Isadora Duncan
Encyclopedia
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance
. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union
from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe.
Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France when she was passenger in an Amilcar
, and her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.
and Raymond Duncan
; her older sister was Elizabeth Duncan. Their parents were Joseph Charles Duncan (1819–1898), a banker, mining engineer and connoisseur of the arts, and Mary Isadora Gray (1849–1922). Soon after Isadora's birth, her father lost the bank and he was publicly disgraced. Her parents were divorced by 1880 (the papers were lost in the San Francisco earthquake), and her mother Dora moved with her family to Oakland
. She worked there as a pianist and music teacher. In her early years, Duncan did attend school but, finding it to be constricting to her individuality, she dropped out. As her family were very poor, both she and her sister gave dance classes to local children to earn extra money.
In 1895 Duncan became part of Augustin Daly
's theater company in New York. She soon became disillusioned with the form. In 1899 she decided to move to Europe, first to London
and then a year later, to Paris
. Within two years she achieved both notoriety and success.
Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in the 1898 sinking of the British passenger steamer SS Mohegan
.
Montparnasse
's developing Bohemian
environment did not suit her. In 1909 Duncan moved to two large apartments at 5 rue Danton, where she lived on the ground floor and used the first floor for her dance school. She rejected traditional ballet steps to stress improvisation
, emotion and the human form. Duncan believed that classical ballet
, with its strict rules of posture and formation, was "ugly and against nature"; she gained a wide following that allowed her to set up a school to teach.
Duncan became so famous that she inspired artists and authors to create sculpture, jewelry, poetry, novels, photographs, watercolors, prints and paintings of her. When the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
was built in 1913, her likeness was carved in its bas-relief over the entrance by sculptor Antoine Bourdelle
and included in painted murals of the nine muses by Maurice Denis
in the auditorium.
In 1916 Duncan traveled to Brazil
and performed at Rio de Janeiro
's Theatro Municipal in August and at São Paulo
's Teatro Municipal on September 2, 3 and 5 with pianist Maurice Dumesnil. Writer and journalist Paulo Barreto, known as João do Rio
, claimed to have seen her dance "naked" in the forest of Tijuca
, in front of Rio's most famous waterfall
..
In 1922 she acted on her sympathy for the social and political revolution in the new Soviet Union
and moved to Moscow
. She cut a striking figure in the increasingly austere post-revolution capital, but her international prominence brought welcome attention to the new regime's artistic and cultural ferment. The Russian government's failure to follow through on extravagant promises of support for Duncan's work, combined with the country's spartan living conditions, sent her back to the West in 1924.
Throughout her career Duncan did not like the commercial aspects of public performance, regarding touring, contracts and other practicalities as distractions from her real mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young. A gifted, if unconventional pedagogue, she was the founder of three schools dedicated to teaching her dance philosophy to groups of young girls (a brief effort to include boys was unsuccessful). The first, in Grunewald
, Germany, gave rise to her most celebrated troupe of pupils, dubbed the Isadorables
, who took her surname and subsequently performed both with Duncan and independently. The second school was short lived prior to World War I
at a château outside Paris. She founded the third while in Moscow in the wake of the Russian Revolution
.
Duncan's teaching and her pupils caused her both pride and anguish. Her sister, Elizabeth Duncan, took over the German school and adapted it to the Teutonic philosophy of her German husband. The Isadorables were subject to ongoing hectoring from Duncan over their willingness to perform commercially; Lisa Duncan was permanently ostracized for performing in nightclubs. The most notable of the group, Irma Duncan, remained in the Soviet Union
after Isadora Duncan's departure. She ran the school there, angering her mentor Duncan by allowing students to perform in public and commercial venues.
Both in her professional and private lives, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality. She was bisexual. She alluded to her Communism
during her last United States tour, in 1922-23; Duncan waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston
, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!".
