PERFORMANCE
Elements of Loïe Fuller (part of Base Elements*)
*Double-bill with Lucy Suggate/The Body Farm

Dance Base, Scotland's National Dance Centre
14-16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh
Tickets: £5.00 / Box office: 0131 225 5525
Or buy online:  http://www.love.dancebase.co.uk/139-Base-Elements.html

Week 1: Wed 11 Aug @ 14.00; Thur 12 Aug @ 14.00; Fri 13 Aug @ 15.00;
Sat 14 Aug @ 16.00; Sun 15 Aug @ 17.00
Week 2: Tues 17 Aug @ 18.00; Wed 18 Aug @ 19.00; Thur 19 Aug @ 20.00; Fri 20 Aug @ 12.00; Sat 21 Aug @ 13.00; Sun 22 Aug @ 14.00

Jody Sperling will present the UK premiere of Dance of the Elements, one of her signature works inspired by the mesmerizing spectacles of Loïe Fuller. In this five-part suite, Sperling furls her enormous winged costume–designed from 100 yards of white silk—into eddying spiral shapes. The swirling fabric swoops to catches luminescent rays.

The suite employs a range of dynamics from the flirtatious to the sublime. “Earth” plays with sultry silhouettes. In “Water,” silk ripples and crests into waves. “Wind” whips Sperling into haphazard spins. Slow serpentine flames seem to arise in “Fire.” And “Ether” provides a cotton-candy-colored carousel ride into the heavens. The hypnotic visuals are set to piano music by Ravel, Chopin, De Falla and others arranged and recorded by Jeffrey Middleton.

Sperling's 15-minute solo will be performed as part of a double-bill at the Festival with Lucy Suggate/The Body Farm. Total running time is 40 minutes.

Wherever it has been performed, Sperling's Dance of the Elements has received critical acclaim: “captivating” (The New York Times); "spell-binding . . . astonishing" (Daily Gazette); “extraordinary” (Boston Phoenix); and in Russia: “‘Even before the conclusion of the dance, I wanted to see it again.’” (The Golden Ring)
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WORKSHOP
Sunday, 15 August 11:00-14:00
Time-Lapse Choreographic Method Workshop
Dance Base, 14-16 Grassmarket
Limit: 15 students   £17.50 
http://www.love.dancebase.co.uk/422-Time-Lapse-Choreographic-Method-Workshop.html

A stimulating introduction to the "time-lapse" approach to choreography. Through compositional exercises of quoting and distorting historical sources, this workshop frees students beyond their own imaginations and present-day assumptions about movement.

LECTURE
"Loïe Fuller & Early Cinema with Jody Sperling"
DANCE: FILM 10
Monday 23 August @ 18.30 (90min) | £5
Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road
Box Office: 0131 225 5525
http://www.dancefilmscotland.com/2010/filmhouse-events/item/73-lo%C3%AFe-fuller-early-cinema-lecture.html

Early modern dancer Loïe Fuller (1862–1928) created a unique art form by crafting mesmerizing, multi-media spectacles out of fabric, motion, coloured lights and projections. From the 1890s through the 1920s, she enraptured audiences and visual artists with her iridescent, sculptural creations. The lecture discusses Fuller's work in relation to developments in early cinema. In a period when movies were coming into being, the art of Fuller and her many imitators, or “serpentine dancers,” captured the essence of motion pictures. The presentation features slide-show of dozens of images and select video clips from Sperling's recreations. The event will include a screening of rare Edison films owned by Calum MacDonald of Giclee UK.