Before there was Martha Graham or Isadora Duncan, there was Loie Fuller (1862–1928), the toast of Paris nicknamed “La Loïe.” Poets like William Butler Yeats lauded her, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted her and sculptor Auguste Rodin allegedly captured her in marble. Although plump, plain-faced and untrained, not a tall and lovely sylph as she was […]
Tonight Jody Sperling, artistic director of Time Lapse Dance, advocate for the environment and expert on the work of Loie Fuller, brings a new performance installation, Book of Clouds, to Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. Collaborating with visual artist Amy-Claire Huestis and composer Omar Zubair, Sperling uses light technologies, movement and sound to […]
When French director Stéphanie Di Giusto set out to create a film about Loie Fuller, the modern dancer (1862–1928) known for her groundbreaking work with fabric and lighting design, Di Giusto came to Jody Sperling for advice. For the past 17 years, Sperling has made a name for herself as an expert on “La Loïe” […]
At first, climate change doesn’t sound like the type of topic that would lend itself easily to dance. But Jody Sperling (DT, May 2015) is eager to prove that thought wrong this weekend, with her global warming–inspired evening, Polar Rhythms: Dance and Music of Ice. Beginning this evening and continuing through Saturday in New York […]
In 2014, Jody Sperling became the first choreographer to conduct research on a U.S. Coast Guard science expedition to the Arctic Ocean. She’s now making a 30-minute work that she hopes will call attention to the impact of climate change. In the award-winning video “Ice Floe,” we first see Jody Sperling from a distance. Shot […]