Florence Logan
photo credit Julia Bauer
Two Cowboys and the Sky
by lovebug + worm
Two Cowboys and the Sky is a physical storytelling and dance performance for audiences ages 3-7 and their adults, featuring live music and audience participation. It was created and performed by Florence Logan and Hope Kennedy, under the duo name lovebug + worm, with musician-performer Samuel Pahsby.​​
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We couldn’t decide what we wanted to make a show about, and so we decided to make it about lots of things: from high-heeled, haughty and fly-hungry frogs, all the way to rock n’ roll snowflakes, and who could forget the wryly rats in the swanky sewer, and of course, it’s about cowboys too. And we couldn’t decide what instrument we wanted to play, so we chose ten different ones!
In this performance, we explore how everything in life dances, we just need to pay attention. Through its repeating episodic structure, Two Cowboys and the Sky invites you to care for the seedlings stuck in the rubbish, to listen to the horizon and the wise old mountains, to remember how much life is dancing at the bottom of the sea, and most importantly, to come and dance with us too. An ever-changing live musical soundscape accompanies this adventure.
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This performance was originally created as part of our Contemporary Performance Practice degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, with musician Scott J. Brice. As part of creating this show, Florence and Hope led dance and movement workshops for children aged 3-6 at Dundee Rep and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in collaboration with Short Courses and St. Columbkille's primary school. ​This performance was funded by Creative Scotland's Open Fund to engage in an R&D in June/July 2025, with musician-performer Samuel Pashby, and with support from Platform, SUPERFAN and Glass Performance.​​ In 2025, we partnered with Home Start, the Village Storytelling Centre, Creative Hangouts and Platform to deliver workshops.
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An audience member's experience:​
" My three-year-old was scared of theatre: before Two Cowboys and the Sky all but one performance we went to (and we tried so many) ended in tears and fears. She was scared coming into this performance as well, but I could see her relaxing from the start - first she found the courage to sit down, then to come closer, and by the end she was on stage in full on participation. This is all because Two Cowboys and the Sky is a dialogue: children (and adults) are given ample choices (different seats, different instruments to consider), performers greet the audiences and make sure they are invited into the show, and then performance vignettes rotate different worlds and characters, with something for everyone.
Two Cowboys and the Sky is also a rare find amongst children's theatre. It is not just that it doesn't look down on young audiences or that is as engaging for adults; it is also that it presents performance as play - a way to discover, invent, and explore different stories and creatures. My daughter spent the remainder of the day 'playing' Two Cowboys and the Sky, finding different trios to test ('two cars and a bicycle!', 'two flowers and a cloud') and perform on her own. Whenever we go to theatre now (and we do, Two Cowboys broke the spell) she recalls the game again - it has become a shorthand for performance in our house. "​​
​​About lovebug + worm:
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Under the emerging artistic duo lovebug + worm, Florence Logan and Hope Kennedy make physical theatre, dance performance and expansive forms of storytelling for young audiences. We aim to celebrate our complexly storied world by engaging with our young audiences as active co-creators. We believe there are as many worlds as there are people and we want to explore as many of those worlds as we can! In our work, we wish to showcase just plain dancing. We celebrate and exaggerate the moments of unabashed, unexpected and uninhibited dance that occur in the tiny pockets of everyday life, of human and non-human things: whether that be a sneaky shoulder shimmy in the office, or a bumble bees wiggly bottom. ​​​​
R&D trailer from 2025 (Platform)
​As part of this creative process, lovebug + worm deliver dance-as-play and music exploration workshops for early years groups (ages 0-5 and their adults) and P1-P3 groups.
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About the workshop:
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Come dance like the seaweed, snore with the bears, roll with the stones and eat flies with the frogs. This dance-as-play workshop explores how everything in life dances, we just need to pay attention. Through gentle facilitation, storytelling and just plain dancing, this workshop invites children (and sometimes their adults) to strut and strike a pose like star fish, to bloom like flowers, to stretch like sleepy stars and to stand proud like the mountains.
