MISS FRIBY

Writer, Producer, Director, Choreographer, Performer, Musician, Songwriter, Costume Designer, Graphic Artist, Film Maker, Social Commentator, Burlesque Academic and Arts Administrator - there really is no straight answer to that question, but let's give it a red hot go!

Headstrong, disastrously inquisitive and painfully defiant, Elizabeth Dawson-Smith was put into her first dance class at the age of three, as a last resort by desperate parents. Like a fish to water, Elizabeth was in like sin, and subsequently spent her entire childhood in and out of dance classes, from Melbourne's top dance institutions to community classes in Namibia (Africa) Elizabeth trained hard at every type of dance she could encounter until her late teens.

While Elizabeth's afinity for choreography, performance making and theatre based dance was becoming very apparent, Elizabeth was finding it harder and harder to 'fit in' with the typical pathway for professional dancers. As such, Elizabeth stopped dancing to pursue acting with a full year scholarship to the St Martins Performing Arts Theatre Program.

Graduating with a bag of physical and theatrical tricks, Elizabeth travelled both nationally and internationally as a street performer, working with performers and musicians all over the world (UK, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Australia, South Africa, Slovenia, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia) for six years. During this period, Elizabeth trained in folkloric dance forms such as salsa, samba, capoeira, forro, gypsy, tango, waltz, foxtrot, stomp, hip hop, break dancing, fire dancing and circus whilst also exploring music and songwriting for the first time.
 
Elizabeth's success as a performer led her to teach, choreograph and produce shows for art, theatre and dance festivals in Brazil, Turkey and the UK, and upon her return to Australia, Elizabeth decided to complete a Bachelor of Creative Arts Industries and a further First Class Honours accreditation for her research thesis, 'Nineteenth Century (non-striptease) Burlesque Techniques'.

Under the Brazilian company name 'Friby Producoes' (Friby Productions) Elizabeth 
produced a huge array of shows and vignettes (Red Bennies, Spiegeltent, Loop, Rainbow Serpent Festival), but during an MC mix-up, the company was introduced as 'Miss Friby' and the name was adopted as a title for the entire cast when performing.

During one particular production, 'Table' at The Village Festival (2012), Elizabeth had to'fill the time' while a dancer changed costume, and flippantly created 'Miss Friby', distarous 
dictator and sparkly showgirl, to rant on for a minute or so - that was that. A new monster had arisen from the Miss Friby repertoire, she was loveable, charming and ridiculously 
infectious. Audiences wanted her, the shows were enhanced by her and everything she touched turned to sequins!

Two Pound Parlour (2013/14) was the first show created specifically for the character 'Miss Friby' but with each new show, audiences are often privy to a new 'Miss Friby', from depressed lobster, to cooking class cougar or top class showgirl. Miss Friby is as dynamic as the shows themselves, and has fast become the platform for Elizabeth's impressive range of characters, narratives and anecdotes.
 
In a typical case of art imitating life, Elizabeth runs the production and Miss Friby runs the show, but they are both the wildly imaginative, wondrously talented and aesthetically demanding showgirls 'you'd do well to keep on your radar' (thebeat.com).