We are Mercurial Dance

  • IMMERSIVE CAPTIVATING INSPIRATIONAL

  • WE ARE CREATIVE PRODUCERS

  • WE DANCE THROUGH LIFE

Mercurial Dance creates distinctive digital performance
and produces in-depth participatory experiences.

Our work takes a co-design approach to devising
new pieces for family audiences.

Digital | Dance | Film | Installation | Site Responsive
Education | Participation | Communication

Retold – Our new show at the Coventry Evening Telegraph Building

#RetoldCov Share your story here

In Retold, is an interactive, cabaret-style show, inspired by and using your stories of Coventry. Inspired by the Coventry Evening Telegraph foyer being the place people of Coventry gave their stories, placed their adverts and connected with the city, this piece is rooted in the Coventry stories and the history of the building.

Real-life memories supplied by members of the community will be brought to life by a professional cast using dance and music, allowing audiences to bear witness to the many ways that Coventry has changed across the decades as it approaches its year as City of Culture in 2021.

The iconic, 1950s Coventry Evening Telegraph building is a landmark. Its storeys are heavy with stories. The dusty air of the now abandoned newsroom is thick with them – flying from desk to desk soundtracked by the faint, staccato echo of long-silenced typewriters, dashing to deliver the day’s deadline copy. Situated just over the road from the Belgrade Theatre – another hub for city storytelling – the Coventry Evening Telegraph building will soon enjoy a new lease of life as a beautiful hotel. But before that, for a brief moment in time, it will become a theatre.

Ahead of our performances this summer, we are also offering you the chance to be part of the Retold project by getting in touch to share your stories of the city. Choreographer and director Oliver Scott is calling on Coventrians to send in their favourite tales and anecdotes to be used as the basis for shows running throughout the week. In particular, he’s keen to hear about memorable moments spent in the city; favourite places in Coventry and why; stories from the past; and where you were during significant events that have taken place here.

There are several ways to take part, depending on how you like to communicate. You can email your stories to retold@mercurialdance.co.uk, or write a letter to Mercurial Dance, 11a Coventry Canal Basin, Leicester Row, CV1 4LH. You can also get in touch via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, using #RetoldCov and #CETtakeover.

Running time: approx 1 hour. Seating is arranged in 10 tables each seating 8 people.

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Our Services

Our services are delivered by our team with years of experience. We are passionate about dance, digital and education.

Choreography

Our expertise is in Contemporary Dance traditions, choreographing theatre work for & with young people, outdoors unusual spaces & city squares.

What we offer

 

  • Site Specific
  • Digital Dance
  • Dance Film & for Camera
  • Motion Tracking
  • Interactive Digital
  • Currently touring…

Arts Workshops

One off themed workshops to inspire & enthuse students in any arts discipline, to indepth participatory projects and whole school arts curricula.

What we offer

 

Creative Producing

From concept to delivery, we work alongside organisations to envision, produce and deliver your arts & education project, exactly as you’d like it to be.

What we offer

 

  • Consultancy & Development
  • Articulating Objectives
  • Inspirational Delivery
  • Project Management
  • Fundraising Services
  • Evaluation of Impact

Are you ready to start a conversation?

Get in Touch

Portfolio

Our Featured Works

Testamonials

  • The whole ‘Aspire Month’ opened so many doors for the children to explore and aspire to immediately and for the future. Working with Oliver enabled me to transform a vision into reality. The time I spent with Oliver planning the ‘Aspirations Month’ was invaluable. From our discussions Oliver planned thoroughly and all plans were open to negotiation.
    His contacts with museums, universities, art galleries etc was second to none and I had complete confidence that the trips which were planned were right for the children. Oliver fully engaged with staff and they too were part of the planning. This enabled ownership by the staff and thus a whole academy approach to our ‘Aspirations Month’ which was fully engaging for all stakeholders with desired impact.  I would fully recommend Oliver Scott and Mercurial Dance, a service I will definitely use again.

    — Mrs Michelle Lee, Principal Oasis Academy Shortheath —

  • Aspire Week is all about getting the children to think big about who they are and where they are going; giving them a whole range of experiences that might plant a seed that will flourish throughout their life.

