Monday, November 30, 2015

Loie Fuller

Loie Fuller


Loie Fuller was an extraordinarily talented dancer that sought to push the boundaries of dance in that there was nothing she could not tackle.  She is also responsible for developing her own lighting techniques and for implementing them into pieces to make truly wondrous spectacles.


Loie Fuller was always trying to say something in her dance.  Look at this Serpentine Dance in the new light of how she is grounded but also producing something even more spectacular than thought possible.  In interviews she was reported to have said "I wanted to show that though we may be equal both men and women, if we choose to embrace change and truly drive ourselves to create something we can create something better than ever before."


Doris Humphrey

Doris Humphrey


Doris Humphrey was a pioneer in her own movement in which she designed her own movement based off accepting reality as it truly as and taking control over the effect of gravity upon her body.  This signified her values of being in control of her own future and really signified her support for women's suffrage and later equal treatment in the household.


In her piece Water Study it is easy to see that the dancers in this piece embrace falling and weightlessly allow the momentum to bring themselves up in one smooth motion.  This allows the dancers to feel as if they are suspended and shows a truly uniform movement.

Martha Graham

Martha Graham

Martha Graham constantly stressed the importance of women to be in charge of their sexuality.  In two pieces she truly explores this concept and contributes to the idea that women have their bodies to use and to have full control over instead of being dominated by a patriarchal society.

In her technique, as we know as "contract and release," we can start to see the origins of where this thinking comes from and in her 1994 documentary The Dancer Revealed she discusses the importance of this technique as to be "fulfilling and giving her dancers the control that they need both on stage and in life."


In her dance Diversion of Angels, Henrietta Lilliana Bannerman discusses the concept of the red silhouette (:54) in that this dancer is sexually provocative and the movement of the male dancers surrounding her conveys a more submissive tone suggesting that men become subservient to women as they feel confident enough to know their own bodies and be in charge of all decisions related to sexual encounters.


In her dance Night Journey presented in 1947, around the beginnings of the debate on abortion, Martha Graham presents a form of movement that allows the dancers to seem as if they choose to open their bodies or conceal them and be completely in control and grounded in their movement. 

Roots of Feminism


The first documented women who advocated for feminism was known by Olympe de Gouges.  She wrote a book entitled A Declaration of the Right of Woman and Citizen.  In this book she declares that women should be entitled to the same pay, same rights, and same respect in French society that men are afforded.

Women's Suffrage

It was only until 1848 in the Western World that the movement for Women's Suffrage began to be organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.  However, Women's Suffrage was not seen until the early 20th century with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920.



Soon after the French Revolution ended, in 1918, Crystal Eastman wrote an article called the Birth Control Review in which she extensively discusses the topic of Birth Control and discussing how women should be allowed to have birth control. “In short, if feminism, conscious and bold and intelligent, leads the demand, it will be supported by the secret eagerness of all women to control the size of their families, and a suffrage state should make short work of repealing these old laws that stand in the way of birth control.”  This truly sparked a movement within both the dance world and within societal movements.

Ladies Home Journal

Beginning in the issue of November 1909, writers for the Ladies Home Journal, sparked by the Women's Suffrage Movement, began to write articles about the depression associated with being married.  There is one passage by writer Connie Davis in which she states that "Marriage isn't fair to women. It isn't an equal relationship... When a woman marries she begins a life sentence of work."