If you happen to be out at around 8pm this evening UK time, you may be greeted with the strangest sight: people breaking into interpretive dance moves in a bid to open a portal to another dimension. A dimension in which the cult Netflix sci-fi show The OA isn’t cancelled.

Across the globe fans of The OA are planning a flashmob protest with a difference. They are coming together to perform the “five movements”: a wacky series of kung-fu style choreographic flourishes. The hope is that Netflix will be so impressed/unnerved/mystified it will reverse its decision to call time on The OA after two seasons.

Encountered in the wild, an OA flashmob may well seem entirely bonkers. The intention behind it is anything but. In the show, the five movements are a means of unlocking gateways to different dimensions. You stretch, form a triangle with your hands, waggle your fingers in a starfish shape, grab an invisible golfball from your mouth and then wave your hands all over again.

It sounds ludicrous. Looks it too. Yet the dance was created in complete earnestness for The OA by an LA choreographer who has worked with musicians Sia and Sigur Ros. And anyone who has watched the show will know how dramatic the movements can be. There’s real tension, for instance, when they are deployed at the end of season one to prevent a school shooting.