    — Paul Tarry, Principal Oasis Academy Hobmoor —

  • The children in my class really enjoyed the workshop last week. It was a great mix of drama and role play activities, with opportunity for collaboration, team bonding and also quiet reflection and discussion time. The children were engaged throughout the session and both members of staff had excellent behaviour management strategies, high expectations and a kind and relaxed manner with the children.

    — Charlotte S, Year 5 Teacher —

  • So fantastic to have dance happen in a library, making it accessible to everyone. It captured the interest of people who wouldn’t normally experience dance, including people of different ages & backgrounds. The performance was fun, physical and engaging and made me want to dance so much!

    — Audience Comment on Fair Youth —

  • Sessions full of energy, pace and engagement. The children were taught some essential theatrical skills, but also some key literary ones as well. The sessions offered the children an alternate perspective in which to learn the skills from enabling them to reflect on their own history and personal circumstances. In summation the children were enthused by the sessions and took a great deal back to the classroom.

    — Tom Carrol, Class Teacher —

Aspire Book

Our first book!

This book captures a flavour of the amazing work that has come out of the collaboration between us as company in residence at Oasis Academy Hobmoor, the talented hardworking teaching staff and our inspiring students.

aspire book cover

Read online

A beautifully produced hard back book or FREE e-book

Available now direct from our publishers

Get books

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Every Child Is An Artist

We are working with Augmented Reality, 3D scanning and printing, re-purposing and designing with Little Bits and Makey Makey, creating films and animations with comic life, vine and other stuff. Pulling it all together in a virtual world the children and parents can down load, find the AR codes in the community.
In Visual Arts we have been exploring the theme of Our Community. The children have been working with ceramics, upcycled art, screen printing and sculpture. The end of term exhibition opened to the friends, families and school community.
The project concluded its first year with a focus on performing arts: voice work, dance, drama and electronic music composition. Every Child Is An Artist develops the skills and innate ability of children, led by practicing artists at the forefront of their disciplines.

A nationally ground breaking programme to develop the skills and innate artistic ability of every child in Oasis Academy Hobmoor. Our aim is to develop the people, skills, ability, opportunities and space needed for art and creativity to flourish in school over the next three years. Bringing Amazing Artists into school to work with the children we will create new works of art for the community. We are working with Year 1 through to Year 6.

The whole project is delivered by Mercurial’s team of artists, who make and present work professionally. We are experienced in communicating our arts practice in educational settings and this is what enables us to really stretch the children’s imagination and ability.

If your interested in Every Child Is An Artist for your school, please contact us

Performance

Participation

 

We establish, produce and deliver participatory projects which focus on the development of performance and creative skills for all ages.
Participatory project range in scale from select groups to over 600 performers in a single show.

 


 Thank you for two incredible days! I have learnt sooooooo much!

— Andrea Giles, Teacher —

Enliven Your School Vision

What a lovely reflection of our school

— Miss Ranny —

We Make Vision Building Anthems

Encouraging Aspiration, Supporting Creativity

Our Anthem programme is part of a holistic vision to encourage children’s creativity and aspiration within their schools.  Much more than the the production of a new school song and music video, the Anthem with Oasis Academy Hobmoor is a project that built and reflected a vision for the 2014 generation at the School..

The Process

Over a series of days we worked with a group of children to explore how their school was changing since becoming an academy and what their aspirations, reflections and desires are for their new school. Explored through creative writing, poetry and song lyrics this steering group help to shape and collect a feeling for the new school.

Writing the lyrics

Opening up the task of generating the song to the whole school we set up a Lyric Lottery, where all the children submitted their ideas and writings for the lyrics. These were collated and developed in to the verses and chorus in collaboration with a songwriting group of children.

Making the film

The children and staff were keen to have a unique look to the film that represented and shows off Oasis Academy Hobmoor, and feature a playful narrative. We developed a script for En’Light’en that reflects the childrens humour and sense of play. Through the process we ran a series of light painting workshops with the children developing the mood and feel for the character which have been incorporated into the final film.

Enliven Your School Vision

Create your own Anthem

We can create your own, unique anthem and music video with your pupils

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Contact

We'd really love to hear from you so why not drop us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

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