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Click here for link to audio interview of Jody Sperling discussing the work of Loie Fuller."Jody Sperling re-creates the sumptuous imagery of Fuller's dance. She also draws on the artful physicality and naïve exhibitionism that made it's way into circuses, variety shows, and early films...The entire evening looked surprisingly postmodern, not like a dusty historical souvenir at all." "Jody Sperling calls her enterprise Time Lapse Dance because some of her solos riff off the fin-de-siècle artistry of Loië Fuller, the American who enthralled Paris with her manipulation of exceedingly long silk garments-turning herself, with the help of innovative lighting, into a butterfly, a lily, the spirit of fire. In terms of time-lapse photography, Sperling's magical Fuller-inspired pieces do have the look of natural phenomena-blossoming, evolving, changing shape." "Jody Sperling's dances spring from scholarship. Known particularly for her reconstructions of fin de siecle pioneer Loie Fuller, Sperling also finds inspiration in vintage circus and music hall entertainments." "it was perfect" "Also enchanting were the optical illusions of Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance. In two excerpts from Ms. Sperling's "Dance of the Elements" she recreated the mesmerizing use of fabric first developed by the pionnering modern dancer Loie Fuller. At the turn of the 20th century, Fuller embodied both the virgin and the dynamo. In her spectacle of fabric and light, she combined technology and female secuality; Thomas Edison even filmed her famous "Butterfly Dance." Ms. Sperlings' elaborate silk drapery produced a billowing wake set to Ravel's "Une Barque sur l'océan." Beneath a black light, she mainfested orchid-like floral shapes or else revolved quickly in circles like the eye of a storm. As she transitioned, previous movements would ripple toward the hem in physical echoes." "tides swell, flowers bloom, and flames ripple before your eyes." "Holding their breath, mesmerized spectators followed each of the metamorphoses of the dance-fairy, who created an illusion of wings unfolding from her back. One of the spectators admitted: 'Even before the conclusion of the dance, I wanted to see it again and again.'" "And then, there's always history to teach us a little humility. Jody Sperling has re-created the dance of the pioneering Loie Fuller, who manipulated yards of silk with projected colored lights at the beginning of the 20th century. Sperling's The Elements, which she calls a "continuation" of Fuller's work, evoked flames and foaming surf, rippling waters and floating creatures of the air. I thought Sperling's expansive musicality and expert manipulation of her enormous costume were perfectly analogous to the solution today's technological sophisticates are still searching for—not just a merger of dancing and media but a transfiguration of both." "Jody Sperling's engrossing solo program at Joyce Soho hinged on transformation. ...In 'Earth,' she's a woman with vast wings; in 'Water,' she goes deeper into metamorphosis, roiling and swirling, engulfed in silk foam; in 'Wind,' [Loie] Fuller's famous lily image becomes a small tornado. 'Fire' begins low, with red-lit fabric rising. In the waltz of 'Ether,' we see Sperling's body again—the woman within." "Sperling's evening was a mix of comedic, acrobatic, and most of all transporting works. Such a range of styles – bridged and conceived with equal amounts of polish – points to Sperling's artistic strength and curatorial zeal. ...a fine interpreter, exuding the wily, confident, knowing surety that one imagines [Loie] Fuller herself might have performed with." "Sperling's use of fabric is mesmerizing, her layering of modern and past dance techniques is innovative, and she dances with remarkable grace and precision." "Howling winds and slashing rains couldn't keep me from traveling to Stanford the other evening despite the fact that my little car was telling me in no uncertain terms that it didn't belong on a freeway during such a dark and stormy night. But then how many chances does one get to see something at least approximating what the mother of modern dance, one Loie Fuller, of Fullersburg, Ill and Paris, France, might have looked like?" "Magic dominated the program that Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance presented on Sunday night at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Ms. Sperling celebrated theatrical illusion and dance history in tributes to Loie Fuller, an early modern dancer who flooded her costumes with fantastic patterns of light in the 1890's." "The clever ones know how to raise issues without beating their audiences over the head. Jody Sperling...is a good example. Her two short but telling solos...are witty, entertaining and thought-provoking." "This is beautiful, lyrical, original, sweet, imagistically rich, evocative, moving work. It's what not just dance, but ballet should be, giving us a vehicle on which our own imaginations can take flight. Besides the [Christopher] d'Amboise work, none of the pieces in this year's Diamond Project come close to it in choreographic skill or audience resonance." "a good mind and a heavy dose of glamour" "New York's Jody Sperling has always been a fFIDA favourite for her off-the-wall choreography, and her new work Cheaper is right in the mould. Set to bizarre, percussive music by Quentin Chiappetta, Sperling and Ashley Sowell are inept contortionists who attempt to bend the human frame into a pretzel with hilarious results." "By far the freshest and most spirited dance was Sperling's 'Serpentine Dance,' an interpretation of Loie Fuller's 1891 skirt dance. She whirled the skirt, at one point twirling her head and looking like a pistil in the center of a calla lily." "Jody Sperling pares historical dance-forms down to the painful funny bone." "In this remarkable program, dancer-scholar Jody Sperling re-animates the spirit of Loie Fuller, a pioneer of the 20th century dance stage. With imagination and style, Sperling shows us Fuller's dance in the context of an emerging technological culture." "Just when we'd lost hope of ever again being moved to laughter at a dance concert . . . along come two brainy young dancemakers [Jody Sperling is one] with utterly seductive senses of humor. ...[B]oth are choreographically terse avoiding excess without sacrificing impact. ...very funny—and totally uncorny." |
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