Duncan bore two children, both out of wedlock—the first, Deirdre (born September 24, 1906), by theatre designer Gordon Craig
, and the second, Patrick (born May 1, 1910), by Paris Singer, one of the many sons of sewing machine
magnate Isaac Singer
. Both children died in an accident on the Seine
River on April 19, 1913. The children were in the car with their nurse, returning home after lunch with Isadora and Paris Singer. The driver stalled the car while attempting to avoid a collision with another car. He got out to hand-crank the engine, but forgot to set the parking brake. The car rolled across the Boulevard Bourdon, down the embankment and into the river. The children and the nanny drowned.
Following the accident, Duncan spent several months recuperating in Corfu
with her brother and sister. After this, she spent several weeks at the Viareggio
seaside resort with actress Eleonora Duse
. The fact that Duse was just coming out of a relationship with rebellious young lesbian feminist Lina Poletti
fueled speculation as to the nature of Duncan and Duse's relationship, but there has never been definite proof that the two were involved romantically. In her autobiography, Duncan relates that she begged a young Italian stranger — the sculptor Romano Romanelli
— to sleep with her because of her desperation to have another baby. She did become pregnant after the deaths of her elder two children. She gave birth to a son, who lived only a few hours and was never named.
In 1922 she married the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin
, who was 18 years her junior. Yesenin accompanied her on a tour of Europe and the United States; his alcoholism resulted in drunken rages, with repeated destruction of furniture of their hotel rooms, bringing Duncan negative publicity. The following year he left Duncan and returned to Moscow, where he soon was placed in a mental institution. Released from the hospital, he allegedly committed suicide on December 28, 1925, aged 30.
She had a lengthy and passionate affair with female poet Mercedes de Acosta
. Duncan and de Acosta wrote regularly in often revealing letters of correspondence. In one from 1927, Duncan wrote: (quoted by Hugo Vickers in "Loving Garbo") "...A slender body, hands soft and white, for the service of my delight, two sprouting breasts round and sweet, invite my hungry mouth to eat, from whence two nipples firm and pink, persuade my thirsty soul to drink, and lower still a secret place where I'd fain hide my loving face...." In another letter to de Acosta she wrote: "Mercedes, lead me with your little strong hands and I will follow you—to the top of a mountain. To the end of the world. Wherever you wish." Isadora, June 28, 1926. De Acosta had once proclaimed that from the moment she first saw Isadora Duncan, she looked upon her as a great genius, and was taken by her completely.
recalled how she and her husband
sat in a Paris cafe watching a somewhat drunk Duncan. He would speak of how memorable it was, but what Zelda recalled was that while all eyes were watching Duncan, Zelda was able to steal the salt and pepper shakers from the table.
In her book Isadora, an Intimate Portrait, Sewell Stokes
, who met Duncan in the last years of her life, describes her extravagant waywardness. Duncan's autobiography
My Life was published in 1927. Composer Percy Grainger
called Isadora's autobiography a "life-enriching masterpiece."
Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in an automobile accident in Nice
, France, at the age of 50. The scarf was hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov.
On the night of September 14, 1927, Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar
automobile of a handsome French-Italian mechanic Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti" (sic). Before getting into the car, she reportedly said to her friend Mary Desti and some companions, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" (Goodbye, my friends. I go to glory!). However, according to American novelist Glenway Wescott
, who was in Nice
at the time and visited Duncan's body in the morgue, Desti admitted that she had lied about Duncan's last words. Instead, she told Wescott, Duncan said, "Je vais à l'amour" (I am off to love). Desti considered this embarrassing, as it suggested that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a tryst.
When Falchetto drove off, Duncan's large silk scarf, a gift from Desti, draped around her neck, became entangled around one of the vehicle's open-spoked wheels and rear axle. As The New York Times
noted in its obituary: "Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice, Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement." Other sources described her death as resulting from strangulation, noting that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein
's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous." At her death, Duncan was a Soviet
citizen. Her will was the first of a Soviet citizen to be probate
d in the U.S.
