Mill Girls & Militants
An immersive heritage dance and virtual reality experience exploring 100 years of women’s suffrage.
Commissioned by Ludus Dance.
Presented at The Harris.
PORTFOLIO
Project Overview
Mill Girls and Militants was a large-scale performance and immersive heritage project created to mark 100 years of the women’s suffrage movement. Commissioned by Ludus Dance, the project brought together professional dancers, community performers, and audiences in a powerful exploration of women’s history, activism, and collective action.
This project sits within AVimmerse’s wider immersive heritage work, combining performance, place, and digital storytelling to explore overlooked histories.
The work culminated in a live public performance at The Harris in Preston, combining contemporary dance, historical research, and digital storytelling. Alongside the live event, an immersive virtual reality experience was created to extend the project’s reach into schools and community settings.
Role: Virtual Reality Filmmaker and Editor
Keith Myers was commissioned as the artist responsible for creating the virtual reality experience for Mill Girls and Militants.
The role included:
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Filming the live performance using 360-degree video.
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Capturing documentary footage of rehearsals and the creative process.
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Working closely with the Ludus Dance team during dress rehearsals and staging.
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Planning VR capture in relation to choreography, movement, and spatial layout.
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Editing and assembling the final VR experience for distribution.
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Integrating historical imagery and archival material into the VR experience at key narrative moments.
The resulting work was designed to allow audiences to step inside the performance and engage directly with the history of the suffrage movement through movement, place, and story.
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Blending Performance, History, and Virtual Reality
A core aim of the project was to make women’s history felt, not just told.
Within the VR experience, moments from the live performance are interwoven with historical references, imagery, and symbolism drawn from the suffrage movement. This included visual cues referencing the distinct identities and colours of different suffrage groups, encouraging viewers to actively observe, interpret, and reflect on what they were seeing.
By combining embodied performance with immersive media, the project created a space where heritage could be explored emotionally as well as intellectually.
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Process and Collaboration
The VR experience was developed in close collaboration with the Ludus Dance creative team. Attending rehearsals and working alongside choreographers and performers was essential to ensuring that the immersive capture respected the intent of the choreography and the rhythm of the performance.
This collaborative process allowed the virtual experience to reflect the energy, scale, and collective nature of the live event, while also adapting it for audiences encountering the work through headsets rather than in the physical space.
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Public Engagement and Legacy
Mill Girls and Militants formed part of Ludus Dance’s wider programme of cultural education and public engagement during 2018–2019. The live performance was watched by large public audiences, while the VR experience enabled the work to continue beyond the event itself.
Designed for use in schools and community contexts, the VR experience supported learning around:
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Women’s history and the suffrage movement.
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Collective action and social change.
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Creative approaches to heritage interpretation.
The project demonstrates how immersive technologies can support cultural organisations in sharing complex histories in accessible, engaging ways.
Similar approaches to community-led digital heritage can be seen in projects such as the Fireground Virtual Museum and recent place-based storytelling work in Warrington.
Credits
Virtual Reality Filmmaker & Editor: Keith Myers
Commissioning Organisation: Ludus Dance
Venue: The Harris
(Full creative and production credits available on request.)
Selected excerpts from the VR performance are available to view below.
Further examples of AVimmerse’s immersive cultural projects can be found in the Portfolio.
Mill Girls & Militants demonstrates how immersive technologies can honour lived histories by placing audiences inside stories of collective action, memory, and change.
