1. Liz Aggiss was born on 28 May 1953 and is a British live artist, dance performer, choreographer and film maker.
39 Facts About Liz Aggiss
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Liz Aggiss's work is inspired by early 20th century Ausdruckstanz, in particular the Grotesque dance of Valeska Gert, and by British Music Hall and Variety acts such as the eccentric dance performers, Max Wall and Wilson, Keppel and Betty.
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Liz Aggiss is often described as the 'grand dame of anarchic dance'.
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From 1982 to 2003, Aggiss collaborated with the composer, writer and choreographer, Billy Cowie, making live shows and films under the name Divas Dance Theatre.
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Liz Aggiss is Emeritus Professor in Visual Performance at the University of Brighton, where she taught for many years, and an Honorary Doctor at the Universities of Gothenburg and Chichester.
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Liz Aggiss was born in Nannygoats Commons, Dagenham, Essex and grew up in nearby Upminster, which she later described as 'a bleak English suburb during post war austerity.
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Until 1982, Liz Aggiss trained with the Lab's lead teacher, the German expressionist Hanya Holm, in New York and in Colorado Springs.
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Back in the UK, Liz Aggiss studied eccentric dance with Joan and Barry Grantham, 'possibly the last remaining living link with the early twentieth century UK Music Hall and Variety world.
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On her return to the UK in 1982, Liz Aggiss began to teach visual performance at the University of Brighton.
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Only the German dance historian Marion Kant recognised the inspiration: 'Liz Aggiss's performance startled me.
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Liz Aggiss later said that 'the work was about redefining beauty.
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Liz Aggiss later said, 'We were always interested in working with performers with personality.
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Liz Aggiss studied with Holger until the latter's death in 2001, and later said, 'Meeting her was like coming home.
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Sophie Constanti wrote that 'Together all four pieces danced with great sensitivity and aplomb by Liz Aggiss accompanied by Cowie on piano provided a fascinating insight into the lost Ausdruckstanz of central Europe.
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In July 1992, three days before a sold-out performance of Vier Tanze at the ICA, Liz Aggiss broke her Achilles tendon.
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Liz Aggiss's leg was in plaster for six months, and she was unable to walk properly for a further six.
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Liz Aggiss performed alone on stage without lighting, music or special effects.
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Deborah Levy wrote that 'Cowie's extremely skilled text works with Liz Aggiss's dynamic performing presence with complete synergy; in fact, Absurditties is a small masterpiece that resonates long after the show has finished.
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In May 1994, Liz Aggiss won a commissioning award from the Bonnie Bird choreography fund.
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In 2001, Liz Aggiss performed the piece at an academic symposium on the legacy of Tanztheater at the University of Surrey.
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Motion Control features 'a glammed up Liz Aggiss, fixed to the spot in nameless, enclosed space, and the camera diving and circling around here.
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For Mary Wigman's 1920 Lament for the Dead No 2, Liz Aggiss, wearing a long black gown, slowly revolved to reveal her bare buttocks.
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Liz Aggiss performed Guerilla Dances as pop-up pieces at festivals, including the British Dance Edition Liverpool, Glasgow Merchant City Festival and Loikka Dance Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland.
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Liz Aggiss continued to make films, now working with the filmmaker Joe Murray.
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Dorothy Max Prior, in a 2017 interview with Liz Aggiss, looked at the connection between her film and live work: 'Whether live or on film, creating moving pictures is at the heart of the work.
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Liz Aggiss returned to the stage in 2010 with a full length performance lecture, Survival Tactics, originally called Survival Tactics for the Anarchic Dancer.
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Mary Brennan reviewed a performance at the National Review of Live Art: 'Liz Aggiss wowed us with her Survival Tactics, a bravura volley of agile mischief with ideas and limbs flying in brilliantly ridiculous directions.
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Liz Aggiss's next stage show, The English Channel was a reflection on mortality, created in 2013 in response to reaching the age of 60.
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Liz Aggiss toured widely with The English Channel, performing around Britain and in Ireland, Sweden, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, China and Tasmania.
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Liz Aggiss followed The English Channel in 2016 with Slap and Tickle, a dark and disturbing piece on the forces that shape and constrain female lives, from childhood to old age.
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In 2019, Liz Aggiss began to develop a new solo stage show, Crone Alone, which she originally planned as 'a layered, unapologetic feminist solo that dissects the historical medical precedents, associated with female hysteria.
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On her website, Liz Aggiss said that she had now 'decided to reinvent herself as a performance poet whilst embracing her inner crone as the ideal incarnation of herself, unruly, wise, fearsome, and just a bit gobby.
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Liz Aggiss ends up in a blonde wig a la Marie-Antoinette via Uranus, and a flesh-tone leotard with nipples, pubic hair and labia on display.
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Liz Aggiss's show could work anywhere as she is the show.
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Liz Aggiss seemed to be sharing her perception of the way she's been, or is being, perceived.
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Alongside her own shows, Liz Aggiss has written, choreographed and directed work for other companies.
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Liz Aggiss described the show: 'A troupe of oddball performers is hell-bent on recovering bodies from the library.
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In 2016, Liz Aggiss made a third show for MapDance, History Repeating.
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From 1982 to 2000, Liz Aggiss taught visual performance at the University of Brighton.