The Tiller Girls were among the most popular dance troupes of the 1890s, first formed by John Tiller in Manchester, England, in 1889. In theatre Tiller had noticed the overall effect of a chorus of dancers was often spoiled by lack of discipline. Tiller found that by linking arms the dancers could dance as one; he is credited with inventing precision dance.[citation needed] Possibly most famous for their high-kicking routines, the Tiller Girls were highly trained and precise.
John Tiller's first dancers performed as 'Les Jolies Petites'. He originally formed the group for the pantomime 'Robinson Crusoe', subtitled 'The Good Friday That Came on a Saturday', in 1890 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool. From this were founded the Tiller School of Dancing and the Tiller Girl troupes. The number of troupes grew to dozens, and their fame spread around the world.
The troupes were all slightly different, but within each troupe the girls were matched very precisely by height and weight. Individuality within the troupes was discouraged in favour of a strong group ethic. The Tillers performed as resident dancers at the Folies Bergère in Paris, the London Palladium, the Palace Theatres in Manchester and in London (as the Palace Girls or Sunshine Girls), the Blackpool Winter Gardens, on New York's Broadway, where Tiller had a dance school, and at hundreds of other theatres throughout Europe and the United States. One Tiller group, the Pony Ballet, earned success in the U.S. in musical comedy and vaudeville, performing from 1899 to 1914. In a 1911 newspaper interview, Beatrice Liddell, the leader of the Pony Ballet, described the Tiller school of the late 1890s as having a boarding school facility in Limehouse, Manchester, where girls aged five to ten were taught academic subjects as well as dance, to gauge their aptitude for dancing. Promising students graduated to Tiller's Covent Garden, London, facility.
TillerGirls were among the most popular dance troupes of the 1890s, first formed by John Tiller in Manchester, England, in 1889. In theatre Tiller had...
TillerGirls, a precision dance company of the United Kingdom established by John Tiller in the 1890s. Tiller sent the first troupe of TillerGirls to...
with inventing precision dance and was the originator of the 'TillerGirls'. John Tiller always had a keen interest in music. At ten years old he became...
conservative trend of chorus lines hitting England, including TillerGirls and Gaiety Girls. Chorus lines throughout Western Europe and the United States...
'Monsewer' Eddie Gray, The Cavendish Singers, The John TillerGirls, Erica Yorke, The Victoria Palace Girls, The Marie De Vere Dancers, Vera Lynn, Harry Secombe...
Hope and Keen and Frank Ifield with the Pamela Devis Dancers. After the TillerGirls and the lesser acts in the first part was a game show imported from America...
camera to stage a carefully posed snapshot of 17-year-old Pat Stewart, a TillerGirls dancer, with her friend, Wendy Clarke, sitting on railings of North Pier...
Sophie Isaacs, Janine Duvitski, Beverley Knight, Donny Osmond, The TillerGirls, Alexandra Burke, Rob Madge, Natalie McQueen, Jennifer Saunders and Frances...
appeared in films in the 1930s and 1940s. She was a dancer with the TillerGirls before joining ENSA during the Second World War. She never married or...
home of Wilkie Collins and Edmund Gosse. In London, she danced with the TillerGirls and met Cecil Beaton, who became a lifelong friend. Like Syrie Maugham...
College). From 1946 to 1952, she worked as a dancer, as a member of the TillerGirls dancing troupe, briefly appearing at the London Palladium. A foot infection...
performances by Dame Vera Lynn, the Pearly Kings and Queens, the Sixties TillerGirls, pop singer Cliff Richard and Lonnie Donegan. Darcey Bussell and Zoltán...
member of a quartet known as Four Brilliant Blondes. Franklin was a TillerGirl, known for their high kicks, at the London Palladium. She toured in variety...
their marriage Dicketts met Dora Viva Guerrier, a dancer with the famous TillerGirls, and began a relationship, resulting in the birth of Dicketts' only daughter...
White Minstrel Show, and being the former agent of Lenny Henry, the TillerGirls and Beryl Reid. He successfully owned theatres and hotels in Scarborough...
Rogers began as a dancer at the Trocadero in London and then joined the TillerGirls; she went on from there to become a choreographer and producer of floor...
Nadja Tiller (16 March 1929 – 21 February 2023) was an Austrian actress in film, television, and on stage. She was one of the most popular German-speaking...
Dodds, Joan Lockton, Dorie Sawyer, Fred Kitchen and Basil Howes' Plaza TillerGirls. By 1933, she had become a well-known figure to theatre-goers throughout...
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