A little bit more...

Learning even more about Loie has been incredibly interesting and I commend her so much for what she did. She inspired other newer artists such as Alwin Nicolais with her fascination with lighting and interesting costumes. As a child/young adult she was a traveling skirt dancer which makes perfect sense why she decided to elongate her skirt and was able to control it better than other 'real' dancers would have. The skirts she used were gestural in nature and extremely expressive. It took away the individuality of a costume and allowed her to be comfortable in her own body unlike those of the ballet world who were in large lavish costumes. This is when Loie began her quest to liberate women along with Isadora Duncan. They focused on freeing women of corsets and uncomfortable shoes but dancing in flowing fabric and barefoot. Loie was not recognized as a dancer until she moved to Europe which helped her find people in politics such as Queen Marie to be able to promote her and also allow Loie to be involved in politics which in America she most likely wouldn't have. She helped allied countries as mentioned below because of her connections and she was later decorated by the countries she helped. Loie Fuller was very involved and inspired by local artists and musicians in Europe, where at that time they were plentiful. One of her close friends Sam Hill had bought a property in which Loie and Queen Marie had made into a museum after Sam had died and dedicated it to him because of his passion for art. Even though she had not had formal training she still made a huge impact on the world of dance and it is still evident today in choreographers because of the way they use lighting and costumes patented by Loie. It's hard to believe that people aren't meant to do something with their lives when people like this are presented in history, just makes me wonder who is next in our generation or in future generations to develope something new for the dance world since it is ever-growing.

Why I care....

Before this class I had never really known who Loie Fuller was. I knew of her but I no idea what she did for the dance world. It took me until after I performed a dance I choreographed inspired by her to really understand the greatness she gave to dancers today. She was a pioneer in lighting design and also natural movement unlike that of the ballets. In my piece I made it a point to have lighting of various colors and did my best to make a flowing costume similar to the one she used in the past. I did more research on the company Time Lapse Dance with the director Jody Sperling, she has done many dances inspired by Loie which is where I started when thinking about my piece. They had done a piece called "The Peacock" and it was a total inspiration to my creative mind and I began to think of other birds and the beautiful colors their feathers can create. I used various colors such as blue, red, green and yellow to be projected onto the skirt. I love that Loie took the initiative to create a new 'look' for dance with different colored lighting. It opened up so many doors for the rest of the world to make their dances more interesting by adding such a simple aspect.

Contributions to the Dance World

Loie Fuller may not have had formal training but she has done a lot for the dance world we know today. She was invested in experimenting with stage lighting, attempting to make things more interesting than just having a plain spotlight and the lights that surrounded the edge of most stages. She did have a history in theatre but since she went out on her own as a solo performer, she decided that she wanted to use fabric against the lights to create an optical illusion of shadows to the audience. Her first piece "The Serpentine" was a piece in which she used a very large piece of fabric that she swirled around and was in a way snake-like. I believe this paved the way for others to experiment with different fabrics and lighting cues that would make their pieces very different than it would have been before. She was very much involved with politics, so I believe she was an inspiration for people to begin paying attention to issues of the world and dance about it. Loie is also a continuous inspiration to a company called Time Lapse Dance. Their dances are all Loie inspired so that we may still be able to see her dance.

Worldly Things

Around the time of when Loie was broadening her horizons, World War II was beginning. She was making friends with many artists, a couple were mentioned before, but she was also making friends and connections with the U.S. Embassy in Paris and also Queen Marie of Romania. This friendship actually helped Romania receive a loan from the United States. Also during WWI, she repaid France by urging her fellow American's to join the conflict on that country's side, and by persuading them to contribute to the relief of its wounded and its war widows and orphans. She made many people aware of the war going on but still was able to be a pioneer of the modern dance world.

Dance Lineage

Loie Fuller never had any formal training but did dance with Isadora Duncan. She created a school based upon the ideology of natural dance and being organic. Loie invited Isadora to dance in her school/company but instead helped fund Isadora's tour through Europe. She worked with many other artists and painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec and but as far as dancing she always did her own thing and helped begin the new 'freestyle' of the modern dance world. She definitely is an inspiration for others in the dance world but she was not necessarily one of the "Major Modern Marvel's". She did however pave the way for other's to break out of the 'ballerina' image the Russian world was putting into the minds of people around the world.

Loie Fuller Media

Who is Loie Fuller?

She was born Marie Louise Fuller in the outskirts of Chicago in 1862. Loie began her career as a child actress but later on in her life she traveled with a melodrama called "Quack MD" as a burlesque dancer as well as a skirt dancer. She was fascinated by the flow of the silk skirt she danced with and while she was in a performance of Arabian Nights she started to think more about how the lighting would look like against the flowing skirt, and that's where her inspiration is believed to have developed for her career. Of her dances, the most famous is Serpentine Dance was created in 1891 and later a movie was made by the frontier men for film, Louis and Auguste Lumier. In the 1890s she had moved to Paris to develop a career as a the first American modern dancer to travel and perform in Europe. She made many connections with various artists and political icons such as symbolist movement's Stephane Mallarme, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Queen Marie of Romania. With Loie's political connections she was able to help Romania recieve a loan from the United States during World War I. Her last performance was Shadow Ballet which was performed in London in 1927. Loie later died January 1, 1928 at the age of 65. She is still an inspiration to Jody Sperling who's company 'Time Lapse Dance' is based on Loie's philosophy of natural dance and lighting concepts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIrnFrDXjlk

Danielle Allen

Hi, my name is Danielle, I am a student at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the Dance Department. I am in my third year of college and I am studying for my Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance. I have been dancing for about 17 years, classically trained in ballet but through the years I have studied in other forms such as Modern and African. I've moved 8 times around the country and danced at a few different places but found my 'voice' at Milwaukee Ballet School and Danceworks Studios in Milwaukee. I love to perform and I hope to someday be able to and also work with disabled children. My passion for this art form grows every time I set foot in the studios, as I hope to someday perform in a company.