- unitid
-
{"value"=>"19638", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"*MGZMC-Res. 5", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b12176972", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1892-1913", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1892/1913"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Loie Fuller papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"2 boxes, 1 slipcase", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1.58 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Jerome Robbins Dance Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Loie Fuller (1862-1928) was an American dancer and choreographer who pioneered an innovative approach to dance, using fabric and light to create modern performance art. The bulk of this collection consists of the manuscript, in English, of the French translation of Loie Fuller's autobiography published by F. Juven in Paris in 1908."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Fuller, Loie, 1862-1928", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Loie Fuller (1862-1928) was an American dancer and choreographer who pioneered an innovative approach to dance, using fabric and light to create modern performance art.</p> <p>Loie Fuller was born Marie Louise Fuller on January 15th, 1862, in Fullersburg, Illinois. She started her stage career as a child and performed in vaudeville and popular theater throughout the 1880s. By the 1890s, she began to develop an abstract language of movement and color utilizing billowing silks, extended wands, and changing light conditions. In 1891, she debuted the \"Serpentine Dance,\" the first dance in her soon-to-be iconic performance style. The performance used light to create a sculptural effect instead of traditional dance storytelling.</p> <p>Fuller moved to Paris in 1892, where she quickly gained popularity at the Folies Bergère theater. Fuller combined Symbolist and Art Nouveau elements with scientific experimentation in her artistic approach to her performances. Through her stage designs Fuller patented lighting equipment, colored gel filters, and stage control systems. These theatrical innovations produced radiant effects that made her body disappear into shimmering patterns. Fuller created abstract and atmospheric dance experiences through her performances, helping shape the development of modernist art in theater and dance arts.</p> <p>Fuller's work attracted the attention and respect of both the artistic and scientific communities of Paris, and she counted among her friends Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Rodin, Stéphane Mallarmé, Thomas Edison, and Marie Curie. She maintained a close bond with Queen Marie of Romania and fostered young artists, including fellow American-born dance pioneer Isadora Duncan and Japanese dancer and actress Sada Yacco. Fuller's long-term relationship with artist Gabrielle Bloch, who was known professionally as Gab Sorère, was both romantic and professional in nature. Fuller and Bloch lived together openly for over thirty years, and Bloch was instrumental as a collaborator in Fuller's artistic endeavors. Bloch worked as Fuller's stage designer and developed mechanical props and theatrical effects for Fuller's performances, and later moved into filmmaking. Block and Fuller made three films together: <span class=\"title\">Le Lys de la vie</span> (1921), <span class=\"title\">Visions des rêves</span> (1924) and <span class=\"title\">Les Incertitudes de Coppélius</span> (1927). After Fuller's death, Bloch inherited her dance company, Les Ballets Fantastiques de Loie Fuller, and strove to protect her partner's legacy as an influential visual effects artist and performer.</p> <p>The French edition of Fuller's autobiography, titled Quinze ans de ma vie, appeared in 1908, followed by the English translation, Fifteen Years of a Dancer's Life, in 1913. Loie Fuller passed away in Paris on January 1, 1928.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The bulk of this collection consists of the manuscript, in English, of the French translation of Loie Fuller's autobiography published by F. Juven in Paris in 1908. In stylistically different English from the manuscript, the French translation was published by H. Jenkins in London in <span class=\"date\">1913</span>. The French edition was called <span class=\"title\">Quinze ans de ma vie</span>, and the English edition was called <span class=\"title\">Fifteen years of a dancer's life</span>.</p> <p>The manuscript is arranged according to the order of the English edition and is lacking only chapter 11 and sections of chapters 6 and 21. It covers a few childhood events, but primarily the events of the years from 1892 to 1907, including experiences with Isadora Duncan (folder 20) who is not identified by name. The published English version of the autobiography loses some of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the author's original manuscript.</p> <p>The published manuscript is followed by material, mostly anecdotal, and unpublished, meant for the autobiography; outline plans for a second volume and material which would have become a part of it; two essays, America and Americans and The Boston blue-stocking; a legal document releasing her from a contract with Charles A. Hoyt and Charles W. Thomas in 1892; programs, including a holograph paste-up of her first performance in Kiel, undated, and a flyer-program presenting Gertrud Von Axen to Boston (?), undated; 12 photographs of Loie Fuller; 30 photographs of friends, admirers and fellow dancers, including Gertrud Von Axen and Dick Fuller (possibly a niece); and a portfolio of 23 watercolors presented to her by students of the Beaux-Arts on the occasion of her 550th performance in Paris, March 24, 1895.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Loie Fuller papers are arranged in two series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19638#c335792'>Series I: Autobiography</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Folders 1-24 contain the English draft of the autobiography, Fifteen years of a dancer's life, arranged according to the order of the London edition published by H. Jenkins in 1913 and lacking only chapter 11 and sections of chapters 6 and 13. Also contain material relating to the French edition, Quinze ans de ma vie, published by F. Juven in 1908. Ms. unless indicated otherwise.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19638#c335817'>Series II: Unpublished material</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Folders 25-36 contain unpublished material by Loie Fuller.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Paul Grinke, London. Purchased with assistance of a gift from the Committee for the Dance Collection. Material received on March 26, 1971</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Lacy H. McDearmon</span>. Revised by <span class=\"name\">Chatham Ewing</span>.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Use microfilm, *ZBD-112. Holograph, ms., and typescript.</p>"}
- altformavail
-
{"value"=>"<p>Microfilm (1 reel ; 35mm.) of originals in Dance Collection, New York Public Library <span class=\"num\">*ZBD-112</span>.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"Purchased with funds from the Committee for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division"}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Biographical note added by Shaylyn Kruesi and Sarah Fischer.", "date"=>"2025 December"}
- date_start
-
1892
- keydate
-
1892
- date_end
-
1913
- date_inclusive_start
-
1892
- date_inclusive_end
-
1913
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Loie Fuller papers, *MGZMC-Res. 5. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}