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John Tiller was born in Blackpool in 1854 and learnt to clog
dance as a boy. He later started a theatre school in Manchester.
By 1895 he managed several troupes of dancers. Each troupe was
slightly different but all of them performed the same style of
formation dancing in which the girls were grouped according to
height. Each troupe had a distinct personality or theme. There
was the Fairy Troupe, Tiller’s Troubadours, the Forget-me-nots,
Tiller’s Mascots and the Rainbow Troupe. Dressed in similar costumes
they all performed high kicks, cartwheels and the splits as part
of their routines.
Tiller’s empire grew rapidly; such was the demand for his girls.
He soon had two residential schools and almost 300 girls in training,
mostly young, pretty and conscientious girls from poor backgrounds.
In addition to training girls to perform in the Tiller Troupes
he supplied individual dancers to troupes in Paris and Berlin.
In 1912 the Palace Troupe appeared before the King and Queen at
the first Royal
Variety Performance.
The Tiller Girls appeared in variety shows all over Britain in
the 20th century. Even when variety
went into decline, they were a regular feature of the televised
stage show Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Betty
Boothroyd, the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons, was
a Tiller Girl.
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Introduction
Ballet at the Alhambra and Empire Theatres