Isadora Duncan was cremated, and her ashes were placed next to those of her beloved children in the columbarium
at Père Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris. The headstone of her grave contains the inscription in French: "The Paris Opera Ballet School."
Today the incorrect notion still persists that when Isadora died, her dancing died with her. It is, however, through the dancers in her school and performing companies throughout the world that Duncan's art continues today as a classic but living contribution to the world of dance, reaching far beyond her own lifetime, affecting the very core of today's perception of dance.
A very important lineage for the perpetuation of Duncan's work has been moved forward through Anna Duncan and Irma Duncan, two of the six adopted artistic daughters of Isadora. This coaching and repertory has been passed, with its integrity fully intact, to third generation Duncan dancer Lori Belilove whose direct lineage and prestigious performing career have earned her an international reputation as the premier interpreter and ambassador of the dance of Isadora Duncan. She founded The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation in 1979 and The Isadora Duncan Dance Company in 1989. The Company is the premiere Duncan Company performing in the world today and has performed to national and international acclaim in dance festivals around the world and in such prestigious New York venues as the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, Whitney Museum of American Art
's Equitable Series, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall
, Duke Theater on 42nd Street, Judson Dance Theater and Symphony Space. Photographs and articles of the Isadora Duncan Dance Company have appeared in numerous international dance publications and periodicals including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Dance Magazine, Time Out, Backstage, Ballet Internationale, Korean Times, Dancar Magazine (Brazil), Dance Magazine Australia, The Greek-American, and the book, Dance Photos, published by Dance Ink, as well as a photo layout in Fitness Magazine. The Foundation and Company's performances, master classes, workshops, and teacher training certifications enable children, college students and professional dancers to truly experience the purity, timelessness, authentic phrasing, and musicality that has been passed down to Lori Belilove and so to her dancers through the direct line of Isadora Duncan's legacy.
Duncan's insistence on more natural movement than that performed in ballet, along with the use of unrestricted costumes and utilization of emotional expression were highly influential on other dancers. While her schools in Europe did not survive for long, her work had impact in the art and her style is still danced by a new generation of loyal followers based on the instruction of Maria-Theresa Duncan, the last of the Isadorables. Maria-Theresa co-founded the Isadora Duncan International Institute (IDII) in New York in 1977. She personally passed on the original choreography to one of her pupils, Jeanne Bresciani, who is now the artistic director and director of education of the Institute. Although Maria-Theresa died in 1987, IDII continues to educate and instruct in the original choreography, style and techniques of Isadora Duncan through the tutelage of Bresciani. Graduates of the IDII certification programs also perform Duncan's choreography and hold classes in the Duncan technique.
The famous poet and writer Carl Sandburg
in his poem Isadora Duncan wrote: "The wind? I am the wind. The sea and the moon? I am the sea and the moon. Tears, pain, love, bird-flights? I am all of them. I dance what I am. Sin, prayer, flight, the light that never was on land or sea? I dance what I am."
Duncan was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame
in 1987.
, starring Vanessa Redgrave
. Vivian Pickles
played her in Ken Russell's 1966 biopic for the BBC
, which was subtitled 'The Biggest Dancer in the World'
and introduced by Duncan's biographer, Sewell Stokes
.
Most notably, Duncan was the subject of a ballet
, Isadora, written and choreographed
in 1981 by the Royal Ballet's Kenneth MacMillan
, and performed at Covent Garden
. When She Danced, a stage play about Duncan's later years by Martin Sherman
, won the 1991 Evening Standard Award
(best actress) for Vanessa Redgrave
. A Hungarian musical based on this play was produced in Budapest
in 2008.
Robert Calvert
recorded a song about Duncan on his Revenge LP. The song is called "Isadora". Salsa
diva Celia Cruz
sang a song titled "Isadora" in Duncan's honor. Finnish musician Juice Leskinen
recorded a song called "Isadora Duncan". Russian singer Alexander Malinin recorded a song about the death of Isadora Duncan. Russian band Leningrad
have a song about her on their Pulya (Bullet) album. American post-hardcore group Burden of a Day
has a song titled, "Isadora Duncan" on their 2009 album OneOneThousand.
