Loie Fuller's Impact On Feminism

From classic ballet to modern dance, there was a conversion of bodily energy into a mental state, which means that modern dance began to express ideas through idealizing women’s bodies. In the late 19th century, Loie Fuller (1862-1928) was a pioneering woman of modern dance as she applied the idea of a feminist aesthetics to fuel her movements by emphasizing costumes and visual effects. More specifically, she devised a type of dance that focused on the shifting play of lights and colors on the voluminous skirts or draperies she wore, which she kept in constant motion principally through movement of her arms, sometimes extended with wands concealed under her costumes (Au 88). For instance, Fuller wore “a large piece of billowing fabric material which is an extension of the …show more content…
Her significant contribution to feminism was to have helped free women from the tyranny of the corset. More precisely, Duncan advocated naturalness; her dances were characterized by simplicity and economy of means, qualities that applied not only to her choreography but to her themes, scenery, and costumes (Au 89). In an age still dominated by the dictates of conventions, Duncan used a backdrop of simple grey-blue or blue curtain on stage and dared to dance uncorseted (Au 90). Dressed in a loose-fitting, Greek tunic, she rejected not only the ballerina’s tutu, pointe shoes, and corset per se, but also everything it symbolized: the physical and psychological constraints imposed upon women by the society and culture. She wanted to free the body and reveal its movement. “She spoke of her dancing not as entertainment but as art, with a high moral purpose. Most of all, she insisted upon the essence of dance as movement”