CRONE ALONE
Crone Alone is the new solo from Brighton based Liz Aggiss, grand dame of anarchic dance and ‘enfant terrible’ of the bus pass generation. Driving herself dizzy with questions of value and worth, she slams down a ‘mindfield’ of unexploded ordinance, angst and deviation. As she zigzags towards the finish line, her mature body testifying to its limitations, Liz Aggiss peels back the bollocks of performance palaver, blazing out her inner crone with clipped dances, poetic outbursts, backchat, delusions of grandeur…….and a horse.
“…..inimitable presence – equal parts Weimar cabaret host, dada dancer, rogue feminist and end-of-pier prankster – feels as fresh now as it did when she started out four decades ago.”
Sanjay Roy The Guardian June 2022
“You can’t take your eyes off her…..she’s charismatic to the point of perplexing. Her genius is herself though. What she offers is so genuine……personal, purposeful and profound.”Mathew Paluch Seeing Dance June 2022
Liz Aggiss The Dance Space, Brighton Festival
“Is it worth it?’ she asks. Liz Aggiss, dubbed ‘the grande dame of anarchic dance’ says she has been called many things. This show proves that one of those things has to be ‘genius’. A term bandied around with abandon, but in this case, it’s something you as an audience member can feel. In fact, I was close to shouting it out to her, mid-performance. Which, I believe, she would have welcomed. This is performance art in its most delicious form, basted in almost five decades of experience and exploration, skewered by piercing talent. My companions and I certainly gobbled it up and let it drip down our grinning chins, fully sated. Liz Aggiss is exquisitely controlled in her wild movement. Her body, her face and her eyes hook the audience. She understands costume and how it is character, deserving close attention in its treatment. Every move related to it is deliberate, enthralling. She knows how to balance the whole space and everyone in it, having us teeter, laugh, hold our breath, squirm, celebrate, all the while being expertly and warmly held throughout. Her script, which of course she wrote, because this show is all her own and herself on a silver platter, is clever and witty but also inviting; an exploration of performer/audience relationship that involves the audience without forcing any kind of butt-clenching’ participation. We listened closely. What is value? What is worth? What does it mean to be a woman? Keep asking questions, Elizabeth, because yes, it is worth it.” Sonya Smith RosaMagazine 8 May 2026
Crone Alone at The Tute Northumberland
“With its intricately constructed mix of music-hall tropes, personal revelations, elegantly wrought choreography, and wondrous costume reveals, Crone Alone astounds and delights this rookie audience. An instantaneous standing ovation is the only possible response. The piece poses a question about individual and collective value and worth, in life and in the arts, that resonates with everyone present”. Lisa Wolfe Total Theatre December 2025
The original research for Crone Alone began during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and was funded by Arts Council of England with support from: Dance4, South East Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Sadlers Wells, EHU, University of Chichester. Post pandemic a 20 minute extract was previewed at Elixir Sadlers Wells in 2022. In 2023 Liz Aggiss was out of action and finally accepted her hip needed replacing. In 2024 her hip was replaced. In 2025 she started again and returned to reworking Crone Alone.
