Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage
A slick line-up of dancers pays homage to early 20th century dance, infiltrating and injecting life into the past, and painting a loving portrait of a lost archive. Quoting research from forgotten grand dames of dance, (Fuller, Weisenthal, Akesson), this montage performance is glued in place by a ballsy female troupe who vie to be seen and heard amongst the litter of their surprisingly contemporary history.

Commissioned by the University of Chichester for MapDance and following a successful tour in 2008, Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage will be reworked for a 2009 tour.

Conceived, choreographed and directed by Liz Aggiss, with costumes by Holly Murray, music by Comedian Harmonists and Janacek, and words by Liz Aggiss, Noel Coward and Otto A Harbach.

Photographs of Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage by Matthew Andrews.


Reviews
It's a thoughtful homage to early 20th century dance: superbly performed by eleven girls who flit from the harmony of synchronised movement and speech to each combatively seeking the limelight. The whole feel of the ensemble evoked the pioneering age of dance in the 20s and 30s, ably enhanced by Holly Murray's costumes and the excellent film noir lighting.


Graham Watts www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/happening/7211.html

An evening of stridency, anarchy, herstory and self parody. The girrlss were great in their tassles and skull caps brewing, brooding and purring, why not girls thrown on the stage to become lionesses. We were tamed.
Carol Brown

Titles cannot be trusted. Liz Aggiss’s piece for mapdance Don’t Put Your Daughter On The Stage, should have every teenage girl with a bit of nous

rushing to join a dance company. It delivers the combined joys of distinctive movement with humour, eclectic music and fine performance. Whilst paying homage to early twentieth-century dance in its styling and aesthetic it is

totally modern, allowing the eleven dancers to work to their own strengths whilst maintaining the syncopation of a classic showgirl line-up. Inches from its audience, the troupe radiated energy. A sharp and pithy showcase for women dancers; rare to find and thrilling to watch.


Lisa Wolfe Total Theatre Vol 21 Issue 03 Autumn 2009