The children's gothic book series, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
, includes a set of fraternal triplets named Isadora, Duncan, and Quigley Quagmire.
And Then There's Maude
, the theme song to the 1970s American TV sitcom Maude
contains a reference to Duncan with the line "Isadora was a bra burner."
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe.
Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France when she was passenger in an Amilcar
Amilcar
The Amilcar was a French automobile manufactured from 1921 to 1940.The first offering was a small cyclecar; designed by Jules Salomon and Edmond Moyet, it bore a striking resemblance to the pre-war Le Zèbre. Next was the 903cc CC, which was available in two further versions; the CS was a sport...
, and her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.
Early life
Angela Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, California, the youngest of four siblings. Her older brothers were Augustin DuncanAugustin Duncan
Augustin Duncan was a U.S. actor and director active in New York and London during the entire first half of the 20th century.- Biography :...
and Raymond Duncan
Raymond Duncan
Raymond Duncan was an American dancer, artist, poet, craftsman, and philosopher, and brother of dancer Isadora Duncan.-Biography:...
; her older sister was Elizabeth Duncan. Their parents were Joseph Charles Duncan (1819–1898), a banker, mining engineer and connoisseur of the arts, and Mary Isadora Gray (1849–1922). Soon after Isadora's birth, her father lost the bank and he was publicly disgraced. Her parents were divorced by 1880 (the papers were lost in the San Francisco earthquake), and her mother Dora moved with her family to Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. She worked there as a pianist and music teacher. In her early years, Duncan did attend school but, finding it to be constricting to her individuality, she dropped out. As her family were very poor, both she and her sister gave dance classes to local children to earn extra money.
In 1895 Duncan became part of Augustin Daly
Augustin Daly
John Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
's theater company in New York. She soon became disillusioned with the form. In 1899 she decided to move to Europe, first to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and then a year later, to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Within two years she achieved both notoriety and success.
Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in the 1898 sinking of the British passenger steamer SS Mohegan
SS Mohegan
The SS Mohegan was a steamer which sank off the coast of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. She hit The Manacles on 14 October 1898.-Design and construction:...
.
Career
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
's developing Bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
environment did not suit her. In 1909 Duncan moved to two large apartments at 5 rue Danton, where she lived on the ground floor and used the first floor for her dance school. She rejected traditional ballet steps to stress improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, emotion and the human form. Duncan believed that classical ballet
Classical ballet
Classical Ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles, it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as Russian ballet, French ballet, British ballet and Italian ballet...
, with its strict rules of posture and formation, was "ugly and against nature"; she gained a wide following that allowed her to set up a school to teach.
Duncan became so famous that she inspired artists and authors to create sculpture, jewelry, poetry, novels, photographs, watercolors, prints and paintings of her. When the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....
was built in 1913, her likeness was carved in its bas-relief over the entrance by sculptor Antoine Bourdelle
Antoine Bourdelle
Antoine Bourdelle , originally Émile Antoine Bourdelle, was an influential and prolific French sculptor, painter, and teacher.-Career:...
and included in painted murals of the nine muses by Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
in the auditorium.
In 1916 Duncan traveled to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and performed at Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
's Theatro Municipal in August and at São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
's Teatro Municipal on September 2, 3 and 5 with pianist Maurice Dumesnil. Writer and journalist Paulo Barreto, known as João do Rio
João do Rio
João do Rio was the pseudonym of the Brazilian journalist, short-story writer and playwright João Paulo Emilio Cristóvão dos Santos Coelho Barreto, a Brazilian author and journalist of African descent...
, claimed to have seen her dance "naked" in the forest of Tijuca
Tijuca
Tijuca is a neighbourhood of the Northern Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It comprises the region of Saens Peña and Afonso Pena squares. According to the 2000 Census, the district has close to 150,000 inhabitants...
, in front of Rio's most famous waterfall
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
..
