LOIE FULLER LEGACY
The signature style of Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance, which uses transformative costume to materialize natural forces, draws inspiration from early dance technologist Loïe Fuller (1862–1928). A visionary and Queer artist with an expansive legacy, Fuller forged an innovative dance form by crafting mesmerizing, multimedia spectacles out of fabric, motion, lighting and image. American-born, Fuller catapulted to international celebrity with her Paris debut at Folies Bergère in 1892.
Depicted by dozens of artists in a multitude of media, Fuller became both a subject of and an influence to such artistic movements as Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Cubism, and Futurism. Considered a “mother” of modern dance, her success paved the way for the likes of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis.
Fuller’s innovative stagecraft anticipated the birth of cinema and today’s digital and interactive performance technologies. In a period when movies were nascent, Fuller made her own “motion pictures” by projecting magic-lantern images onto her swirling costumes. Appropriately, the first color films depicted “serpentine” dancers or Loie copycats.
The cinematic qualities of Fuller’s art enable it translate radiantly to the screen. Fuller is the subject of the César-winning feature film The Dancer (dir. Stephanie Di Giusto) which premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Jody Sperling served as creative consultant, choreographer and dance coach for the film. Sperling was commissioned to create a major new homage to Fuller, Fractal Memories, utilizing twenty-first-century technologies that is featured in the Fuller documentary Obsessed with Light (2023, directors Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum) that is having its theatrical release at the Quad Cinema on December 6, 2024.
select loie fuller-inspired Works by Jody Sperling
Vive La Loïe! (2024)
Arbor (2022),
Fractal Memories
Wind Rose (2019)
Piece for a Northern Sky (2016)
The Dancer (2016)
Clair de Lune (2005)
RESOURCES
Videos
Visit the Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance YouTube Channel and check out our Loie Fuller Playlist.
While there are no extant films of Fuller herself, there are many early motion pictures depicting “serpentine” dancers after Fuller’s style of dancing. You can check out our many contemporary reimaginings of Fuller as well.
ONLINE Articles
Jody Sperling , Loie Fuller (1862-1928) biographical essay for Dance Heritage Coalition
Rhonda Garelick, Loie Fuller and the Serpentine, The Public Domain Review
Other Articles by Jody Sperling
"From The Serpentine to The Renegade: Milestones in Dance and Media Technology,” in Milestones in Dance (Ed. Elizabeth McPherson), Routledge, 2022.
“Cosmic Voyages in Advance of Cinema: ‘La Loïe’ Skirts the Universe” in Birds of Paradise: Costume as Cinematic Spectacle, British Film Institute, London, 2014.
“Loïe Fuller’s Ballet of Light: Re-imagining a 1908 Media Spectacle in the Digital Age.” Paper delivered at the Thirtieth Annual Conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars, 2007.
“Sublime or Ridiculous? Some Thoughts on Marie Leyton's Electrical Serpentine Dance of the 1890s.” Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference Society of Dance History Scholars, Banff Centre, Alberta, CA, 2006.
“Loïe Fuller and the Magic-Lantern.” Paper delivered at the Dancing in the Millennium Conference, Washington, DC, 2000.
“Skirting the Image: The Origins of Loïe Fuller's Serpentine Dance.” Paper delivered at Twenty-Second Annual Conference of Society of Dance History Scholars, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1999. (Translated into Italian and appears in Danza di luce, Skira, Italy, 2002.)
Books
English:
Albright, Ann Cooper, Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loie Fuller, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2007.
Current, Richard Nelson & Marcia Ewing Current, Loie Fuller: Goddess of Light, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1997.
Fuller, Loie, Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life, Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, 1913.
Garelick, Rhonda, Electric Salome: Loie Fuller’s Performance of Modernism, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. 2007.
Heinecke, Liz, Radiant: The Dancer, The Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light, Grand Central Publishing, 2021.
French:
Lista, Giovanni, Loïe Fuller: Danseuse de la Belle Époque, Stock-Éditions d’Art Somogy, Paris, 1994.
Italian:
Veroli, Patrizia, Loïe Fuller, L’Epos, Palermo, 2009.
podcast
The History Chicks - Episode 180
Archives
In New York:
There is an extensive collection of Loie Fuller materials at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. One item there, The Robinson Locke Scrapbook of Loie Fuller Clippings has a wonderful assortment of period article clippings. Another catalog item, the “Loie Fuller Collection” contains 4 reels of microfilm including papers, manuscripts, photographs and other miscellany.
In Paris:
The Rondel Collection at the Bibliothèque National de France, contains a treasure trove of clippings, programs and photographs of Loie Fuller. There are also Fuller photographs and materials at the Musee d’Orsay, the Rodin Museum and the Bibliothèque de l’Opera.
In Washington State:
The Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, WA has a collection of Loie-related artifacts and an archive containing an extensive clipping collection and other documents.
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