Two Cowboys and the Sky
with Hope Kennedy and Scott J. Brice

Note from the artists: it's all about the joy!

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Dance opens the world up, it makes it lighter, playful, movable and knowable. It allows us to enact and share our experience of the world. And once the world is open, we can invent new meanings, concepts and images and play with old ones. We saw this in our workshops at Dundee Rep and St. Columbkille's primary school with creations such as the dance of the starfish-flower. I agree with Simon Sheppard who writes "empathy is a response of the whole physical person". We say in our show description that everything in life dances, we just need to pay attention - by dancing and 'becoming' the world, I hope we encourage the audience and workshop participants to find the joy present in every pocket of it. We invite them to care for the funny frogs and the small stones, to listen to the horizon and to remember how much life was dancing at the bottom of the sea- dance offers an embodied and emotional memory of the world to refer to. It offers an understanding that moves with us throughout our lives. We hope the play, dance and visual storytelling of our show gives children the freedom to help create the world they see on stage and to continue creating it after.      -Florence

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During this process we have thought a lot about who we are making this work for, and why.We reject the idea that all children's theatre must be educational, that it must shape young minds and prepare them for the future. We are making this show for young people, and how they feel right now. We are not thinking of them as future adults, future leaders, future world changers - during this performance they are encouraged to just be children, exactly as they are right now. We know that one of the most useful tools in a child's development is play. This performance encourages that play, and sense of fun, which doesn't need to be justified or excused by its educational merit. It has been such a joy working on this performance, and I hope we bring you a bit of that joy too.     -Hope

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It has been a truly joyous experience being part of Two Cowboys and the Sky. Unlike anything I've ever musically endeavored, applying my existing understanding of composition to a piece of physical theatre has allowed me to gain further insight into the broader spectrum of musical composition. I have learned so much from the process of playing a selection of instruments in response to live movement, both with Hope and Florence as well as the groups of young people from our workshops. The workshops reminded me of how important the process of exploring movement beyond the fundamentals (such as walking, running, reaching etc) is for both young people and adults. The 3-6 year old participants who quite intuitively morphed themselves into strands of seaweed, immovable mountains, vicious tigers and happy frogs, through only the way they held themselves, was an absolute delight to witness. Not to mention quite a profound reminder that exploring the freedom of movement is so beneficial to the human form, yet less encouraged and perhaps at times unnecessarily stigmatized as you get older. Attempting to sonically represent these scenes and moments in the room with Hope, Florence and the participants allowed me too to become a strand of seaweed, an immovable mountain, a vicious tiger and a happy frog!      -Scott