In 1922 she acted on her sympathy for the social and political revolution in the new Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. She cut a striking figure in the increasingly austere post-revolution capital, but her international prominence brought welcome attention to the new regime's artistic and cultural ferment. The Russian government's failure to follow through on extravagant promises of support for Duncan's work, combined with the country's spartan living conditions, sent her back to the West in 1924.
Throughout her career Duncan did not like the commercial aspects of public performance, regarding touring, contracts and other practicalities as distractions from her real mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young. A gifted, if unconventional pedagogue, she was the founder of three schools dedicated to teaching her dance philosophy to groups of young girls (a brief effort to include boys was unsuccessful). The first, in Grunewald
Grunewald
Grunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...
, Germany, gave rise to her most celebrated troupe of pupils, dubbed the Isadorables
Isadorables
The Isadorables as named by a French Poet, Fernand Divoire, in 1909, was a group of six young girls who danced under the instruction of Isadora Duncan. Their names were Anna Denzler, Maria-Theresa Kruger, Irma Erich-Grimme, Elizabeth Milker, Margot Jehl, and Erica Lohmann, but they were later...
, who took her surname and subsequently performed both with Duncan and independently. The second school was short lived prior to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
at a château outside Paris. She founded the third while in Moscow in the wake of the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
.
Duncan's teaching and her pupils caused her both pride and anguish. Her sister, Elizabeth Duncan, took over the German school and adapted it to the Teutonic philosophy of her German husband. The Isadorables were subject to ongoing hectoring from Duncan over their willingness to perform commercially; Lisa Duncan was permanently ostracized for performing in nightclubs. The most notable of the group, Irma Duncan, remained in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after Isadora Duncan's departure. She ran the school there, angering her mentor Duncan by allowing students to perform in public and commercial venues.
Personal life
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
during her last United States tour, in 1922-23; Duncan waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!".
Duncan bore two children, both out of wedlock—the first, Deirdre (born September 24, 1906), by theatre designer Gordon Craig
Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Henry Gordon Craig , sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings...
, and the second, Patrick (born May 1, 1910), by Paris Singer, one of the many sons of sewing machine
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
magnate Isaac Singer
Isaac Singer
Isaac Merritt Singer was an inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company...
. Both children died in an accident on the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
River on April 19, 1913. The children were in the car with their nurse, returning home after lunch with Isadora and Paris Singer. The driver stalled the car while attempting to avoid a collision with another car. He got out to hand-crank the engine, but forgot to set the parking brake. The car rolled across the Boulevard Bourdon, down the embankment and into the river. The children and the nanny drowned.
Following the accident, Duncan spent several months recuperating in Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
with her brother and sister. After this, she spent several weeks at the Viareggio
Viareggio
Viareggio is a city and comune located in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 64,000 it is the main centre of the northern Tuscan Riviera known as Versilia, and the second largest city within the Province of Lucca.It is known as a seaside resort...
seaside resort with actress Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Duse
-Life and career:Duse was born in Vigevano, Lombardy, and began acting as a child. Both her father and her grandfather were actors, and she joined the troupe at age four. Due to poverty, she initially worked continually, traveling from city to city with whichever troupe her family was currently...
. The fact that Duse was just coming out of a relationship with rebellious young lesbian feminist Lina Poletti
Lina Poletti
Lina Poletti , born Cordula Lina Poletti, was an Italian feminist, often described as being beautiful and rebellious, prone to wear men's clothing, and who is best known today for her lesbian affairs with writer Sibilla Aleramo and actress Eleonora Duse...
fueled speculation as to the nature of Duncan and Duse's relationship, but there has never been definite proof that the two were involved romantically. In her autobiography, Duncan relates that she begged a young Italian stranger — the sculptor Romano Romanelli
Romano Romanelli
Romano Romanelli was an Italian sculptor.Romanelli was born in Florence, the son of sculptor Raffaello Romanelli, who created works such as the "Monument to Garibaldi" for Siena, in a vigorously impressionistic 'verist' style...
