Meet Taylor Swift’s Muse: Dancer and Innovator Loïe Fuller
Jules Chéret, Poster for Loïe Fuller at the Folies Bergère. Wikimedia Commons
A butterfly. A petal unfolding. A dazzling prism. A snowflake. American dancer and choreographer Loïe Fuller (1862-1928) was able to evoke each of those images during her swirling, spiraling Serpentine Dance. Fuller’s performance—during which she was decked in wafting white silks and illuminated by colorful spotlights—opened up new possibilities for dance choreography, transformed stage production technology, inspired many artists of the late nineteenth century, and sparked crucial conversation around copyright for dance choreographers: Fuller was, in so many respects, a powerful innovator.
Fuller, born in what is now Hinsdale, Illinois, began performing on stage in Chicago when she was just four years old. Over the course of her young-adult career, Fuller gained experience as an actor, singer, and dancer, and performed in various touring acts. By the time she was twenty-nine, her artistic inclinations led her to conceptualize and choreograph her very own dance act. When Fuller’s act was copied by another dancer, she filed a copyright suit, but unfortunately lost. Hoping to receive the recognition she deserved for her original creation, Fuller moved to Paris in 1892. After premiering her Serpentine Dance at the Folies Bergère that same year, Fuller quickly became a sensation.
To perform her Serpentine Dance, Fuller covered her entire body in cloaks of silk; she then attached sticks underneath the top layer of silks so that they could be raised and extended to arm’s length. As she moved her arms and torso, the silks would billow and writhe and ripple around her, often obscuring her body beneath them. Fuller also designed her own lighting technology, using chemical compounds to create what is now known as color gel—thin sheets that, when placed over a light source, produce colorful light. Painting the silks with such lighting technology, Fuller made waves in the field of special effects.
Her work quickly caught the attention of many nineteenth-century artists, and especially of poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Stunned by Fuller’s airy abstractness and kaleidoscopic vibrancy, Mallarmé thought of her as a kind of shape-shifting wonder, as a muse for the Symbolist movement. A Symbolist poet himself, Mallarmé loved that her movement suggested images without literally imitating them, an approach which was unprecedented in other forms of dance, like ballet.
Ironically, however, Fuller grappled with others imitating her throughout her entire career; many dancers began performing similarly with silks, replicating her Serpentine Dance. Nevertheless, no one else was able to truly reproduce her lighting techniques, ensuring that Fuller was known as the authentic author of her own innovations. Today, Fuller is celebrated as a champion of intellectual property rights, specifically for creative endeavors: in 2018, singer Taylor Swift paid tribute to Fuller during her Reputation Tour performance of “Dress.” Inviting Fuller imitators to perform on stage with her and lighting up their silks with a cacophony of colors as she sang her original song, Swift honored Fuller’s art while also uplifting her own. Swift recognized Fuller as someone who, just as she has throughout much of her career, “fought for artists to own their work.” Ultimately, by remaining steadfast in her innovation and artistry, Loïe Fuller empowered many to do the same. Her influence, like her rippling and transforming silks, has rippled and transformed through the fields of dance, theater, and poetry for over a century.