Maryhill Museum of Art

News Release

June 4, 2008

Immediate Release

Media Contact: Leslie Wetherell

35 Maryhill Museum Drive

Goldendale, WA 98620

509-773-3733

leslie@maryhillmuseum.org

Maryhill Museum of Art Celebrates
Modern Dance Pioneer Loïe Fuller June 21
Day-long festival to feature performances, scholarly presentations & hands-on art

On Saturday, June 21 Maryhill Museum of Art will present a day-long dance festival in honor of one of its founders, modern dance pioneer Loïe Fuller (pronounced low-ee). Daytime activities are scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Maryhill Museum of Art. An evening performance will be held at 7:00 p.m. at The Dalles-Wahtonka High School. 

 "Dancing with Loïe" will take place at Maryhill Museum of Art from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will include performances by regional and nationally known dance companies, as well as scholarly presentations illuminating the work and life of Loïe Fuller. Hands-on art activities for all ages will explore printmaking techniques popular with artists during the Art Nouveau period. Portland artist and dancer Alisa Looney will lead children in Loïe inspired dances beside her sculpture " Roll and Play"  exhibited this year in Maryhill's Outdoor Sculpture Invitational. Daytime festival activities are free for children ages 6-16, with one adult admission to Maryhill Museum.

A culminating evening program, to be held at 7:00 p.m. at The Dalles-Wahtonka High School (220 East 10th Street, The Dalles, Oregon), will feature performances by critically acclaimed New York-based Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance, whose work is inspired by and gives a postmodern twist to the mesmerizing spectacles of Loïe Fuller's dances. Tickets for "An Evening With Loïe" are $7 for Maryhill Museum members and $10 for non-members.  Museum members need to purchase their tickets through the museum to receive the discount.  General admission tickets may be purchased through the museum at (509) 773-3733, at Klindts Booksellers (315 E. 2nd Street, The Dalles, Oregon; 541-296-3355) or Waucoma Book Store (212 Oak Street, Hood River, Oregon  541-386-5353).  

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

Presentations & Performances
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Maryhill Museum of Art
Free with admission to the museum

Noted dance scholars, authors and performers will illuminate the life and work of Loïe Fuller (1862-1928), an influential and celebrated performer who created unique art forms melding fabric, motion and light. Presenters and performers will include:

Ann Cooper Albright, author of Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loïe Fuller,

Jessica Lindberg, creator of the DVD Loïe Fuller in The Light Fantastic, will be speaking and performing,

The Portland Ballet is performing Reverie: A Tribute to Loïe Fuller choreographed by Carol Schuts and followed by Flower Festival Pas de Deux choreographed by Auguste Bournonville,

and Maranee Sanders and Company, performing a reinterpretation of Fuller's Butterfly Dance and other works.   

Family Fun Day Program--All About Loïe Fuller
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Maryhill Museum of Art

Free for Children ages 6-16 with one adult admission

Loïe Fuller was a favorite subject of the great printmakers of France -- from Jules Chéret to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -- and their printed images made her famous throughout the world. A hands-on activity for families will allow participants to explore her life and times through dance and art. Participants are invited to experiment with the moves found in Fuller's dances led by Portland artist and dancer, Alisa Looney. The museum will provide the music and costumes. Then drawing on this experience, participants can create and print their own image of Fuller. 

"An Evening with Loïe"
7:00 p.m. at The Dalles-Wahtonka High School Auditorium
(220 East 10th Street, The Dalles, Oregon)
General Admission is $10/Museum Members $7

Maryhill Museum of Art presents Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance in performances of the critically acclaimed La Nuit, Dance of the Elements, and the preview of a new work, Ghosts, all inspired by the mesmerizing spectacles of Loïe Fuller's dances. Time Lapse Dance gives a postmodern twist to vintage genres, and features original scores by Quentin Chiappetta as well as costumes and lighting by award-winning designers Michele Ferranti and David Ferri. Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance has performed its smart, funny, seductive and gorgeous works worldwide. 

LOIE FULLER & HER CONNECTION TO MARYHILL MUSEUM OF ART

Loïe Fuller (1862-1928) was one of her era's most influential and celebrated performers, creating unique art forms that melded fabric, motion and light and captured the imagination of fin de siècle Paris. She was a favorite subject of artists such as Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and in many ways she became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau. Her artistic influence extended to dance and the visual arts, as well as lighting design, stagecraft and cinema; her popularity and success later paved the way for many modern dancers, including Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan and Ruth St. Denis.  A permanent exhibit about Loïe Fuller is on view in the Judy Carlson Kelley and Family Gallery and includes posters, photographs, glasswork and memorabilia from her 35-year career as a performer. 

