Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance Presents Loïe Fuller Celebration Program, 5/10-13

To celebrate the 150th birthday of modern-dance pioneer Loïe Fuller (1862-1928), Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance, in association with The Joyce Theater Foundation, presents a season honoring her legacy at Joyce SoHo. Artistic Director Jody Sperling – who has earned an international reputation as the leading contemporary interpreter of Fuller's genre – offers a range of tribute works varying in approach from reverential to experimental.

Turbulence (2011/2012), given its first fully illuminated NYC performance, pushes Fuller's genre into a contemporary context. This work for six women distills patterns of air disturbance into kinetic sculptural forms. The propulsive, rhythmically-complex score by Quentin Chiappetta (commissioned with funds from the American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program) is performed live by virtuoso percussionist Tigger Benford. "[T]he dancers conjured billows, gusts and whirlwinds, tightly timed and coordinated patterns of hypnotic complexity." – Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Infinite Body

In contrast, Roman Sketches (2007) – seen for the first time in NYC since its premiere – is set to the lush, impressionist piano music of American composer Charles Griffes (1884-1920). Incorporating moveable mirrors that reflect and distort the rippling costumes of the dancers, the work is a kaleidoscopic synthesis of lighting, scenic design, music and movement. "a vision of glory" – Elizabeth Zimmer, Gay City News

The program also features a new work-in-progress that weaves together biographical fragments from Fuller's fascinating life with stunning images of her creation. The evening concludes with a reprisal of Sperling's signature Fuller tribute, "Clair de lune" (from Debussy Soirée) which Philip Sandstrom (Dance Insider) calls "a masterful work of resplendent yet restrained evocation of the supernatural."

In conjunction with the season performances, Sperling gives a lecture at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on April 12. The talk, accompanied by a slide-show of 70 visually-arresting images and video clips, considers Fuller's life and art in relation to cultural movements in dance, the visual arts and cinema.

Loïe Fuller (1862-1928) created a unique art form by crafting mesmerizing, multi-media spectacles out of fabric, motion and light. With her swirling costumes and specially-engineered illuminations, this American-born artist enraptured fin de siècle Paris. A favorite subject of visual artists, she became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau and Symbolist movements. Fuller's unprecedented success in Europe paved the way for later modern dancers, including Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. Fuller was influential, not just in fields of dance and visual arts, but also in lighting design, stagecraft technology and cinema. An independent, visionary artist, Fuller fashioned herself into one of her era's most important and influential performers.

Jody Sperling (Artistic Director) is a dancer, choreographer and dance scholar based in New York City. Sperling has gained an international reputation as an expert on Loïe Fuller and is the foremost contemporary interpreter of Fuller's style. In the past decade, Sperling has created more than 30 works, including many that pay homage to Fuller, as well as others that fuse modern dance and circus arts. She has taught, lectured and performed throughout the US, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia and Scotland.

Time Lapse Dance (timelapsedance.com), founded by Jody Sperling in 2000, presents visual-kinetic theater fusing experimental dance, circus arts and mesmerizing fabric-and-light spectacles. Dances re-imagining the swirling, sculptural style of modern-dance pioneer Loïe Fuller form a core of the repertory. Other works draw on genres including aerial dance, hula-hooping, stilt-walking, partner acrobatics, contortion acts, vaudeville and more. The company has presented eight full-evening programs in its home-base of NYC and has toured nationally and internationally. Time Lapse Dance will preview its Loïe Fuller Celebration program in the Spring of Culture Festival in ManamaBahrain on April 5, 2012.

Tickets to Joyce SoHo performances purchased at joyce.org carry no service fees! Tickets purchased via other methods prior to performances are subject to a $1 per ticket service fee. Joyce SoHo's onsite box office is only open one half-hour prior to performance time to sell tickets exclusively for that performance.

Tickets may also be purchased online at joyce.org or via phone at 212-242-0800 or in person at The Joyce Theater at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street Mon-Sun, 12 noon-6pm. On days when there are performances, The Joyce Theater's box office is open through curtain time. Advance sales stop one hour prior to curtain times. For matinee curtains, advance sales begin one-half hour following that curtain time. The Joyce Theater's box office is closed on major holidays.

Loïe Fuller Celebration Lecture

Thursday, April 12 from 6:00-7:30pm
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE

Loïe Fuller Celebration Season

Thursday – Saturday, May 10-12 at 7:30pm
Saturday – Sunday, May 12-13 at 2:00pm
Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street (Houston/Prince)
Tickets: $20 (adult); $15 (students/seniors); $10 (kids matinee)
Subway: B/D/F/M to Broadway-Lafayette, R to Prince, 6 to Bleecker
JoyceCharge: 212.242.0800 or joyce.org

For more information, visit timelapsedance.com/Loie_Fuller_Celebration.

Photo credit: Julie Lemberger