# Loie Fuller

Loie Fuller (/ˈloʊi/; born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.

## Early life and debut

Marie Louise Fuller was born on January 15, 1862, in Fullersburg, Illinois, on a remote farm conveniently linked to Chicago by a newly-constructed plank road. When Fuller was two, her parents Reuben Fuller and Delilah Eaton moved to Chicago and opened a boarding house. Her early exposure to the arts came through her parents - her father was a skilled fiddler and dance caller, while her mother had aspired to be an opera singer before marriage. Fuller's parents took her to the Progressive Lyceum, a hub of Freethought, on Sunday mornings.
Fuller debuted on the stage as a toddler, performing a variety of dramatic and dance roles in Chicago. Her first performance, according to her memoir, was reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at a Sunday school event. Her formal dramatic debut at the age of four was at the Chicago Academy of Music, playing a young boy in Was He Right?. Fuller's career as a child performer progressed with little formal training and much variety, as she experimented with dramatic reading, singing, and dance. From 1878 to 1879, she toured with the Felix A. Vincent Company, performing in "Aladdin," a pantomime spectacle filled with magical scene transformations. This experience exposed her to important principles of stagecraft.
As a child, Fuller's family moved in and out of Chicago, with Fuller eventually securing a part in Buffalo Bill's touring act at the age of nineteen. From 1881 to 1889, Fuller performed in western melodramas and musical burlettas in New York City and the Midwest, with notable roles in "Davy Crockett" (1882) and "Twenty Days, or Buffalo Bill's Pledge" (1883).
Despite her initial success, Fuller faced significant financial challenges early in her career. In 1889, she attempted to expand her career by venturing into production, traveling to London to mount and star in the play "Caprice." This endeavor proved to be both a critical and financial failure, leaving Fuller broke and unemployed in London. Following this setback, Fuller's fortunes changed when she secured a role as an understudy at London's Gaiety Theatre, known for its skirt dances. This engagement proved pivotal, as it exposed her to a dance form that would influence her later innovations.
Marie Louise Fuller changed her name to the more glamorous "Loïe" at the age of sixteen. An early free dance practitioner, Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. In 1889, Fuller visited the Paris Exposition Universelle, where she was particularly impressed by the Palais d'électricité and the illuminated fountains of the Champs de Mars, which later influenced her innovative use of lighting in her performances. In multiple shows she experimented with a long skirt, choreographing its movements and playing with the ways it could reflect light.

