138:'s death in 1925, the Tiller schools in the U.K. were kept alive first by his wife Jennie Tiller, then by some of the head girls. The U.S. Tiller school in New York City was continued under the leadership of Mary Read until 1935. By the 1940s the John Tiller Schools of Dancing were managed by its 3 directors, Mr John Smith, Miss Doris Alloway and Miss Barbara Aitken (also choreographer and a former Tiller Girl). During the 1940s the Tiller Girls were popular, appearing in summer seasons, pantomimes, variety tours, London West End shows, and cabaret.
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96:. 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.
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Tiller Girls), together with full costumes, music and rehearsals. Wendy Clarke, a former Head Girl, took on responsibility for the choreography. When the troupe of sixteen girls performed on the stage that night the response from the audience was electric and The 60s Tiller Girls were quite literally reborn. This original troupe of ladies, ranging in age from their early 40s to late 50s, carried on for more than twenty years, performing in over 180 shows under Bruce
Vincent's stewardship.
182:, to be staged at the Albert Hall in London. He wanted the Tiller Girls to take part in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song as the "nine ladies dancing." Sandy made eight phone calls to original Tiller Girls from the 50s and 60s, and all eight immediately agreed, with her making the nine needed. The ladies truly enjoyed the experience, made especially poignant as none expected to be Tiller Girls again after so many years. Then, in later 1988, there was a news bulletin on the actor
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217:. The shows at the Palladium were always the ladies' favourite shows as they considered the Palladium their "spiritual" home. To this day, some of the original 1960s Tiller Girls do backstage tours at the London Palladium in full costume, as arranged by the Palladium's box office. They performed at many prestigious charitable events all over the UK, including
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and was with the 1922 troupe in the
Ziegfeld Follies, settled in America and joined the Rockettes after leaving the Tiller Girls, performing with them for many years. She was then involved with the training of new dancers. Lily was in constant contact with Bernard Tiller until her death in 2010, aged
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World Dance
Management relaunched the Tiller Girls on 16 May 2012, having been awarded worldwide rights and an exclusive trademark licence agreement to Bernard Tiller, great grandson of John Tiller, founder of the original troupe. The Tiller Girls performed in a Christmas pantomime show at the London
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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
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Bruce
Vincent, husband of June Vincent (née Labbett), herself a former Tiller girl from 1958 to 1969, phoned Jack Douglas and asked if he would like a troupe of Tiller Girls in the show. From there on in, a busy four months started to get a full troupe of sixteen girls together (all bona fide former
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Girls who had visited the United States during the late 1930s and 1940s danced for the troops and liked the
American style of dancing and the costumes with headdresses that they saw. American films also featured showgirls and had a big impact on the British audience. From the late 1940s through the
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During the 1970s, management of the troupes was taken over by the impresario Robert Luff and also around that time dance troupes with different styles were emerging. For the first time since their inception the popularity of
Tillers went into decline until the formation of the Sixties Tiller Girls.
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of 1922. If I ever got a chance to get a group of
American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks, they'd knock your socks off!" The Rockettes first came to life in 1925 as the "Missouri Rockets" and made their show business
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On Sept 24th 1955 a Tiller Troupe appeared in the first
Saturday night variety show transmitted on the new ITV channel, which had been launched 2 days earlier. During the remainder of the 1950s and during the 1960s the Tiller Girls established themselves as the premier dance troupe on British
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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. Possibly most famous for their high-kicking routines, the Tiller Girls were highly trained and precise.
236:'s Children's Charity. The women were then in their late 60s and early 70s, a rare achievement for any dancer, and the joy and pride of bearing the Tiller Girl name was thus passed on into its third century, with the baton being passed to the relaunched Tiller Girls.
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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
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The Tiller Girls performed a 'Tap and Kick' routine, which was originally called 'Fancy-Dancing' but today is known as 'Precision Dancing'. The routines may consist of straight lines or geometric figures.
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stated in 1923, "These 76 energetic women dance about in geometric shapes: the regularity of their patterns is cheered by the masses, themselves arranged by the stands in tier upon ordered tier."
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106. Lily explained how Russell Markert added his own style to the Precision Dance routines; this found its way back to the Tiller girls in the United Kingdom.
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Some of the Tiller Girls and American girls who trained with Mary Read also danced in the Rockettes. Lily Smart, who trained with the Tiller School of Dance in
150:, Tiller Troupes began to work abroad again. The Tiller Girls' popularity continued to increase. They were invited to make several appearances at the
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Towards the end of 1988 a former Tiller Girl, Sandy Jones, received a surprise call from a friend, George May, who was working on a production named
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In certain shows a Tiller line-up could be as many as 32 girls who were selected for uniform height and weight. In 1923 the stage play
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The re-formed troupe were fortunate enough to appear in many different shows, mainly for charity, ranging from appearances in
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Bernard Tiller's Tiller Girls website - information on John Tiller, the Tiller Girl Dancers and the Tiller School of Dancing
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The 1960s Tiller Girls formally announced their retirement, and their final show, in April 2011, was a cabaret in aid of
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Girl troupes. The number of troupes grew to dozens, and their fame spread around the world.
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comedian, was putting on a charity show at the Drury Lane Theatre to aid both Terry and
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from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially
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who was suffering with Parkinson's. Jack Douglas, the
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23:Tiller Girls posing on a ship, c. mid-late 1920s
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80:(as the Palace Girls or Sunshine Girls), the
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542:http://www.tillergirls.com/Tiller_Page_3.htm
108:The Tiller Girls in an impromptu dance line
51:Tiller had noticed the overall effect of a
334:about living persons that is unsourced or
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405:Learn how and when to remove this message
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518:"The Tiller Girls Back at the Palladium"
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463:, pianist who accompanied the comedian
644:History of women in the United Kingdom
634:Dance companies in the United Kingdom
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254:The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes
249:The Radio City Rockettes connection
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639:1890 establishments in England
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472:, former editor-in-chief of
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587:. Hobson Books. 1988.
507:Boltz family archives
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455:The Intelligence Men
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425:(1992–2000)
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278:Manchester
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271:St. Louis
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