Wikipedia

Draft:Billy Cowie


Billy Cowie is a Scottish choreographer, writer and composer born in 1954 [1] who works in the areas of live and screen dance.[2][3][4]

From 1982 to 2002 he was artistic director, choreographer and composer (with Liz Aggiss) for The Wild Wigglers (performed ICA, Wembley Arena and Le Zenith Paris etc) and Divas Dance (formed 1985, performances include Torei en Veran Veta Arnold 1986-87, Eleven Executions 1988, Dorothy and Klaus 1989-91, Drool and Drivel They Care 1990 and French Songs 1991) Early awards for Divas Dance include: Special Award (Brighton Festival) 1989, ZAP Award for Dance (Brighton Festival) 1989, BBC Radio Award (Brighton Festival) 1990, Alliance & Leicester Award (Brighton Festival) 1990, Time Out/Dance Umbrella Award 1990, Best Contemporary Music Award (Brighton Festival) 1992.[1]

He has recently developed the area of stereoscopic dance works including his Stereoscopic Trilogy 2 which has been installed in art galleries in over 30 countries including USA, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Korea, Cuba, Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria etc [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Major recent dance works include Attraverso I Muri Di Bruma (2016) commissioned by the Fondazione Prada in Milan[14][15][16], Edge of Nowhere (2015), Under Flat Sky (2014)(commissioned by the Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan),[17][18] and Tangos Cubanos (2015) (commissioned by Danza Contemporanea de Cuba).[19][20][21] In 2013 Cowie's Art of Movement (commissioned by the Kyoto Experiment Festival, Japan[22]) won the Prix de Jury at the 6e Festival Culturel International de la Danse Contemporaine in Algiers.[23] Cowie's series of three dance works for Luciana Croatto Solos Extr3mos premiered at Teatro Colon, Beunos Aires in 2024.[24][25][26][27][28] For his multiple presentations in Italy the British Council gave Cowie the New Connections Award.[29] In 2018 Fiver International Videodance Festival in Logroño awarded Cowie the 'Artist of the Year Prize'[30]

Music for TV includes Love Affair with Nature (Channel 4), Putting on the South (TVS), POV (ITV), ICA 40 Year Retrospective (BBC 2). [1] Dance films commissioned by BBC TV include Beethoven in Love (1991) and Motion Control (2002) [31][32] (winner of the Czech Crystal Golden Prague Television Awards 2002, Special Jury Golden Award World FilmFest Houston 2003, Best Female Film Mediawaves 2003 Hungary)[33] and by Channel 4, Break (2006) and Tango Brasileiro (2015).[34]

In 2001 BBC Radio commissioned Cowie to write the music for Shakespeare's The Tempest[35] and in 2003 for Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy His Dark Materials#Adaptions.[36]

In 2012 the Baryshnikov Centre in New York held a retrospective of Cowie's work[37]

