The Guide Caught Up With Billy Cowie, the creator of In The Flesh

Tell us a bit about yourself
I'm originally from Scotland and I've been living in Brighton for about 30 years. I'm a Research Fellow at Brighton University but I started working at what was then Brighton Polytechnic in 1978, lecturing in music and visual arts. There I met Liz Aggis who is a well-known pioneer of dance for camera in Brighton.

We started our own cabaret dance company called the Wild Wigglers and we used to perform a lot at the Zap club on the seafront in the Eighties. In the Nineties we started another, more serious dance company called Davis. In the last ten years, I have moved towards making dance films for the BBC and Channel 4 and putting my work in to galleries.


What was the inspiration for In The Flesh?
Well, dance is very physical and alive, but film is very flat and illusory, so I wanted to take 3D films to the next level. My aim was to create a film of a dancer that would make audiences feel that she was actually in the room with them. This will be the installation's UK premiere, but it was previously shown in the Netherlands where it was awarded the Delegates prize by IMZ, which is the international body celebrating screen dance.


How did you create the piece?
I filmed the dancer with two cameras, so I had one film in red and one in blue. I had to choreograph the whole performance so that the dancer would stay within a very specific frame but still have maximum movement within that frame. Then it took me a year to discover how to distort the images in a special way so that when you wear 3D glasses, it looks like the dancer is jumping out of the floor and that you could reach out and touch her. I had to film it in a single take, otherwise the illusion wouldn't work. When you move, the dancer moves with you because of the strange perspective of the film. During the performance, she looks directly at you and reaches out her hand, which is quite a spooky feeling.


How have audiences reacted to In The Flesh?
Children love it - they always try to reach out and try to touch the dancer. Other people feel quite spooked out by it and want to get out of the room. Some people return again and gain to try and work out how it's done. In the comments book I've left outside the room, 20 or 30 people have written things like, "I touched her foot!".


Who is the dancer featured in In The Flesh?
She's called Sara Popawa and she's a student of dance and visual arts at Brighton University. She's half Swedish and half Japanese, and she's a very lyrical and focussed dancer so she was perfect for this film. Her dance performance features elements of a very controlled, expressive Japanese contemporary dance style called Butoh which Sara is trained in.

  • Have you seen In The Flesh? Let us know what you think online at www.theargus.co.uk/theatre