I recently obtained a 2 page article from The Sketch magazine dated September 18 1895 interviewing John Tiller and giving lots of details about his training methods and troupes. I’m constantly amazed by how many dance troupes he trained and named. As time went on he basically franchised his brand to other trainers so we may never have a full list of the troupes trained in the Tiller method.
Quotes from the article are all shown in italics. The images are also from the article.
“Who has not heard of John Tiller of Manchester? But some of us may not have chatted with the energetic and genial manager whose name is so intimately connected with the troups of dancing and singing girls who in fours, sixes, eights, and sixteens, raise out spirits as high as they kick their heels in the maddening whirl of skirt which adds to the abandon of their style. “
“To go to Manchester without calling on Mr Tiller would be like going to Westbourne Grove without paying Whiteley’s a visit – they both have something to do in the way of skirt-providing, by the way.“
I didn’t get the reference to Whiteley’s but wikipedia tells me it was an early department store that grew out of a dressmaker’s business. Hence the reference to “skirt-providing.”
“As long as our girls are respectable and respectably conducted we don’t lay too great stress on drawing from any special class. We don’t send them out before eleven. You say that’s full early; but remember that we have them educated under proper governesses, for we hold that cultivation of intellect is necessary to learning dancing.”
It’s surprising how young some of the Tiller Girls were and there are many questions to be asked about their welfare and treatment. On the other hand becoming a Tiller Girl was one of the few ways that working class girls could escape from their backgrounds. Although I don’t think she was ever a Tiller Girl, Jessie Matthew’s career, as given in her autobiography, was very much one of a working class girl finding escape through dance.
“Of course, you supply individual dancers?”
“Rather,” he replied with a confident smile. “Miss Ethel Neild, now at the London Lyric, comes from our school; Miss Any Knott will be principal boy at Huddersfield next winter; and Miss Bessie Cohen and Miss Maggie Rimmer are well-known soubrettes and dancers of pas-seula all over the provinces; while, if you have space, you might mention “Little Blake,” “Little Annie” and “Little Burnett,” who have been particularly successful in their “single turns.”
“I notice that you name your troupes differently. There are “The Fairy Four,” “Tiller’s Troubadours,” “The Forget-Me-Nots,” “Tiller’s Mascottes, “ “The Rainbow Troupe,” &c. What distinction is there between them?”
“Very little, except that each troupe has its own speciality. “The Tiller Troupe” is composed of our tallest girls, and “The Forget-Me-Nots” are the smallest; but they all dance and sing. They can do “cart-wheels,” the “splits,” and the high kick – indeed, everything that is done in fantastic dancing.”
The Sketch article is a great resource and all the more valuable for being contemporaneous with Tiller’s early work. By listing some of his dancers and the venues they appeared at, the article also adds to our knowledge of the music hall venues of the day. Who knows what else is yet to be discovered?
