The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 41, May, 1894: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 41, May, 1894: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
The dancer in private is simply a bonnie, blue-eyed little woman, plain
in her dress, and with a sweet frankness of manner and speech which
render her eminently attractive. Her rooms boast of no costly luxuries,
bric-à-brac, or the thousand and one costly trifles which artistes
usually surround themselves with. One thing attracts you as you enter
the little sitting-room, and that is a bust of her, by the great
sculptor Hussin; in her boudoir are also several miniature models of
stages, and it is by all sorts of experiments on these that Miss Fuller
is enabled to judge of the effect of any new dance and lighting. At the
conclusion of your visit you could not help feeling that you had been
privileged to meet not only a great artiste, but also a good woman,
against whose reputation a censorious and jealous world has never
dared to breathe a word.
Needless to say, a host of imitators has arisen, some of whom, not
content with pirating her dances, have tried to copy her dresses and
even to use her name. The complicated lighting apparatus which attracts
so much admiration is managed by the dancer's brothers, who practise
every day with her, and as she is always inventing new dances, their
work is no sinecure.
[Illustration: THE MIRROR DANCE.
_From a Drawing._]
One of her greatest successes has been the "Mirror Dance," in which,
by some mysterious arrangement, eight Löie Fullers appear to be
dancing at the same time, and the whole stage is bathed in a flood
of glorious tints, in which may be seen aerial forms, in cloudlike
vestures, whirling and dancing as if they were the fabled victims of
the Tarantula; the whole forming an artistic spectacular effect that
the world has never seen equalled.
There is only one sad note in the whole history of the clever little
dancer--that is, her delicate health, and more especially the paralysis
of the arms with which she once or twice has been threatened. She works
very hard, and has to train as severely as any jockey. Short as her
performances are, they are very fatiguing and a great physical strain.
[Illustration: _From a Photo by Riders, Chicago._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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