Loie Fuller's original Ballet of Light (1908) was a cinematic spectacle involving the projection ofimages—including the sea, icebergs, snowstorm, fires, space, and an aurora borealis—onto transparent gauzes hung at the front of the stage. Her company of young dancers, known as the “muses,” danced barefoot and in “the flimsiest of draperies” behind and amongst the drop-screens, whirling their silk scarves to catch and reflect the projections in visually hypnotic ways.

With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/American Masterpieces program, the University of Wyoming commissioned Sperling to re-imagine Fuller's original. The result is a delightful romp through many geographic visions. In keeping with the mission of Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance, this project involved the mingling of serious scholarship with active choreographic imagination. It is the subject of a forthcoming documentary film. In Falll 2008, the work will be set on students at Barnard College who will perform in the company's season at the Ailey Citigroup Theater.
 
DANCERS: students at University of Wyoming
MUSIC: various composers, arranged and performed by Jeffrey Middleton
SCENIC DESIGN: Roger Hanna / COSTUMES: Michelle Ferranti
13 Minutes