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Liz Aggiss performs "The English Channel" dance show at Edinburgh Fringe 2016 - a Review

English Channel

If there is one show in the Festival that each village hall in Cornwall would probably embrace its this iconoclastic dance and burlesque show.  But would we dare ?  For adults over 16 (the audience I saw it with had belly laughing 20s, 30s)  and everything on the upper side of 60 cheered her to the rooftops.  Partly relief from trepidation about what she will do next!

There is elegy...we have a rendition of Dido's lament....there is farce....great footage of Florence Foster Jenkins in full  "con belto" rendition of The Queen of the Night aria  ...there is head banging rock rage.....there is tribute to the early lady swimmers and glorious archive film of the great Edwardian yachts most of all there is the demonic headless-chicken shaped anarchic dancer Liz Aggiss.

This piece is dangerous.  If you are easily shocked don't book it.   Be warned, there are some glorious F words (unapologetic) but nuanced and a dance with what looked to me like a large primitive dildo.  The premise is that, at 60, what have we got to lose ...let it all hang out and be proud of the experience we can offer.  A dance show of great power and commitment from the always poised and fiery Liz Aggiss.

A one woman show with a difference.  A strong dose of the macabre, with unexplained drive and energy.  Go and see this show before she quits it!

27.08.2015
by Tim Smithies

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