HOW do you feel about dance theatre? This Thursday 25 at 8pm, Dance Limerick presents a chance to see a delightful bit of challenge that has been in demand for years, touring from Rio to Tasmania to “an audience who have been extremely generous in their response to it.”
Furthermore, its creator Liz Aggiss suggests an over 16s threshold and reminds this journalist that she now has her bus pass.
This work is ‘Slap and Tickle’ and Aggiss says “it is very raw, very funny, it’s visible, accessible, it is aural. One minute you are laughing and one minute you are thinking.” Think several costume changes, playing with coins, balls and balloons, the spoken word and tight choreography. The Essex woman has been in showbiz for 45 years and her works have been acclaimed from Edinburgh Festival (winner 2017) to Paris.
She feels that as bizarre and mouthy as some elements are to ‘Slap and Tickle’ that “a lot of the material raises questions about everyone’s life. It is not an autobiographical diatribe. It may touch a raw nerve and it touches my nerve on occasion.” Look out for audience participation in interludes dividing the three parts of this 60 minute show. She values significant content as much as entertaining provocation.
“Perhaps to identify this piece of work, it is dance theatre and not contemporary dance as people know and love it – such as ballet and so on. This is kind of a cabaret form, a vaudeville form and I am known for my grotesque expression in vaudeville. It’s fast moving and there is a lot of text to it.”
Charmingly spoken, Liz Aggiss looks back to her early career working cabaret small-scene, being opening number for punk rock bands. “I am used to complex performance spaces, have been working them for years. What I do is dance with a twist, it is live art, contemporary theatre.”
Her strong determination never to be boxed into a category as an artist shines through.
Book on www.dancelimerick.ie
