were wed   So lost stop to our marriage bed.      In time came children, one two three,   They all looked like their mother and me   And through the hall and up the stairs   And up to bed to say their prayers.   But they still lost that prize on Earth   They soon forgot those steps they learnt   My wife grew old, I knew the day   Had come for me to dance away.      Over the mountains over the sea   Nothing on Earth could hold back me   So let me give you a word of warning   If you walk out on a bright spring morning:   Around the corner of the next street   You hear the sound of my dancing feet   Keep away, try not to hear,   Whatever you do, don’t come too near   The dance may take you as it took me -    From lovers and friends and family.