Scripted to Within an Inch of her Life is an inter-disciplinary, solo performance installation with 4 multi screen projections. Aggiss received one of six prestigious Arts Council England Independent Dance Fellowship Awards in 2002 ‘in recognition of extraordinary creativity and achievements in developing the art form of dance’(ACE), in part to develop Scripted alongside her other research practices. Liz also received an Arts Council South East Production Award for Scripted’s production and public dissemination.
Originally conceived in collaboration with Cowie for ResCen Conference at Greenwich Dance Agency London, the work developed from considering; the shifting nature of live practice in relationship to visual media: the disruption of cultural borders: artifice as an embedded tool within the practice in particular revealing the devices and illusions that mark Aggiss/Cowie’s award winning screen dance film Motion Control. Scripted deconstructs Motion Control so that both film and performer become physically, textually, performatively and emotionally strapped into the work. Aggiss embraces the physical synergy between camera, sound and movement, is scripted in multiple options, and rehearsed to within an inch of her life. Nothing is left to chance in this humorous exposure of the celluloid body.
Scripted provides an ironic and virtuosic commentary on the performing body whilst making new allegiances with sound and technology including multiple projections of the re-edited film. As a self-mocking expose of the essence of her live performing craft, this fiercely idiosyncratic dance based work examines artifice, the aging body and shifts between the conversational and performative.
Scripted toured nationally as follows: ResCen Conference : Navigating the Unknown, A practice based Research Conference at Greenwich Dance Agency 27-29 Sept 2002 : British Dance Edition at Kettles Yard 30th Jan 2004 selected as a representation of a unique style : National Review of Live Art Glasgow at The Arches 18-20th March 2004 selected for original practice : Baltic Gallery Gateshead 30th Sept 2004 selected to open a series of gallery based performance lectures: Liverpool Biennial, Bluecoat Gallery 25th Nov 2004 selected to demonstrate live art work that challenges artistic process and practice.
Aggiss’ contribution and status within the national dance and related arts infrastructure is evident as follows: she is regional selector for National Review of Live Art, contributed Performance Papers to Grounded in Europe Conference University of Surrey Roehampton 2001 and Visions Drawn to Perform Symposium University of Brighton 2004, was Artist in Residence for New Territories Glasgow 2004, is on the Brighton and Hove Arts Commission Steering Group and Dance Working Party and sits on the Board for The Basement Arts Production South East.
The following publications and journals feature a visual and textural record and discourse on Scripted to Within an Inch of Her Life and on personal research and practice; Anarchic Dance edited by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie with Ian Bramley Pub. Routledge ISBN 0-415-36517-1, Being There : Liz Aggiss is finally present. Animated, 8-9 (2003 Winter), Upfront : Liz Aggiss on being a Professor. Dance Theatre Journal 19(3) 2003, 'Beavering in Brighton not bonkers by the Sea'. Dance UK, 7 (2002 Summer).
'Aggiss’ work is largely about artifice, both on stage and screen. She explores theatrical devices and the very notion of theatre as fiction, and at the same time, reality. The very notion of what Liz Aggiss decribes as the’drama of presence’ becomes the subject of the work, both on stage and screen’
Das Jahrbuch von Ballettanz - Tanzfilm - 2005-10-21 by Lizzy Le Quesne
'In inspired collusion with Billy Cowie, she makes wonderfully funny, touching capital out of who she is; not physically young but gleefully youthful in the movement of her own impressively elastic limbs, or in the fabric of costume, or in film'
Mary Brennan, Glasgow Herald 23/3/2004
'As its title hints, Scripted to within an Inch of her Life provides a consideration, remarkably both ironic and virtuosic, of the performing body approaching the outer reaches of its own possibilities while making new allegiances with sound and video technologies.'
Robert Ayers, Live Art Magazine March 2004