Loïe Fuller was also a close friend of Sam Hill; it was she who persuaded Hill to transform his mansion into a museum of art and her influence on the museum is evident even today. Through her close connections with well known artists in France, Fuller helped Hill obtain an impressive collection, including the more than 80 works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin that are housed at Maryhill Museum of Art.

SPONSORS

The day-long festival in honor of Loïe Fuller is sponsored by the Dorothea M. Lensch Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, The Walter Bailey Foundation, and Judy and Martin Kelley with contributing support by The Comfort Inn, The Dalles. 

BIOS OF FESTIVAL PRESENTERS AND PERFORMERS

Ann Cooper Albright is a performer, choreographer, feminist scholar, professor of dance and theater, and the Chair of the Gender and Women's Studies program at Oberlin College.  Her newest book is Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loïe Fuller.  Ms. Albright is also the founding director of Girls in Motion, an after school program for middle school girls, and co-director of Accelerated Motion: Towards a New Dance Literacy in America, a teaching initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and NITLE. She wrote Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance, and was co-editor of Moving History/Dancing Cultures, and Taken By Surprise: Improvisation in Dance and Mind. 

Jessica Lindberg's dance career includes the Martha Graham School, the Oona Haaranen Dance Company and teaching at CHILDANCE. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance with a minor in English Literature from Southern Methodist University and an MFA in Directing from Score from Ohio State University. She is also a certified teacher of Labanotation. In 2003 she presented a reconstruction of Loïe Fuller's Fire Dance; in 2005 it was one of the highlights of the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibition of works by Toulouse Lautrec. In 2004 Ms. Lindberg was commissioned to reconstruct, set and perform Fuller's Night Dance for MOMENTA Dance Company. Lily of the Nile, from Fuller's original 1896 concert, was reconstructed and presented in August of 2007. Ms. Lindberg resides near Austin, TX where she teaches choreography and dance technique at Austin Community College and pursues projects related to Labanotation and dance scholarship.

The Portland Ballet is Portland's premier youth ballet company. Founded in 2003 as the performance arm of the academy, the company performs classical ballets and other professional works. The academy provides more than 150 young dancers comprehensive dance training and performing experience.  

Maranee Sanders is director of Mythobolus Mask Theatre and teaches for Young Audiences and the Collins View Dance & Arts Center in Portland, Oregon. She has been inspired by Loïe Fuller and dance of the Art Nouveau period since she was head of the dance department at Portland State University. Her interpretation of Fuller's Butterfly Dance has been performed from San Francisco to Istanbul and this spring she will present a paper on Fuller at the CID UNESCO International Congress in Turkey.  In 2003 Ms. Sanders received the Dance Coalition Lifetime Achievement award.  Performing with Maranee Sanders at Maryhill are accomplished dancers Toni Anderson, Jehn Benson, Ann Marie Hathaway, Blythe Kirkpatrick, Carol Knutson, Connie Moore, Kirsten Peterson, Rosemary Thornton and Janet Towner. 

Jody Sperling, founder and artistic director of Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance, is a dancer, choreographer and dance scholar based in New York City. Lecturing and performing at colleges, universities, festivals and conferences worldwide, Ms. Sperling has gained an international reputation as an expert on Loïe Fuller and as an interpreter of Fuller's style of dancing. Her interest in Loïe Fuller began in 1997 with The Butterfly Dance, a collaboration with film choreographer and dance historian Elizabeth Aldrich, commissioned by the Library of Congress. Since then she has created five Fuller-inspired solos. 

Experience the Enchantment: About Maryhill Museum of Art.  Perched on a stunning 5,000-acre site overlooking the scenic Columbia River Gorge, Maryhill Museum of Art contains a world-class collection of artwork that ranges from early 20th century European works to Native American objects.  This award-winning museum, founded by Northwest entrepreneur and visionary Sam Hill, opened to the public in 1940.  Outside the museum is an Outdoor Sculpture Garden, Lewis and Clark interpretive panels and a life-sized replica of Stonehenge.

The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 15 to November 15. Admission fees are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $2 for children age 6-16. Maryhill is located off Highway 97, 12 miles south of Goldendale, Washington. Drive times to the museum are 2 hours from Portland/Vancouver, 3.5 hours from Bend, 4 hours from Seattle, and 1.5 hours from Yakima. Visit www.maryhillmuseum.org for more information.

Photography Jody Sperling of Time Lapse Dance of New York.  Photography Julie Lemberger.

For a 300 dpi resolution photo click here.
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