Don't put your daughter on the stage (live performance)

Don’t put your Daughter on the Stage features a chorus line-up of dancers and pays homage to early 20th century dance, infiltrating and injecting life into the past, and painting a loving portrait of a lost archive. Quoting research from forgotten grand dames of dance, (Fuller, Weisenthal, Akesson), this montage performance is glued in place by an all female troupe who vie to be seen and heard amongst the litter of their surprisingly contemporary history. In keeping with a personal dance genealogy, ‘Don’t put your Daughter on the Stage’, has emerged from a sustained period of practical research into predominantly female European Ausdruckstanz solo performances. This choreography of this live work ‘Don’t put Your Daughter on the Stage’ (2008 and reconstructed for 2009) was commissioned by University of Chichester for their in-house MapDance Company. Research methods include: revealing archaeology and uncovering history from photographic, text and critical evidence: taking new narratives from old forms: creating a momento of a performing self and placing it within a new context. ‘Don’t put your Daughter on the Stage’ makes a commentary on the female performer by juxtaposing spoken texts by Noel Coward and Otto A Harbach, and creating tableaux vivantes.