— to sleep with her because of her desperation to have another baby. She did become pregnant after the deaths of her elder two children. She gave birth to a son, who lived only a few hours and was never named.
In 1922 she married the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin
Sergei Yesenin
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was a Russian lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30...
, who was 18 years her junior. Yesenin accompanied her on a tour of Europe and the United States; his alcoholism resulted in drunken rages, with repeated destruction of furniture of their hotel rooms, bringing Duncan negative publicity. The following year he left Duncan and returned to Moscow, where he soon was placed in a mental institution. Released from the hospital, he allegedly committed suicide on December 28, 1925, aged 30.
She had a lengthy and passionate affair with female poet Mercedes de Acosta
Mercedes de Acosta
Mercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, and socialite, best known for her numerous lesbian affairs with Hollywood personalities including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Katharine Cornell, Ona Munson, Adele Astaire and, allegedly,...
. Duncan and de Acosta wrote regularly in often revealing letters of correspondence. In one from 1927, Duncan wrote: (quoted by Hugo Vickers in "Loving Garbo") "...A slender body, hands soft and white, for the service of my delight, two sprouting breasts round and sweet, invite my hungry mouth to eat, from whence two nipples firm and pink, persuade my thirsty soul to drink, and lower still a secret place where I'd fain hide my loving face...." In another letter to de Acosta she wrote: "Mercedes, lead me with your little strong hands and I will follow you—to the top of a mountain. To the end of the world. Wherever you wish." Isadora, June 28, 1926. De Acosta had once proclaimed that from the moment she first saw Isadora Duncan, she looked upon her as a great genius, and was taken by her completely.
Later life
By the end of her life Duncan's performing career had dwindled and she became as notorious for her financial woes, scandalous love life and all-too-frequent public drunkenness as for her contributions to the arts. She spent her final years moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels. She spent short periods in apartments rented on her behalf by a decreasing number of friends and supporters, many of whom attempted to assist her in writing an autobiography. They hoped it might be sufficiently successful to support her. In a reminiscent sketch, Zelda FitzgeraldZelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald , born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper"...
recalled how she and her husband
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
sat in a Paris cafe watching a somewhat drunk Duncan. He would speak of how memorable it was, but what Zelda recalled was that while all eyes were watching Duncan, Zelda was able to steal the salt and pepper shakers from the table.
In her book Isadora, an Intimate Portrait, Sewell Stokes
Sewell Stokes
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years...
, who met Duncan in the last years of her life, describes her extravagant waywardness. Duncan's autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
My Life was published in 1927. Composer Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
called Isadora's autobiography a "life-enriching masterpiece."
Death
Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in an automobile accident in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, France, at the age of 50. The scarf was hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov.
On the night of September 14, 1927, Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar
Amilcar
The Amilcar was a French automobile manufactured from 1921 to 1940.The first offering was a small cyclecar; designed by Jules Salomon and Edmond Moyet, it bore a striking resemblance to the pre-war Le Zèbre. Next was the 903cc CC, which was available in two further versions; the CS was a sport...
automobile of a handsome French-Italian mechanic Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti" (sic). Before getting into the car, she reportedly said to her friend Mary Desti and some companions, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" (Goodbye, my friends. I go to glory!). However, according to American novelist Glenway Wescott
Glenway Wescott
Glenway Wescott was a major American novelist during the 1920-1940 period and a figure in the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s. Wescott was gay. His relationship with longtime companion Monroe Wheeler lasted from 1919 until Wescott's death.-Biography:Wescott was...
, who was in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
at the time and visited Duncan's body in the morgue, Desti admitted that she had lied about Duncan's last words. Instead, she told Wescott, Duncan said, "Je vais à l'amour" (I am off to love). Desti considered this embarrassing, as it suggested that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a tryst.
