Holly Blakey

Holly Blakey’s work straddles the worlds of live performance and film. Interweaving live and commercial contexts, much of her practice often plays on the relationship between these distinct but not wholly separable worlds.

Blakey’s work as a Director and Choreographer has featured collaborations with music artists and fashion houses such as Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Rosalia, Harry Styles and Florence and the Machine. Blakey is a recipient of a UK MVA award for her work on Delilah (Florence and the Machine) for ‘Best Choreography in a Video’. That same year she was also nominated as ‘Best New Director’.

After the world premiere of ‘Cowpuncher’ (2018) - a commission to reopen Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall - Blakey presented ‘Cowpuncher My Ass’ (2020), a sequel to the previous, costumed by Vivienne Westwood and scored by Mica Levi. The show and its sequels ran for five years, closing to a sold out Royal Festival Hall with accompaniment from a twenty piece string orchestra from London Contemporary Orchestra.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. From its risible title onwards, it literally writhes with self-loathing and misanthropy. This is frenzy without rapture, sexuality without pleasure, speed without exhilaration. It shoots from the conservatoire to the strip club, the ballet to the rave to the mosh pit. I can’t wait for what Holly Blakey does next.” The Guardian

In the autumn of 2023 Blakeys was commissioned by Balletboyz for their Sadler's Wells premier of England on Fire. Her work sat amongst 40 of the UK’s most ambitious creatives and continued her collaborations with musician and partner Gwilym Gold, who’s work together has realised ‘Phantom’ (2021), ‘Triptych’ (2021), a film commission from The Estate of Francis Bacon, ‘graciechesterbeckyjonnynaomisakeematylor’ (2021) in collaboration with Jeremy Deller and more recently the development of a new live work, A Wound With Teeth to be premiered in 2026.