Book Review // Traces of Light
Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the work of Loïe Fuller
Reviewed by Joy Held
Dance is satisfying. But there comes a time in every serious dancer’s training when questions about the art begin to bubble to the surface. If the questions are persistent, the dancer will spend time and energy investigating until the answers are revealed. Questions about the life of early “modern” dancer Loïe Fuller prompted writer, choreographer and dance historian Ann Cooper Albright to discover the truth about this dancer’s life, career, impulses, successes and impact on contemporary dance and theater. What happened to Albright during her quest for answers could easily happen to any dancer pursuing an in-depth study of another dancer. Albright became obsessed with Loïe Fuller.
Traces of Light by Ann Cooper Albright
Society tends to view obsession through a negative lens. In the case of Albright’s passion to close the gap between what is written and what was probable in the career of Fuller, she choose to uncover Fuller through the personal and physical experiences of recreating the pioneer’s work. Albright has devoted more than 10 years to “trace another’s dancing with my own.” The result is an engaging and intriguing treatment of the question, “Who was Loïe Fuller really, and why has she been passed over by so many dance writers?” Albright successfully breaches the void between then and now with an academic work of lasting value and importance. Her dedication to Fuller and her desire to know the same experiences of Fuller, as much as possible in the present sense, has created a depth of scholarship that is undeniable. Albright is easily the definitive authority in the case of Fuller because she tackled the questions in true dancer fashion, dancing and writing full out in order to appreciate the physical and emotional development of a woman who was so cutting edge in theater and dance, that no one could place her in one category.
Other writers typically cast Fuller aside as not really a dancer due to her lack of formal training. Theater historians look askance at Fuller’s inventions and contributions to lighting and costume as flukes of effort. In reality, Fuller made monumental, important offerings to dance, theater, society and culture with her creations in movement, staging, technical theater and publicity. The sad note is that Fuller’s contributions were being made in the early twentieth century, before women were respected for such capabilities. In spite of her patents, prominence and promiscuity, a complete understanding of Fuller hasn’t been possible until Albright’s Traces of Light.
Albright makes no apologies in Traces of Light for her compulsions regarding Fuller. In fact, she appreciates those around her who have indulged her single-minded devotion. Family, friends, fellow scholars and the school where she teaches (Oberlin College) have all supported Albright’s passion, allowing her time, space and energy to study Fuller. Albright has recreated the movements, costuming and lighting associated with Fuller in order to understand, from the inside out, the motivations that guided Fuller in her career. Through research and travel, Fuller’s life as a dancer, theatrical pioneer and cultural icon have been revealed to Albright, who has written an impressive documentation of not only Fuller’s contributions, but a comparative study of three other prominent dance figures of the era. In the chapter “Staging the Self,” Albright presents compelling arguments for the similarities and differences of Fuller when set beside Isadora Duncan, Eva Palmer and Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.
Albright calls her work, “my embodied approach to history,” in which she strives to “trace another’s dancing with my own.” She credits her own “bodily curiosity” as the reason she is seemingly unsatisfied with the answers to questions until she has literally danced them herself. Where others have given Fuller minimal attention, Albright offers her intelligence and respect, resulting in a relevant academic treatment. There is no denying, however, that Traces of Light is a deep study of the iconoclastic Fuller and the world in which she lived. Albright’s ability to prove Fuller’s value to contemporary culture is paramount to a tour de force in the world of dance scholarship and on the stage.
As an interesting additive, publisher Wesleyan University Press has uniquely supported Traces of Light with a captivating online presence. In association with the book, the publisher’s website contains an interactive discussion by Albright that further explores Fuller and adds even more depth to this study. Students, teachers and readers will be engaged by the additional information available. www.wesleyan.edu/wespress/tracesoflight.
Dancing requires (and teaches) discipline, desire and dedication. Albright has taken the lessons of the studio to the pages of dance history detective work and applied them to the questions surrounding Loïe Fuller. The compilation of thought, movement and research has produced a lasting volume of importance. Bravo.
Wesleyan University Press, 215 Long Lane, Middletown, CT 06459, www.wesleyan.edu/wespress.