Repertory
“‘Loie Fuller’s ‘Fire Dance’…illuminates the process of researching and reanimating a forgotten dance in such detail that it becomes a kind of handbook on the subject.” - Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times (2005)
Jessica Lindberg was inspired to bring this work back to life after realizing there was a gap in our knowledge of Early Modern Dance. Most dance history courses start with Duncan, in part because there is actually footage of her movement. Fuller is usually mentioned as a side note, if at all. Lindberg and Megan Slayter researched and reconstructed all three of these dances based on Fuller’s own accounts of her dancing, critical reviews and artistic images (posters, paintings, sculptures). Lindberg is preserving all three reconstructions by recording the movement in Labanotation. Slayter’s lighting design paper work accompanies the dance scores. Through these modern methods of preservation the dance can be passed on so future audiences (as well as dance history students) can see (and embody) Fuller’s beautiful, musical and flowing movement.
“A biography is the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ It is the ‘what’ which makes a person famous enough for readers to wonder and be interested in learning ‘why.’ In the case of Fuller, the ‘what’ has been lost. We know there are several works which earned extensive praise at the time of performance, but the actual movement, or the full extent of the ‘what,’ is gone. All the biographies, including Fuller’s autobiography, address ‘why’ Fuller danced and ‘why’ it was inspiring to others, but they do not address ‘what’ exactly happened on stage. I endeavor to discover the ‘what’ behind the ‘why.’” - Jessica Lindberg (2008)