When Falchetto drove off, Duncan's large silk scarf, a gift from Desti, draped around her neck, became entangled around one of the vehicle's open-spoked wheels and rear axle. As The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted in its obituary: "Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice, Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement." Other sources described her death as resulting from strangulation, noting that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous." At her death, Duncan was a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
citizen. Her will was the first of a Soviet citizen to be probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
d in the U.S.
Isadora Duncan was cremated, and her ashes were placed next to those of her beloved children in the columbarium
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
in Paris. The headstone of her grave contains the inscription in French: "The Paris Opera Ballet School."
Legacy
Virtually single-handedly, Isadora restored dance to a high place among the arts. Breaking with convention, Isadora traced the art of dance back to its roots as a sacred art. She developed within this idea, free and natural movements inspired by the classical Greek arts, folk dances, social dances, nature and natural forces as well as an approach to the new American athleticism which included skipping, running, jumping, leaping and tossing. With free-flowing costumes, bare feet and loose hair, Duncan restored dancing to a new vitality using the solar plexus and the torso as the generating force for all movements to follow. Her celebrated simplicity was oceanic in depth and Isadora is credited with inventing what later came to be known as Modern Dance.Today the incorrect notion still persists that when Isadora died, her dancing died with her. It is, however, through the dancers in her school and performing companies throughout the world that Duncan's art continues today as a classic but living contribution to the world of dance, reaching far beyond her own lifetime, affecting the very core of today's perception of dance.
A very important lineage for the perpetuation of Duncan's work has been moved forward through Anna Duncan and Irma Duncan, two of the six adopted artistic daughters of Isadora. This coaching and repertory has been passed, with its integrity fully intact, to third generation Duncan dancer Lori Belilove whose direct lineage and prestigious performing career have earned her an international reputation as the premier interpreter and ambassador of the dance of Isadora Duncan. She founded The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation in 1979 and The Isadora Duncan Dance Company in 1989. The Company is the premiere Duncan Company performing in the world today and has performed to national and international acclaim in dance festivals around the world and in such prestigious New York venues as the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
's Equitable Series, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, Duke Theater on 42nd Street, Judson Dance Theater and Symphony Space. Photographs and articles of the Isadora Duncan Dance Company have appeared in numerous international dance publications and periodicals including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Dance Magazine, Time Out, Backstage, Ballet Internationale, Korean Times, Dancar Magazine (Brazil), Dance Magazine Australia, The Greek-American, and the book, Dance Photos, published by Dance Ink, as well as a photo layout in Fitness Magazine. The Foundation and Company's performances, master classes, workshops, and teacher training certifications enable children, college students and professional dancers to truly experience the purity, timelessness, authentic phrasing, and musicality that has been passed down to Lori Belilove and so to her dancers through the direct line of Isadora Duncan's legacy.
Duncan's insistence on more natural movement than that performed in ballet, along with the use of unrestricted costumes and utilization of emotional expression were highly influential on other dancers. While her schools in Europe did not survive for long, her work had impact in the art and her style is still danced by a new generation of loyal followers based on the instruction of Maria-Theresa Duncan, the last of the Isadorables. Maria-Theresa co-founded the Isadora Duncan International Institute (IDII) in New York in 1977. She personally passed on the original choreography to one of her pupils, Jeanne Bresciani, who is now the artistic director and director of education of the Institute. Although Maria-Theresa died in 1987, IDII continues to educate and instruct in the original choreography, style and techniques of Isadora Duncan through the tutelage of Bresciani. Graduates of the IDII certification programs also perform Duncan's choreography and hold classes in the Duncan technique.
The famous poet and writer Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
in his poem Isadora Duncan wrote: "The wind? I am the wind. The sea and the moon? I am the sea and the moon. Tears, pain, love, bird-flights? I am all of them. I dance what I am. Sin, prayer, flight, the light that never was on land or sea? I dance what I am."
Duncan was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame
National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame, in the Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga, New York, was established in 1986 and is the only museum in the nation dedicated entirely to dance. It contains photographs, videos, artifacts, costumes and biographies. The museum is located in the former and...
in 1987.
