Highlights

giant leaps

Karen Hildebrand — Fjord Review, December 2024

“ . . . The fact that Sperling’s work points to the urgency of the climate crisis doesn’t diminish the pleasure of watching her stunning kinetic sculptures as they shift and change. The performers whirl in billowing silk capes inspired by modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller in a way that conjures a timelapse photograph of a flower bud opening to full blossom. . . .”

PLANTED JOURNAL

August 24, 2023

“When you dance, you stir up air currents while changing the temperature and humidity of the room you are in. I started to think of choreography as involving these changes as much as the human movement itself.” -Jody Sperling

Force of Nature

Karen Hildebrand - Fjord Review, May 2022

“ . . . The dynamic movement and flowing fabric that are signature elements of work by founder and choreographer Jody Sperling deliver a visually gorgeous evening of performance, but there is always a deeper level to discover for those curious about how and why the works exist. “We start with the science,” said composer Matthew Burtner about his collaborations with Sperling . . .”

THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST ASKS: Jody Sperling on 'Ecokinetics,' The Power of Art, and Dancing for Mother Earth

Dance Enthusiast - April 22, 2022

"To see the world in a grain of sand; And heaven in a wild flower; To hold infinity in the palm of your hand; And eternity in an hour." William Blake wrote those lines in 1803, but they could describe the vision of New York choreographer Jody Sperling today . . . .

Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance's “Plastic Harvest” at Amsterdam Eco/Arts Festival

Dance Enthusiast - September 18, 2021

A heap of plastic bags is a common sight on the streets of New York, where the trash overflows every weekend. But buried in these heaps last Saturday were human beings — dancing for their lives.

cbs news feature

CBS News - July 9, 2021

Watch TV interview with choreographer Jody Sperling and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage. (starts at 2:50) “At Time Lapse Dance, we believe that dance can be a driver of social change, and I think that we have seen how much society needs to change over the past year, and so we’re interested in deploying dance to create a more sustainable and a more equitable future.”

Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance
20th Anniversary Season

Dance Tabs - September 2020

Ice Cycle is an unusually beautiful vision suggesting, at times, the effects of global warming, encompassing Sperling’s environmental concerns as well as her choreographic and design mastery. 

Disappearing Act: Technology, Creativity and Climate Empathy in the work of Jody Sperling and Time Lapse Dance

th_Eroses - May 2019

A dancer, with arms that extend beyond her finger tips, uses a slight bend at the waist for momentum and sweeps her arms below the hip and then overhead. In profile, it’s as if the arms move to form an expansive ‘S.’ The ‘S’ marks a path for the billowing silk fabric of the costume to follow behind, as if a ripple in a disturbed puddle. I describe this movement and its accompanying movement vocabulary employed during Time Lapse Dance’s (TLD) “Melting Ice/Changing Wind” as a technology of appearances.

These Choreographers Are Using Dance To Fight For Climate Action

Dance Magazine - July 23, 2018

Jody Sperling's Bringing the Arctic Home, which premiered in 2015, was inspired by her experience accompanying a scientific mission and dancing on Arctic ice. "I felt charged by this very remote place," she says. "It gave me a strong sense of immediacy." Now, she's working on a project about changing wind patterns.

A Film About Loie Fuller’s Art Nouveau Dances

The New Yorker - December 1, 2017

The dances were reimagined, and taught to Soko, by the Fuller expert Jody Sperling. Watching them, I felt I understood for the first time why Fuller became famous. 

If You Care About the Climate, You’ll Want to See Jody Sperling’s New Work

Dance Teacher - June 9, 2017

Tonight Jody Sperling, artistic director of Time Lapse Dance, advocate for the environment and expert on the work of Loie Fuller, brings a new performance installation, Book of Clouds, to Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City.