• Disruptive ideas for a more beautiful world

    Magic, Mischief and Mind Bombs

  • What We Do

    Dancing Fox specialises in beautiful disruption.

     

    Founded by Tommy Crawford and Brian Fitzgerald, we work with change-makers, artists, activists and imagineers to tell (and embody) compelling stories, and to shift deep cultural narratives through a combination of magic, mischief, and mind-bombs.

     

    Dancing Fox is a trickster character who operates at the interface between two worlds:

    the world of what is, and the world of what’s possible.

     

    We help organisations to gracefully (and joyfully) traverse that gap, in order to create bold and brilliant campaigns that bring people together around a shared vision.

     

    We keep our paws on the pulse of pop culture — and are experts in providing unconventional learning and collaboration experiences that unleash the creativity of highly skilled and cognitively diverse groups.

     

    We offer a daring, participatory and story-infused approach: which is both suited to the magnitude of the challenges we face, and proven to deliver transformational, long-term change.

     

    Image by Iris Maertens, The Moon Candy Rebellion

    Build a mind bomb.

    Ideas that ripple out in shock waves around the world...

    The world doesn't need little stories about incremental change. It needs big, booming, transformational stories.We're activists, but we're also artists. And we bring artists into our creative processes in ways that, in the words of one client, "opened doors that I didn't know were there." We bring techniques from the world of improv theatre, behavioural economics, and the marketing and advertising industries into all of our work. From how to hold a better brainstorm to how to dance with uncertainty, we've coached dozens and dozens of organisations in ways to improve innovation at every level, from idea to execution to strategy development.

    Image by Iris Maertens, The Moon Candy Rebellion

    Find your storytelling magic

    Workshops? We call them playshops...

    Creativity isn't unleashed around the usual meeting table with a speakerphone. We'll take your team on a magical journey down a rabbit hole where all the rules get broken. Whether you need a three day workshop on culture jamming modern mythologies, a day's introduction to story as theory of change, or a half day of exercises to build new storytelling muscle to bolster your communications, campaigning, or fundraising, we've got unconventional methods to bring out your most beautiful mischief.

    Image by Iris Maertens, The Moon Candy Rebellion

    Tell your organisation's story

    Once upon a time, there was an organisation without a story...

    A powerful organisational story is a way to align your staff and resources, bring clarity to your work, and help you inspire your audience to answer your call to action. Or your call to adventure. We'll work with your team to identify the story elements and the narrative you need to bring your story to life, and to truly live its values.

    Image by Iris Maertens, The Moon Candy Rebellion

    Get inspired

    Need a speaker? A speech?

    From scripting a TED talk to writing a children's book to producing some of Greenpeace's most successful video content: we love telling stories to a crowd. We can talk about our activist histories and the future of activism. Or the hurdles and high points of how we brought a new story to life at Greenpeace. We have salty seafarer stories and magical tales -- and decades of lessons in organisational change, growth, and reinvention to share.

  • Current Culture Hack

    #SpoonfulOfLaughter

    We worked with the beautiful troublemakers at diaTribe to create a campaign against diabetes stigma in the US ... by using comedy: those "rabidly shared and avidly consumed forms of cultural narrative." And because jokes travel faster than facts.

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    Backstage with Justin Eastzer and Kesha Carter

    For three days we brought together some very foxy artists, comedians, and activists, some with diabetes and some without, to brainstormed the comic potential of moments when people with diabetes feel stigmatized. And for the next two days, we shot the five films we'd come up with.

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    The result: a comedy campaign with important punchlines.

    See how you can be a part of the shenanigans at https://www.spoonfuloflaughter.org  

  • Founding Foxes

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    Brian Fitzgerald

    Senior Story-Hacker

    Brian's stories include stopping a nuclear weapons test in the Nevada Desert, sailing to Iceland to save whales, living on an olive farm in Italy and an embarrassing fall, as a trainee pilot, from a hot air balloon. In 35 years at Greenpeace he bounced from box to box in the organogram: from door-to-door canvasser to campaigner to communications director to fundraiser, deck hand, digital pioneer, action coordinator, and story teller. He remains an unapologetic believer in peace, love, and understanding.

