Not a Continuation, but the Creation of a New Cultural Context — An Interview with Choreographer Ola Maciejewska

By Stella Tsai

When the name “Loïe Fuller” first appeared in the world of Ola Maciejewska, she was just fourteen. As a Polish girl who loved to dance — ballet, folk, or modern — what mattered most to her then was the pure thrill that movement brought to her body, rather than the weight of history or theory. “Loïe Fuller” was merely a name in a book — an avant-garde figure, a symbol of modern dance — but not someone Ola truly cared about. She did not even think of her as a dancer yet.

Two decades later, Ola had become a postgraduate dance researcher. Around 2010, modern dance had begun to enter museums and galleries; choreographers were experimenting with objects and interdisciplinary media, exploring new ways of movement and flow. Ola was fascinated by this trend — especially by how movement emerged when objects intervened. Immersed in research, she revisited the intersections of dance and visual art — and once again, the name Loïe Fuller resurfaced.
However, this time, what drew her attention was not Fuller’s defiance of tradition or her pursuit of bodily freedom, but rather the dialogue between dance and what exists beyond the body — fabric, music, light. Ola also noticed that Fuller differed significantly from other dancers of her era: she had already moved beyond the study and mastery of movement itself, reaching outward toward other materials and forms of experimentation.

It was then that Ola received an invitation from the curator of TENT Rotterdam, asking her to create a work responding to the legacy of Loïe Fuller. Her first reaction was— “No way!”

Deconstructing the Illusion, Returning to the Essence of Dance

“At that time, whenever Loïe Fuller was mentioned, I couldn’t help but picture all those swirling skirts and flowing fabrics — and I really didn’t want to dance wrapped in fabric,” Ola recalls with a laugh. Looking back, she admits her first reaction was quite biased. “My interest lies in deconstruction, reinterpretation, and creation — not in reproducing or extending what’s already been done.”

Therefore, she followed her instinct, beginning with deconstruction as the first step of research. Since everyone already knew Loïe Fuller for her spectacular illusions and visual effects, Ola decided to look beyond that surface — to understand Fuller’s creative circumstances and her role within the avant-garde movement of her time. If the world associated Serpentine Dance with images of butterflies, fire, or storms — could one move past those illusions and return to the essence of dance itself? Could one uncover the DNA that Fuller had embedded in her work?

As she delved deeper, Ola realized that this dance was not merely about movement, but about dynamics — a constant state of flow and transformation that extended beyond performance, generating discussions, interpretations, and social exchanges among audiences. She came to see this circulation of understanding, conversation, and shared perception as the true DNA of the piece — a reflection of how collective meaning is formed in society. The outcome of this layered inquiry became the core of Ola’s creation: a dance that invites multiple interpretations and discussions, while fostering an active, fluid process of collective engagement.

Awakening Perception and Opening Interpretation

With her direction set, Ola chose “illusion,” a key concept in Fuller’s practice, as the foundation for her own exploration — but reimagined it in a postmodern way, merging movement with objects. If ballet’s core lies in its axis, then flow is the central axis of Ola’s work. In this piece, the body continuously shifts, transforms, and morphs — it can be one’s own body, another’s, an object, or even an abstract identity. As dancers’ bodies flow and merge, they connect with others, forming a network of relations.

“This doesn’t mean it’s a human body,” Ola emphasizes. “In a sense, humans themselves originate from animals. What I mean is that everyone experiences the world through a body — through embodiment, we connect with other things.” Thus, the “body” in Loïe Fuller: Research becomes a complex, plural, and absorbing entity — capable of embodying multiple forms and identities.

Unlike Loïe Fuller, who was captivated by the play of stage lighting, Ola became more interested in how the human eye perceives things — how much we can see in light and in darkness. In Loïe Fuller: Research, she incorporated this curiosity into the design: from total darkness to gradual illumination, allowing the audience to begin perceiving colors in the dark. Each venue, with its own light conditions, shapes a unique visual experience.

“More than creating something new, I care about developing sensory awareness,” Ola explains. “This work focuses on the body’s practice and discovery.” Through performance, she builds an intense sense of shared presence — a community focusing collectively on a single, embodied event. “When studying Serpentine Dance, I read countless descriptions and interpretations by people of that time. I, too, want to invite audiences to see from their own perspectives, to associate freely, and to express their interpretations openly.”

Creating a New Cultural Context

Loïe Fuller’s emergence sparked feminist discussions and positioned her as a pioneer of her era. For Ola, a century later, feminist thought is naturally part of her work’s DNA — yet she is even more interested in the elusiveness of identity.

“When identity becomes something that can be played with, interpreted, deconstructed, embodied, disembodied, and continuously questioned — rather than something fixed — that’s precisely what I believe the body can best express,” she says. Over time, Loïe Fuller: Research has evolved through multiple versions and spaces. It explores materiality, sculptural form, and the connection between dance and visual art — while also engaging with the body’s fluidity and the multiplicity of identity. Since its premiere in 2011, the piece has toured widely. Ola laughs, recalling, “At first, people talked only about Loïe Fuller — not about me. They thought I was reviving her. But now, almost fifteen years later, audiences understand that this work isn’t a reenactment of Fuller, but a reinterpretation — a deconstruction and a creation of a new cultural context.”

Loïe Fuller: Research functions like a living archive — one artist inspiring another, continually raising questions about contemporary dance, individuality, and the relationship between body and society. Like a trail of breadcrumbs, it continues to illuminate Ola Maciejewska’s artistic path, leading toward new interpretations and moments of brilliance.