Loie Fuller (1862-1928) was a dancer who performed throughout the United States and Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Her dances used light, color, space, and movement in a manner that had not been seen prior to her performances. Considering her inventive achievements in movement, Fuller should have a prominent place in the narrative of modern dance and performance. However, this is not the case. Most of the studies that have been conducted on Fuller's work categorize her either as a technical contributor to the theatrical fields of costuming and lighting, or as someone who influenced other dancers.
In this thesis, I suggest that Fuller is not merely a forerunner to, but an early practitioner of modern dance. Fuller's movement is unique because of her marriage of space, body and inner life, spirit and emotion. She combines and uses these three elements in a prescient way that rejects the formal embodiment of classical dance, specifically ballet.
I argue that Fuller was a modern dancer because of the way she employed space, body, and inner life in her movements. In order to examine the way in which she used space, body, and inner life I examine her through three different lenses. First, I use Symbolism as a lens through which to examine how the Symbolists and Fuller used space to represent interior emotion and spirit. Second, I use Rudolf Laban's theories and techniques regarding the movement of the body as a lens to investigate the bodily movement of Fuller. Third, I use the acting method developed by François Delsarte as a lens to analyze Fuller's ideas regarding the embodiment of spirit and emotion in movement. Ultimately, I argue that the fusion of space, body, inner life, color, light, and fabric present in her performances was a coalescence that was uniquely Fuller and ultimately an expression of modern movement.