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    Tommy Crawford

    Chief Mischief-Maker

    Tommy's stories include breaking the world record for the biggest consecutive striptease, disrupting Milan Fashion Week with some beautiful trouble, choosing poems over jumpers to keep him warm in a forest in Devon, and a magical moment with a fox. He is a poet, artist, and fountain of ideas. During his time with Greenpeace he led a pirate band of communicators to create a new organisational story, was Creative Director of the global Detox Campaign, and still made it home in time for tea and crumpets.

  • Forest Friends

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    Iris Maertens

    Iris is a graphic designer, illustrator and digital ninja. She uses a wide range of media and techniques including paper, canvas, murals, oil, watercolour, pen and pencil and well as digital media/social media. Iris spent her youth unleashing creativity at either the piano or the drawing table. She studied at the Royal Atheneum of Fine Arts and later completed an MBA in Graphic Design and Web Design at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. When she started to travel she began reintroducing illustration into her work, drawing rather than taking pictures of her adventures. In 2010 she did her first solo-exhibition of illustration work at the 't Ey culture club, in Belgium. She enjoys making a living out of the thing she loves doing most and believes a drawing a day keeps the doctor away.

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    Maeve Simons

    Whether planning an event or proofreading a book, Maeve is an enthusiastic organiser, of people, places, and things. A trans-Atlantic child with a passion for conservation, she grew up with one foot in California's Mojave Desert and the other in the chilly waters of the Irish Sea. She received her Masters in English Literature from University College Cork in Ireland before joining the Communications team at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam as a social media intern. Since then, Maeve has worked with a variety of NGOs and corporations as a media consultant, event planner, project manager, and a Getting Stuff Done-r. When she's not behind her computer working or writing, you'll generally find her in the local park with a science fiction novel, admiring other people's dogs.

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    Lucy Taylor

    Lucy was with communications consulting firm eatbigfish when she brought her talents as a professional facilitator, improvisational actress, and puppeteer to the task of helping craft the Greenpeace Story with Dancing Fox founders Tommy Crawford and Brian Fitzgerald. She holds degrees from Oxford University and has been on learning adventures at Embercombe and Findhorn. Her other talents include singing and cold-water swimming. Great bookstores make her happy. She lives in London with a tiny toddling human being.

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  • Collaborators

    We work with some of the most beautiful troublemakers on the planet

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  • What does the fox say?

    Things we've recorded with our podcasting friends

  • Story Mapping

    Our foxy gift for you: A magical story mapping tool

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    Free, open source Storymapping Gizmo

  • �— Forest Newsletter

     

    We don't often send mail. But when we do, it's full of magic.

  • Official stuff

    Our Foxy Den

     Dancing Fox, BV

    Admiraal de Ruijterweg 253 HS

    Amsterdam, 1055 LT
    The Netherlands

    Where to send blueberries

    Bank Account: IBAN: NL83INGB0007262856

    Dancing Fox BV

    Acct 0007 2628 56

    ING Bank, NV

    Bijlmerplein 888

    1102 MG Amsterdam

    The Netherlands

    Some numbers that people in suits told us are important...

    KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) Number: 65278666
    BTW (VAT) Number: NL856048756B01

  • Privacy Policy

    Mister Fox believes that everyone has a right to speak their minds, to have a safe den, delicious food, education, clean water, clean air, and privacy. Your data is yours. We maintain a list of email addresses of friends who sign up for our newsletter. We don't trade, sell, swap, or share those email addresses with anyone. We use the list solely to send information about events and news about what we've been up to and what's tickling our brains on a very irregular basis.

     

    When we conduct surveys or create online communities on behalf of clients we explicitly declare what information we're sharing before you provide it, and always provide the option to opt-out.

     

    We have a Facebook page which allows us to track post and ad performance, and we use Google Analytics to track website usage. Both those tools employ cookies when you visit our website. They will also reveal things like where and when a user visits our website to the level of country and city, the operating system and hardware they're using, the screen they are viewing, and other information about the type of device you're viewing our website with. It will not tell us your name or other personal information, what kind of animal you are, what you like to eat, or how many fingers you are holding up right now.

     

    We always provide the option to opt out from any subscription or list we maintain, and you can write to us to request removal, erasure, or blueberries at any time at misterfox@dancing-fox.com.

     

    To learn more about, and to help defend, online privacy, please visit and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation.