The serpentine dance is a form of dance that was popular throughout the United States and Europe in the 1890s, becoming a staple of stage shows and early film.
The Serpentine is an evolution of the skirt dance, a form of burlesque dance that had recently arrived in the United States from England. Skirt dancing was itself a reaction against "academic" forms of ballet, incorporating tamed-down versions of folk and popular dances like the can-can. [1]
The new dance was originated by Loïe Fuller, who gave varying accounts of how she developed it. [1] By her own account, which is widely reported, having never danced professionally before, she accidentally discovered the effects of stage light cast from different angles on the gauze fabric of a costume she had hastily assembled for her performance in the play Quack M.D., and spontaneously developed the new form in response to the audience's enthusiastic reaction upon seeing the way her skirt appeared in the lights. [1] During the dance she held her long skirt in her hands, and waved it around, revealing her form inside. [1] In the words of the dance historian Jack Anderson, "The costume for her Serpentine Dance consisted of hundreds of yards of China silk which she let billow around her while lighting effects suggested that it was catching fire and taking shapes reminiscent of flowers, clouds, birds, and butterflies." [2]
By 1891, Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of her own design, and created the Serpentine Dance. [3] After much difficulty finding someone willing to produce her work when she was primarily known as an actress, she was finally hired to perform her piece between acts of a comedy entitled Uncle Celestine, and received rave reviews. [4]
"Soon, she (Loïe Fuller) auditioned for Rudolph Aronson of New York’s Casino Theatre. He named her dance “The Serpentine” and hired her to perform it as an entr’act in the comedy Uncle Celestin. Fuller achieved critical success with her Serpentine performances at the Casino and—when a dispute with Aronson forced her to switch venues—at the Madison Square Theatre. However, Fuller’s artistic achievements were soon dwarfed by legal troubles (among them, a copyright infringement suit against Minnie Renwood, the dancer Aronson hired to replace Fuller..." [5]
Almost immediately, she was replaced by imitators (originally Minnie "Renwood" Bemis). In the hope of receiving serious artistic recognition that she was not getting in America, Fuller left for Europe in June 1892.
The Serpentine Dance was a frequent subject of early motion pictures, as it highlighted the new medium's ability to portray movement and light. Two particularly well-known versions were Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1894), a performance by Broadway dancer Annabelle Whitford from Edison Studios, and a Lumière brothers film made in 1896. [6] Many other filmmakers produced their own versions, distributing prints that had been hand-tinted to evoke (though not quite reproduce) the appearance of colored light projection.
Dance improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating movement. Development of movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including body mapping through levels, shape and dynamics schema.
Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Although originally informed by and borrowing from classical, modern, and jazz styles, it has come to incorporate elements from many styles of dance. According to the New Grove Musical Dictionary, contemporary dance evolved from the foundations of modern and postmodern dance, emphasizing innovation and a break from traditional forms. Due to its technical similarities, it is often perceived to be closely related to modern dance, ballet, and other classical concert dance styles. It is characterized by a blend of styles that often integrate elements of ballet, modern dance, and cultural or social dance forms.
The Folies Bergère is a cabaret music hall in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, comic opera, popular songs, and gymnastics. It became the Folies Bergère on 13 September 1872, named after nearby Rue Bergère. The house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s' Belle Époque through the 1920s.
Loie Fuller, also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.
A tutu is a dress worn as a costume in a classical ballet performance, often with attached bodice. It may be made of tarlatan, muslin, silk, tulle, gauze, or nylon. Modern tutus have two basic types: the Romantic tutu is soft and bell-shaped, reaching the calf or ankle; the Classical tutu is short and stiff, projecting horizontally from the waist and hip.
A ballerina skirt, also referred to as a Juliet skirt or a romance skirt, is a full skirt that is worn by ballet dancers and is composed of multiple layers of fabric. Ballet dancers wear the longer version of the skirt, while for fashion purposes the skirt is worn shorter, like a mini skirt for better dancing, the cocktail version. The standard ballerina attire is composed of fabric with a wire, in order for tulle to be visualized as stiff when it is around their waists. The Juliet styled skirt is free-flowing and covers the majority of their legs to place a high emphasis on the performer's legs.
Trisha Brown was an American choreographer and dancer, and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Brown’s dance/movement method, with which she and her dancers train their bodies, remains pervasively impactful within international postmodern dance.
Marie Sallé (1707–1756) was a French dancer and choreographer in the 18th century known for her expressive, dramatic performances rather than a series of "leaps and frolics" typical of ballet of her time.
Showgirl: Homecoming Tour was the ninth concert tour by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, in support of her second major greatest hits compilation, Ultimate Kylie (2004). The tour began on 11 November 2006 in Sydney, Australia at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and concluded on 23 January 2007 in London, England at Wembley Arena, consisting of 20 shows in Australia and 14 shows in England.
Minnie Renwood was a popular dancer of the 1890s in New York City. Her performance of the serpentine dance became the subject of an important legal ruling regarding dance and copyright.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
A skirt dance is a form of dance popular in Europe and the United States, particularly in burlesque and vaudeville theater of the 1890s, in which women dancers would manipulate long, layered skirts with their arms to create a motion of flowing fabric, often in a darkened theater with colored light projectors highlighting the patterns of their skirts. Skirts used in skirt dances reportedly were constructed from over 100 yards of fabric.
Annabelle Serpentine Dance is a short silent American film produced and distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company in 1895. It is one of several released by the studio in the late 19th century. Each short film depicts the popular serpentine dance performed by Annabelle Moore. Many of the prints were distributed in color, which was hand-tinted.
La Péri is a fantastic ballet choreographed by Jean Coralli (1779-1854) to music composed by Friedrich Burgmüller. With a scenario devised by Théophile Gautier and Coralli, scenery designed by Charles Séchan, Jules Diéterle, Édouard Desplechin, Humanité Philastre, and Charles Cambon, and costumes designed by Paul Lorimer and Hippolyte d'Orshwiller, it was first presented by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Académie Royale de Musique on 17 July 1843.
The PrismaticWorld Tour was the third concert tour by American singer Katy Perry, in support of her fourth studio album, Prism (2013). The tour began on May 7, 2014, at Belfast, Northern Ireland's Odyssey Arena and ended on October 18, 2015, at Alajuela, Costa Rica's Parque Viva after six legs. The Prismatic World Tour grossed more than $204.3 million from 149 shows, with a total tour attendance of 1,984,503 between 2014 and 2015; the tour is Perry's most successful, to-date.
Rhonda K. Garelick is an American professor and author. She is currently a professor of English with a special joint appointment in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. She is the founder and director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium based in the Hixson-Lied College. She is a scholar of performance, fashion, literature, visual arts, and cultural politics.
Gabrielle Bloch, known professionally as Gab Sorère, was a French art promoter, set designer, mechanical innovator, filmmaker and choreographer of the Belle Époque. Collaborating with her partner, Loïe Fuller, to explore illusion through luminescence, she produced films and choreographies which moved performance from dancers being lighted to the abstract vision of lights dancing. When Fuller died, Sorère inherited the dance troupe and laboratory of her partner and strove to keep her legacy as a visual effects artist alive. She continued to produce innovative productions utilizing fluorescence and light into the 1950s.
Margherita "Rita" Sacchetto was a German dancer, film actress, and screenwriter.
Alice Matilda Lethbridge was an English music hall dancer and Gaiety Girl, best known for her "skirt dance" act.
Maud Madison was an American actress and dancer.