Alicia Markova & Loie Fuller - Dance bringing light to life

Dance is one of the ways art brings light into people's lives. Here are two examples of visionary artists illuminating the stage in entirely different ways.

Dame Alicia Markova was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. Her stage debut in 1920 at the age of 10 was in a Christmas production of pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat. The performance featured here is Solo and Pas de Deux form "The Nutcracker". Dame Alicia Markova died on 2nd December 2004, one day after her 94th birthday.

Loie (or Louie) Fuller was a pioneer, both of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Born in 1862 she was an early free dance practitioner, developing her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. In 1892 she became one of the first of many American modern dancers who travelled to Europe to seek recognition. In Paris she became one of the leading revolutionaries in the arts and and was often identified with Symbolism. She was one of the era's most influential and celebrated performers and died on 1st January 1928. There is no recording of Fuller performing her famous serpentine dance but this silent tinted film from 1905 gives a flavour of what it would have looked like.