Tango de Soledad

Choreography: Billy Cowie
Dancer: Amy Hollingsworth
Cello: Wei-Tsen Lin
Voice: Clara Garcia Fraile
Drawings: Silke Mansholt
Costumes: Holly Murray
Light: Adam Hooper
Production manager: Victoria Melody
Direcotr: Billy Cowie
Filmed at the Nightingale, Brighton 2010
Commissioned by South East Dance
Supported by: SouthEast Dance, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England.

www.billycowie.com

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE / INSTALATION:

Tango de Soledad (Tango of Solitude) is a 5 minute dance solo choreographed by Billy Cowie and danced by Amy Hollingsworth. It is a life sized stereoscopic installation. The dance is based around Cowie’s Tango No 3 for Cello and Piano (played by himself and Wei-Tsen Lin) and his poem Tango de Soledad which is recited in Spanish by Clara Garcia Fraile. The piece is performed against specially constructed drawings (by Silke Mansholt) and uses similar techniques to In the Flesh to give the viewer the impression that they are sharing the space with a real life sized solid dancer.

Tango de Soledad
one two
count without thinking
three four
move without stepping
five six
hold without touching
seven eight
love without…

how clearly
I remember
your instructions
and I know
you would have been pleased
that finally
in your absence
we dance perfectly
as one

one two
cry without tears
three four
turn without moving
five six
miss without grieving
seven eight
love without…

„The quirky, lyrical, imaginative, arresting, romantic fantasies of Billy Cowie deeply impressed me.“
Mikhail Baryshnikov

‘“The installation is full of passion and poetry… a brilliant dancer in a new universe.“
Christina Molander, Director Moderna Dansteatern, Stockholm

„Absolutely beautiful – moving, deeply yet without sentimentality – vulnerable without rawness . Leaves a soft melancholy and a memory of a fantastically strong woman’s presence.“
Helene Lesterine, Dance Curator EMPAC, New York State

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Billy Cowie is a Scottish artist, choreographer and writer. He works principally in the area of installation and screen dance. He has completed five major screen projects (two BBC Dance for Camera commissions and two ACE Capture projects and a Channel 4 commission). A book about his work entitled „Anarchic Dance“ was published by Routledge in January 2006. He is currently Principal Research Fellow at the University of Brighton.
He is currently touring a series of five stereoscopic installations, In the Flesh (winner of the IMZ Delegates Award 2008), The Revery Alone, Ghosts in the Machine, t'es pas la seule and Tango de Soledad.

Trailer: