LOIE
(is a fire that cannot be extinguished)
(c) Hanna Fasching
(c) Hanna Fasching
(c) Hanna Fasching
(c) Hanna Fasching
In this lecture-performance, Claire Lefèvre juxtaposes archival research with intimate storytelling to shine a light on systematic erasures within dance history. Looking at her own embodied archive through the prism of her encounters with Loie Fuller over the years, she oscillates between crush and crash. Questioning her performance lineage with care, critique, and suspicion, she unveils the straightened and white-washed legacy of modern dance. One anecdote after another, she sheds layers of (her) choreographic history which have shaped the way she moves through the world and on a stage. The audience is invited to learn more about the entanglements between modern dance, white queerness, and the colonial project through an accompanying publication. A gathering of footnotes, poems, and reading recommendations, the text further situates Loie Fuller’s flamboyant campiness within the electricity crazed colonial context in which she lived and worked.
I remember learning about Loie Fuller in dance history classes: she was one of the ‘mothers of modern dance,’ up there with Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan. She revolutionised theatre lighting, and after moving to Paris in the 1890’s, she became famous worldwide for her hypnotising dances, in which she twirled with illuminated fabrics to transform herself into butterflies, snakes, and flowers. Every teacher mentioned how important she was for the field, but no one ever told me she was a lesbian. Or that she was a colonial poster child.
Claire Lefèvre
Claire Lefèvre is a femme choreographer, insomniac writer, and reality TV enthusiast. In her stage works, she likes to think of herself as a hostess with the mostest, welcoming collaborators and audience members into kitsch landscapes where politics and poetics are gently interwoven. Her work with text spans from stand-up comedy to grant applications, flirting with queer feminist theory or performance criticism. She also works as a ghost writer, mostly for the spectral appeal of the job title.
Concept and performance Claire Lefèvre Stage design Sophie Utikal Video Maanila Santos De Moraes Sound Zosia Hołubowska Lighting Klimentina Milenova Hristova Dramaturgay Sunanda Mesquita Outside eyes Elizabeth Ward, Mzamo Nondlwana Styling mirabella paidamwoyo* dziruni Production mollusca productions Graphic design Ju Aichinger Copy editing Kenneth Constance Loe German translation and wifing Ari Ban
A co-production by C.A.K.E. Verein für Kunst und Kultur and brut Wien.
With the kind support of the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
Thanks to Tanzfabrik Berlin, Anne Juren, Fred Gies, Gavin Youngs, Steffo Sourial, Irina Glinski, Veza Fernández, Cati Mistler, Eike Wittrock and Evandro Pedroni.
Claire Lefèvre is a femme choreographer, insomniac writer, and reality TV enthusiast. In her stage works, she likes to think of herself as a hostess with the mostest, welcoming collaborators and audience members into kitsch landscapes where politics and poetics are gently interwoven. Her work with text spans from stand-up comedy to grant applications, flirting with queer feminist theory or performance criticism. She also works as a ghost writer, mostly for the spectral appeal of the job title.