Two weeks ago, my classmates and I went to the 17 Lexington Ave building for a class by a guest speaker. Thinking that I am going to hear a boring speech on how someone named Jody Sperling succeed in life, I was surprised to find the lesson focused majorly on another person and how that person had influenced her. Ms. Jody Sperling gave us a small but very interesting lecture on Loie Fuller, a great dancer, in which she told us the life story of Ms. Fuller and the reasons for her to go into this business she had started.
Of course, as an introduction, she told us a little bit about herself. Jody was a student at NYU, where she began her career as a dancer (majored in Performance Studies). Ever since she fell in love with the Fuller style dancing when she was performing the Butterfly Dance (one of the symbolic dance of Loie Fuller) in the Library of Congress, she continued to invest in her interest by starting her own company. As the lesson went on, I noticed that, as a dancer, an entrepreneur and a choreographer, Jody Sperling is similar in many ways comparing to Loie Fuller. Perhaps that is why Jody had decided to focus on Ms. Fuller’s dancing styles when she founded her company—Time Lapse Dance.
Loie Fuller is the mother of modern dance, who actually invented the idea of abstract dancing. She was influenced by her father, who was in a business closely connected to music, and thus began her career as a very young dancer during the temperance movement. From how Ms. Sperling talked about this woman, I could tell that Ms. Fuller was her model. She told us that Fuller was very innovative and almost daring in a way, even from today’s point of view. Inspired by Skirt Dancing, a very popular dance during the period, Loie Fuller took the idea of “moving with the skirt” to a whole new level. She added light effects into the performance, which was never done before, and changed the complex clothing into a simple, long, white and silky costume. When she danced, as Jody described, “her body disappeared into the fabric”. Lights shined on her clothes, and because of the fabric, the different colors were displayed on the dress that Fuller wore. The whole dance became a live movie.
Jody Sperling, on the other hand, also wanted to do something different, added new elements into the “Loie Fuller Style”. Instead of following the “traditional” classical music trend, Jody used different music styles. In addition, she put in many different instruments from a variety of cultures to reflect the diverse pool of themes she wanted to show. For example, in a recent piece, Jody brought in a different theme by adding the turbulence into her background music, which immediately changed the entire mood of the performance along with the change of colors in lighting.
Loie Fuller was the creator of many symbolic dances, such as the Serpentine and the Butterfly. Although not recognized as an individual artist at first, Fuller worked toward her goals, despite all the obstacles, and eventually debuted in Paris with her name on the billboard—Loie Fuller. Jody also experienced many problems when she first started the company. With all the fundraising and dancing, she had to work as a businesswoman in addition to a dancer. However, like Loie Fuller, Jody Sperling is now well known for her achievements in Fuller style dance. She even invented her own spinning techniques along with her co-workers. She described it as a “meditation”, in which you would find “the new center of yourself and the world around you”.
The dance, as Jody told us, was a completely new experience every time. “When you dance”, she said passionately, “it’s amazing how a person can occupy such an amount of space with all the fabric.” If possible, I would definitely like to try this dance, for a feeling of “extending beyond ourselves” is not easily found in today’s world.
From http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students/features/understanding-art/~/media/ArtsEdge/Images/Articles/Students/features/rebellious_streak/rebellious_key.jpg?as=1&dmc=0&w=610