Books by Billy Cowie include "Passenger"[38][39][40] and "Silent Land"[41]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Ellis, Patricia (1993). Debrett's People of Today 1993. Debrett's Peerage Limited. p. 432. ISBN 9781870520140.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ Briginshaw, Valerie A. (2009). Dance, Space and Subjectivity. SpringerLink Bücher. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 210–217. ISBN 978-0-230-22979-2.
  3. ^ McPherson, Katrina (2019). Making video dance: a step-by-step guide to creating dance for the screen (Second ed.). Abingdon, Oxon New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-69912-0.
  4. ^ Rosenberg, Douglas (2016). The Oxford handbook of screendance studies. Oxford handbooks. Oxford New York: Oxford university press. ISBN 978-0-19-998160-1.
  5. ^ "Fringe Dance Reviews: Stereoscopic Trilogy 2 / Ours Was The Fen Country / There We Have Been / Duet". The Herald. 28 August 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  6. ^ https://www.pressreader.com/italy/corriere-della-sera-la-lettura/20160703/282093456055267?srsltid=AfmBOorkCj3mjCWp2Fv28wnLUda4JC1nyHPShctWbJpr7Htf1qVIaNdg. Retrieved 24 August 2025 – via PressReader. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ "Music and Sound in Tango de Soledad | Loie". 26 September 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  8. ^ "【KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2012】 Billy Cowie｜Report & Review | 京都で遊ぼうART". www.kyotodeasobo.com. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  9. ^ Everson, Imogen; Eveson, Imogen, eds. (2014). Wapping Project: on paper. London: Black Dog Publ. ISBN 978-1-908966-60-5.
  10. ^ 香港藝術中心, Hong Kong Arts Centre. "Hong Kong Arts Centre". hkac.org.hk. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  11. ^ "In the Flesh | Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)". empac.rpi.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  12. ^ "Festivalul Naţional de Teatru 2010". www.icr.ro. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  13. ^ "STEREOSCOPIC TRILOGY – International Theatre Festival "Varna Summer"". viafest.org. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  14. ^ "Billy Cowie: Attraverso i muri di bruma". Fondazione Prada. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  15. ^ Conti, Riccardo (28 September 2016). "Billy Cowie alla Fondazione Prada". Vogue Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  16. ^ "La bellezza reale e virtuale secondo Billy Cowie". il manifesto (in Italian). 1 October 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  17. ^ "The Museum of Art, Kochi". The Museum of Art, Kochi. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  18. ^ "Fringe Dance reviews: Pan, Assembly Hall; Under Flat Sky/ Edge of Nowhere, Dance Base; Last Man Standing, Zoo Southside; The Bad Arm: Confessions of a Dodgy Irish Dancer, Gilded Balloon; Pact with Pointlessness; Dance Base; Ponies don't play football, D". The Herald. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
  19. ^ Medina, Roberto. "Tangos cubanos, la poesía en la danza de Billy Cowie". La Jiribilla (in European Spanish). Retrieved 24 August 2025.
  20. ^ Hartmann, Bernhard (19 November 2016). "Tanzgastspiel in der Bonner Oper: Archaische Kämpfe". General-Anzeiger Bonn (in German). Retrieved 24 August 2025.
  21. ^ Braschel, Elfi (11 December 2016). "Danza Contemporánea de Cuba im spektakulären Tanzrausch". SÜDKURIER Online (in German). Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  22. ^ Eglinton, Mika; Eglinton, Andrew (16 October 2013). "Kyoto Experiment 2013: 'Do as you like'". The Japan Times. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  23. ^ "Festival international de la danse contemporaine-Alger". ELAyam-2. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  24. ^ "Solos Extr3mos". Teatro Colón (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  25. ^ "Solos Extr3mos: Trilogía de Danza Experimental en el Teatro Colón | Balletin Dance, La Revista Argentina de Danza" (in Spanish). 24 September 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  26. ^ "One body and three passions | Loie". 24 October 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  27. ^ WULLICH, MARTIN (9 October 2024). "SOLOS EXTR3MOS, sinestesia femenina". Martin Wullich (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  28. ^ Bertolini, Constanza (26 September 2024). "Luciana Croatto, en tres solos extremos: "Soy mucho más de lo que la gente cree en el escenario"". LA NACION (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  29. ^ British Council (November 2015). "Cultural Relations Award".
  30. ^ "El Festival Internacional de Videodanza homenajea al director 3D Billy Cowie". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 3 January 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  31. ^ Rosenberg, Douglas (2012). Screendance: inscribing the ephemeral image. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-977261-2.
  32. ^ "Dancing onto the big screen". The Globe and Mail. 22 October 2002. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  33. ^ Wyver, John (2007). Vision on: film, television and the arts in Britain (1. publ ed.). London: Wallflower Press. ISBN 978-1-905674-39-8.
  34. ^ Thain, Alanna Michael; Guy, Priscilla, eds. (2024). Lo: tech: pop: cult: screendance remixed. Routledge advances in theatre & performance studies. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. chapter 17. ISBN 978-1-003-33588-7.
  35. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 7 October 2001. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  36. ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials, Northern Lights". BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  37. ^ Sierra, Gabrielle. "Billy Cowie Retrospective Held at Baryshnikov Arts Center". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  38. ^ Clee, Nicholas (3 March 2007). "The marriage of music and science". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  39. ^ "Kate Saunders' fiction reviews of the week: April 12, 2008". www.thetimes.com. 11 April 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  40. ^ Duncan, Sam (2012). Reading circles, novels and adult reading development. London ; New York: Continuum. pp. 153–164. ISBN 978-1-4411-7315-7.
  41. ^ "Paperback reviews: Silent Land by Billy Cowie and others". The Herald. 11 February 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2025.