Loie Fuller and the Influence of The Dance In Art

FULLER BY LAUTREC

Loie Fuller was a pioneer of modern dance and of theatrical lightning effects. She developed and introduced her style of modern dance in 1891, combining her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-colored lighting of her own design. In several of the Serpentine Dance movies her special colored lighting effects have been translated into fascinating hand-coloured effects. Besides Serpentine Dance performances (often referred to as Butterfly Dances); Fuller presented a Fire Dance into which the four elements were incorporated. Artists (Toulouse-Lautrec painted her) and writers like Mallarme, Wyndham Lewis, Paul Valery and the Goncourt brothers who saw her dance, were mesmerised and hugely influenced. W.B.Yeats saw her dance. Film makers flocked to film her with results that can be seen below. She died poor.

The Serpentine Dance films: Skladanowsky Brothers (1895), Dickson for Edison Manifacturing Company (1895, 1896 & 1897), Lumiere Brothers (1896), Demeny (1897), Alice Guy (1899,1900 &1902), Melies (1899), G.A. Smith (1902) & De Chomon (1908).