## Career

By 1891, Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of her own design, and created the Serpentine Dance. After much difficulty finding someone willing to produce her work when she was primarily known as an actress, she was finally hired to perform her piece between acts of a comedy entitled Uncle Celestine, and received rave reviews.
   "Soon, she (Loïe Fuller) auditioned for Rudolph Aronson of New York's Casino Theatre. He named her dance “The Serpentine” and hired her to perform it as an entr’act in the comedy Uncle Celestin. Fuller achieved critical success with her Serpentine performances at the Casino and—when a dispute with Aronson forced her to switch venues—at the Madison Square Theatre. However, Fuller's artistic achievements were soon dwarfed by legal troubles (among them, a copyright infringement suit against Minnie Renwood, the dancer Aronson hired to replace Fuller..."
Almost immediately, she was replaced by imitators (originally Minnie "Renwood" Bemis). Fuller's innovative choreography led to legal challenges as she sought to protect her work. In 1892, she filed a lawsuit against imitator Minnie Renwood Bemis in an attempt to secure intellectual property rights for her Serpentine Dance. The case, Fuller v. Bemis, became a landmark in dance copyright law. Despite Fuller's precaution of submitting a written description of her dance to the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Circuit Court denied her request for an injunction. The court ruled that the Serpentine Dance told no story and was therefore not eligible for copyright protection as a dramatic composition, which was the only category under which dance could potentially be protected at the time. The judge stated: "A stage dance illustrating the poetry of motion by a series of graceful movements, combined with an attractive arrangement of drapery, lights and shadows, but telling no story, portraying no character and depicting no emotion, is not a 'dramatic composition' within the meaning of the Copyright Act." The precedent set by Fuller's case remained in place until the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976, which explicitly extended protection to nondramatic choreographic works. Another notorious imitator was Lord Yarmouth, later 7th Marquess of Hertford, who performed the Serpentine Dance under the stage name of ‘Mademoiselle Roze’. Fuller's pursuit of copyright protection was part of a broader struggle for artistic recognition and control over her work in a male-dominated theatrical industry. As a performer selling her live enactment of the Serpentine Dance in the theatrical marketplace, Fuller's body circulated in commodity form. Her attempts to protect her performing body from becoming fully open to capital by asserting property rights over her image and choreography marked a complex negotiation between her status as artist and commodity.
In the hope of receiving serious artistic recognition that she was not getting in America, Fuller left for Europe in June 1892. She became one of the first of many American modern dancers who traveled to Europe to seek recognition. Her warm reception in Paris persuaded Fuller to remain in France, where she became one of the leading revolutionaries in the arts.
A regular performer at the Folies Bergère with works such as Fire Dance, Fuller became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement and was often identified with symbolism, as her work was seen as the perfect reciprocity between idea and symbol. Fuller began adapting and expanding her costume and lighting, so that they became the principal element in her performance—perhaps even more important than the actual choreography, especially as the length of the skirt was increased and became the central focus, while the body became mostly hidden within the depths of the fabric. The choreography of the Serpentine Dance was filmed by multiple early filmmakers, including Auguste and Louis Lumière, but it is unclear whether the recordings depict Fuller herself.
Gab Sorère and Fuller would make three films together, Le Lys de la vie (The Lily of Life, 1921), Visions des rêves (Visions of dreams, 1924) and Les Incertitudes de Coppélius (Uncertainties of Coppelius, 1927). Le Lys de la vie was a silent film, based upon a story written by Queen Marie of Romania, a close friend of the couple and is the only one of the films which survived.
"The only surviving reel of her work is a segment from Le Lys de la Vie, and features a show within a show with classically-costumed figures dancing by the sea, a banquet, royal intrigue, and romance with René Clair featured as a prince on horseback."
According to Celia McGerr's biography of René Clair, in 1920, singer Damia "persuaded a reluctant Clair to play the role of a suave Parisian in Loie Fuller's poetic film on danceLe lys de la vie, by telling him about the pretty girls who would be present."
Fuller's pioneering work attracted the attention, respect, and friendship of many French artists and scientists, including Jules Chéret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, François-Raoul Larche, Henri-Pierre Roché, Auguste Rodin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Franz von Stuck, Maurice Denis, Thomas Theodor Heine, Paul-Léon Jazet, Koloman Moser, Demétre Chiparus, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Marie Curie. Fuller was also a member of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society).
Fuller patented many of her innovations in stage lighting, including the use of chemical compounds for creating color gel, and the application of chemical salts to luminescent lighting and garments.
Fuller supported other pioneering performers, such as Sada Yacco and fellow United States-born dancer Isadora Duncan. Fuller helped Duncan ignite her European career in 1902 by sponsoring independent concerts in Vienna and Budapest.
Fuller's work attracted the attention and respect of many French artists and scientists. She was also a member of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society).
Loie Fuller's original stage name was "Louie". In modern French "L'ouïe" is the word for a sense of hearing. When Fuller reached Paris she gained a nickname which was a pun on "Louie"/"L'ouïe". She was renamed "Loïe" – this nickname is a corruption of the early or Medieval French "L'oïe", a precursor to "L'ouïe", which means "receptiveness" or "understanding". She was also referred to by the nickname "Lo Lo Fuller".

## Personal life

Fuller met her romantic partner of over 30 years, Gab Sorère, in the mid-1890s. Sorère was born Gabrielle Bloch, the daughter of wealthy French bankers, in 1870, and eventually took the name Gab Sorère in 1920. Bloch first saw Fuller perform at the age of 14, and by 1898 Fuller and Bloch were living together.
Fuller and Bloch's relationship initially attracted some attention in the press, as Bloch dressed exclusively in menswear, and was 8 years Fuller's junior. The press coverage of their relationship declined over time, focusing more on Fuller's mother, and allowing Bloch and Fuller to live a relatively unbothered life.
Fuller met Crown Princess Marie of Romania, later to become Queen Marie, in 1902, at a performance in Bucharest. Marie and Fuller became close, and maintained an extensive correspondence as close friends. Their relationship was the subject of scandalous rumors, alleging that Fuller and Queen Marie were lovers. Fuller, through a connection at the United States embassy in Paris, played a role in arranging a United States loan for Romania during World War I.
Later, during the period when the future Carol II of Romania was alienated from the Romanian royal family and living in Paris with his mistress Magda Lupescu, she befriended them; they were unaware of her connection to Carol's mother Marie. Fuller initially advocated to Marie on behalf of the couple, but later schemed unsuccessfully with Marie to separate Carol from Lupescu. With Queen Marie and American businessman Samuel Hill, Fuller helped found the Maryhill Museum of Art in rural Washington state, which has permanent exhibits about her career.

