Electric Salome: Loie Fuller's Performance of Modernism Paperback - 2009

From the rear cover

"In Electric Salome, Rhonda Garelick persuasively makes the case that Loie Fuller was central to the transition to modernism in politics, theater, modern dance, and neoclassical ballet. In elegant, often witty, always evocative prose, Garelick shows that Fuller's relative obscurity is the consequence not of her lack of originality, but of a role so strange and so individual that it has resisted the fluid narratives of social and artistic history. This brilliant book will correct those impoverished records."--Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award and author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

"Garelick's extraordinarily astute analysis of Loie Fuller, surely one of the richest performers of her age, draws on insights from postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis, feminism, the history of science, queer studies, as well as the history of modern drama and dance, to unveil a Fuller we have never seen before. Electric Salome is a great read and a wonderfully layered contribution to dance and performance studies."--Peggy Phelan, Stanford University

"Electric Salome represents an important and provocative revision in modernist performance historiography. Garelick demonstrates convincingly Loie Fuller's standing as a liminal figure, refashioning classical ballet within a modernist frame, and as an undervalued influence, technically and aesthetically, on early modern dance and theater. Equally significant is Garelick's compelling analysis of Fuller's engagement with the latest trends in psychology, science, imperialist politics, and the business of art. Visually rich as well as broadly informed, Electric Salome provides new vistas for modernist studies."--J. Ellen Gainor, Cornell University

"Garelick's splendidly detailed rendition of the odd triumphs and legacy of Loie Fuller and her technologized body is as electric as were La Loie's performances: here are lots of hands clapping for this performance also."--Mary Ann Caws, author of The Eye in the Text and The Surrealist Look