The cowboys danced through the rain and into the night. Passers-by cheered, jeered and questioned. A few picked up the steps and danced along.  | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
The cowboys' Ghost Dance was created by Lone Twin - otherwise known as performance artists Gregg Whelan and Gary Winters. The performance was part of the Fierce festival's programme of events. Greg Whelan was in Wolverhampton's St. Peter's Square, on Saturday, watching the dance. We asked him for an explanation. What's this about, Greg?We're in rainy Wolverhampton because a performance called Ghost Dance is happening in the Civic Square. It's a performance I made nine years ago - and this is its twelfth outing. It only happens once or twice a year - because for the people who perform in it, it's a great physical feat.  | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
It's a twelve hour line dance, performed blindfolded and without music, by two cowboys. I thought you'd be dancing? You're a Lone Twin?There's Gary Winters and myself - we started the Lone Twin company, and we direct the work, but every now and then other people perform it. It's more usual for us to be doing it. But at the moment, this piece in particular is being performed by other people. This is the second time that Antoine and Augusto have performed it. Where do you get blindfolded line dancers from? | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
You find them on the internet. No... they're our friends. Antoine we've worked with before. We asked him to do it, and to suggest a friend. We decided that friends would perform it, and not just two freelance dancers or performers. The criteria for getting performers for this piece, is that they're friends. What other qualities does a blindfolded line dancer need?They need a huge amount of commitment to something which ostensibly is quite ridiculous, in one way - but testing in basic human ways, in another.  | | Ghost Dance on the Square |
I think this piece is an act of folly. It's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon. Both of those things are ludicrous and dangerous to lots of people. As Jade Goody experienced a few weeks ago. But somehow they start to have an emotional resonance - just because someone's committed to it. Often the most moving parts of watching the London marathon - watching the last hour of the BBC programme - when everyone's just falling in, and people can't run anymore. People get very engaged with seeing people in that state. People who have physically committed to a challenge.  | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
Ghost Dance is a small evocation of that kind of human endeavour, where you say 'Right - I'm going to walk up that hill'. They have said we are going to dance for twelve hours. Why Wolverhampton? Was that Fierce's suggestion?It was. They knew about the piece and invited us. We worked on looking at various spaces for it to go into. Sometimes it's performed at a gallery or in a theatre space - but we thought it would be a good idea, not then knowing that it would rain, that it could go in the Square here. What reaction have you had? | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
It seems very good - there's been a lot of young people learning the dance. What happens with this piece is that through the day, each time we've performed it people have learnt the dance and revisited and revisited and come back, and often by midnight, there might be a whole square of people dancing. The last time I performed it was in Melbourne, in Australia, and that was the case - hundreds of people ended up dancing. I suppose the rain will keep a few eager people away. There's a couple of young people dancing with them now... What's next for Lone Twin?We've just made a bit of narrative theatre and we're touring. We did a London premiere a couple of weeks ago - we tour in the autumn with that piece. Then we immediately go on and make a new piece - Gary and myself, over the summer.  | | Ghost Dance, St. Peter's Square |
More information on Lone Twin's activities at their website: www.lonetwin.com. Lone Twin performed as part of the Fierce festival in partnership with Wolverhampton Art Gallery. For further information about other Fierce events, see: www.fiercetv.co.uk | 