## Later life and death

Fuller occasionally returned to America to stage performances by her students, the "Fullerets" or Muses, but spent the end of her life in Paris. She died of pneumonia at the age of 65 on January 1, 1928, in Paris, two weeks shy of her 66th birthday. She was cremated and buried in the columbarium of the Père-Lachaise cemetery (site No. 5382) in Paris.

## Legacy

After Fuller's death, her romantic partner of thirty years, Gab Sorère inherited the dance troupe as well as the laboratory Fuller had operated. Sorère took legal action against dancers who wrongfully used Fuller's fame to enhance their own careers and produced both films and theatrical productions to honor Fuller's legacy as a visual effects artist.
Fuller's work has been experiencing a resurgence of professional and public interest. Rhonda K. Garelick's 2009 study entitled Electric Salome demonstrates her centrality not only to dance, but also modernist performance. Sally R. Sommer has written extensively about Fuller's life and times Marcia and Richard Current published a biography entitled Loie Fuller, Goddess of Light in 1997. The philosopher Jacques Rancière devoted a chapter of Aisthesis, his history of modern aesthetics, to Fuller's 1893 performances in Paris, which he considers emblematic of Art Nouveau in their attempt to link artistic and technological invention. Giovanni Lista compiled a 680-page book of Fuller-inspired art work and texts in Loïe Fuller, Danseuse de la Belle Epoque in 1994. In the 1980s, Munich dancer Brygida Ochaim revived Fuller's dances and techniques, also appearing in the Claude Chabrol film The Swindler.
In 2016, Stéphanie Di Giusto directed the movie The Dancer about the life of Loïe Fuller, with actresses Soko as Loïe and Lily-Rose Depp as Isadora Duncan. Jody Sperling choreographed Soko's dances for the movie, served as creative consultant and was Soko's dance coach, training her in Fuller technique, which earned Sperling a World Choreography Award nomination. The movie premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Commissioned by the Paul Taylor Dance Company for their November 2024 Lincoln Center Season, Sperling developed Vive La Loïe, an expansion upon material created for La Danseuse (The Dancer) with the Loïe character performing atop a box containing lights within. The work for the Taylor company mines Fuller’s synaesthetic concept of “color harmony” in which multi-hued lights are composed like musical notes into luminous “melodies” and “chords.” Sperling collaborated closely with Bessie Award-winning lighting designer David Ferri so that each dance moment unfolds as a synthesis of motion, emotion, fabric, and light.
Fuller continues to be an influence on contemporary choreographers. Sperling has choreographed dozens of works inspired by Fuller and expanded Fuller's vocabulary and technique into the 21st century. Sperling's company, Time Lapse Dance, consists of six female-identifying dancers who are all versed in Fuller-style technique and performance. The company reimagines the art of Fuller in the context of contemporary and environmental forms.
Another is Ann Cooper Albright, who collaborated with a lighting designer on a series of works that drew inspiration from Fuller's original lighting design patents. Shela Xoregos choreographed a tribute, La Loȉe, a solo which shows several of Fuller's special effects.
Taylor Swift's 2018 Reputation Tour featured a segment dedicated to Fuller. During her performance of "Dress" each night on the tour, several dancers recreated the "Serpentine Dance." In the Reputation Stadium Tour concert film on Netflix, after "Dress" there is a message showing Taylor's dedication to Fuller.
Into the 2019 film Radioactive Loie Fuller (Drew Jacoby) is a friend of the main character Marie Curie. The scientist envisions Fuller dancing in the green light of radium. The dancer also introduces the Curies to a medium.

## Written works

Fuller's autobiographical memoir Quinze ans de ma vie was written in English, translated into French by Bojidar Karageorgevitch and published by F. Juven (Paris) in 1908 with an introduction by Anatole France. She drafted her memoirs again in English a few years later, which were published under the title Fifteen Years of a Dancer's Life by H. Jenkins (London) in 1913. The New York Public Library Jerome Robbins Dance Collection holds the nearly complete manuscript to the English edition and materials related to the French edition.
Fuller's autobiography is a first hand account, and she was known for being very adaptive in her story telling. There are seven highly dramatized versions of how she got her first silk skirt; however, the real story is unknown. As well as writing about inventing the Serpentine Dance, she also wrote extensively about her own theories of modern dance and motion.