The Mercy Velvet Project

Co-Presented by kamrDANCE and Yale Schwarzman Center with support from Yale Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

 

The 1999 album, Live in Vain by Mercy Velvet, exists on zero streaming platforms, and few people have heard it…until now. The Mercy Velvet Project (premiere June 2026) is an embodied re-creation of the album. The work explores what makes us human, our collective need for community to survive—with musicians and dancers moving as one. Through nine songs in their original order, a queer and femme cast explore different barriers to experiencing love. Learning that by giving and receiving the gift of mercy, we are able to find the bridge to survival, wholeness, and hope. Over twenty-five years after the albums’ release, kamrDANCE and their collaborators expand upon its legacy through their personal identities and today’s political realities. The show tells the story of the album through tap dance as percussion, contemporary dance, original text, and instrumentation via bass, guitar, vocals, and electronics—highlighting our vulnerabilities, learning together how to find the antidote that is mercy, and in turn lead meaningful lives.

 

Live in Vain by Mercy Velvet is the music that Choreographer Alexis Robbins grew up with, the percussive rhythms and lyrics that inspired living room dances. Her father, Mark Robbins, was the drummer and co-composer for Mercy Velvet, alongside lyricist and vocalist Deb Lili, and guitarist Lou Lili. Her fathers’ love and direction has deeply influenced the music Alexis listens to and the music she creates as a tap dancer. Now, Alexis, Musical Director Christie Echols, and their collaborators bring Live in Vain to audiences for the first time. These June 2026 performances mark the premiere of this work.

 

The Mercy Velvet Project is a “genre-bending [concert album] told through a dynamic combination of music, dance, text, and production elements, all coming together through evocative modes of storytelling” (Rush Johnston, Dance Enthusiast). It’s a rock concert. It’s a sonic experience that “demonstrates dance and music as indivisible” (Clare Byrne, CT Examiner). It’s a femme and queer cast collaborating to uplift one another and explore our shared humanity, and potential equitable futures.