retoño by eienobi

A performance of Loïe Fuller's Serpentine Dance by an unknown dancer, colorized black and white film, circa 1890s.


Loïe Fuller (1862-1928), an American dancer, was a pioneer of modern dance and the inventor of the Serpentine Dance.
To achieve the abstract colorful illuminated aesthetic of the Serpentine Dance, she collaborated with her partner (in work and in life) Gab Sorère (1870-1961), one of the rare (if not the only) feminine French art promoters, filmmakers, stage designers, mechanical innovators and choreographers of the Belle Époque (1871-1914). The two women made multiple films together, few of which survived.

It's unsure how many recordings of the Serpentine Dance from the time are actually performances of Loïe Fuller, or of dancers who followed in her footsteps, some maybe borrowing her name. A lot of the films we can find today of the Serpentine Dance were produced by the Edison Studios and the Lumière brothers, often featuring the dancer Annabelle Whitford.

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Art by vad.jpg