Anarchic Dance
Liz Aggiss (performer, choreographer, filmmaker) and Billy Cowie (composer,
choreographer, filmmaker) dedicate Anarchic Dance to themselves, in
celebration of their long-term collaboration and friendship. And good
on them: their moment has come, and Aggiss and Cowie are a formidable
team. Their deserved reputation rests on many strands of activity over
the years; as artistic directors of the seminal Divas Dance Theatre;
awarded-winning filmmakers for their dance-on-screen work; conveners
of the ground-breaking Visual and Performing Arts degree at the University
of Brighton. Their extraordinary range of work – from cabaret
solos like Grotesque Dancer to such large –scale ensemble pieces
as No Man’s Land (which featured a host of women of all ages)
to the stunning 3-D installation Men in the Wall – can be viewed
on the DVD, and is reflected upon in this book (with contributions
from Aggiss and Cowie themselves together with such luminaries as Deborah
Levy and Sherrill Dodds). Although primarily a monograph dedicated
to Divas, an added bonus is the inclusion of a chapter, by Aggiss and
Claudia Kappenberg, on the works of Hilde Holger, the German expressionist
dancer who was both teacher and inspiration to Aggiss.
Review from Total Theatre Vol. 18/1 Spring 2006
|