In popular culture
Isadora Duncan's life has been portrayed most notably in the 1968 film, IsadoraIsadora
Isadora is a 1968 biographical film which tells the story of celebrated American dancer Isadora Duncan. It stars Vanessa Redgrave, James Fox and Jason Robards....
, starring Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
. Vivian Pickles
Vivian Pickles
Vivian Pickles , is an English actress.She began her career as a child star after being chosen by Mary Field for a series of Saturday Morning children's films, including the lead roles in Jean's Plan and the serial The Adventures of Peter Joe...
played her in Ken Russell's 1966 biopic for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, which was subtitled 'The Biggest Dancer in the World'
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World, was a BBC TV film based on the life of the American dancer Isadora Duncan first broadcast on 22 September 1966. The film was written by Sewell Stokes and the director Ken Russell and starred Vivian Pickles and Peter Bowles.Sewell Stokes became...
and introduced by Duncan's biographer, Sewell Stokes
Sewell Stokes
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years...
.
Most notably, Duncan was the subject of a ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, Isadora, written and choreographed
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
in 1981 by the Royal Ballet's Kenneth MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
, and performed at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. When She Danced, a stage play about Duncan's later years by Martin Sherman
Martin Sherman
Martin Sherman is an American dramatist and screenwriter, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent , which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust...
, won the 1991 Evening Standard Award
Evening Standard Awards
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December...
(best actress) for Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
. A Hungarian musical based on this play was produced in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in 2008.
Robert Calvert
Robert Calvert
Robert Calvert was a writer, poet, and musician.-Biography:Born Robert Newton Calvert in Pretoria, South Africa, Calvert's parents moved to England when he was two years of age and later attended school in London and Margate. He began his career by writing poetry and in 1967 formed a Street...
recorded a song about Duncan on his Revenge LP. The song is called "Isadora". Salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
diva Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
sang a song titled "Isadora" in Duncan's honor. Finnish musician Juice Leskinen
Juice Leskinen
Juhani Juice Leskinen , better known as Juice Leskinen , was one of the most prominent Finnish singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. From the early 1970s onward he released nearly 30 full-length albums, as well as writing song lyrics for dozens of Finnish artists...
recorded a song called "Isadora Duncan". Russian singer Alexander Malinin recorded a song about the death of Isadora Duncan. Russian band Leningrad
Leningrad (band)
Leningrad , also known as Gruppirovka Leningrad and Bandformirovanie Leningrad , is a popular Russian ska punk band from Saint Petersburg , led by Sergey "Shnur" Shnurov....
have a song about her on their Pulya (Bullet) album. American post-hardcore group Burden of a Day
Burden of a Day
Burden of a Day was a Christian post-hardcore band from Sarasota, Florida, formed in January 2000. They were formally signed to Rise Records before their breakup. Some of their influences include the likes of Thrice, The Bled, All That Remains. They recently had their last show in Sarasota on March 6...
has a song titled, "Isadora Duncan" on their 2009 album OneOneThousand.
The children's gothic book series, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
, includes a set of fraternal triplets named Isadora, Duncan, and Quigley Quagmire.
And Then There's Maude
And Then There's Maude
"And Then There's Maude " is the theme song for the television series Maude , written by Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Dave Grusin, and performed by Donny Hathaway....
, the theme song to the 1970s American TV sitcom Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
contains a reference to Duncan with the line "Isadora was a bra burner."
Literature
- My Life by Isadora Duncan. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1927. OCLC 738636
- The Art of the Dance by Isadora Duncan / pref. par Sheldon Cheney. New York: Theater Arts, 1928. 147 pages. Edited, with an introduction by Sheldon Cheney. ISBN 0-87830-005-8
- Isadora, an Intimate Portrait by Sewell Stokes. New York: Brentanno's Ltd, 1928.
- The Technique of Isadora Duncan by Irma Duncan. Illustrated. Photographs by Hans V. Briesex. Posed by Isadora, Irma and the Duncan pupils. Printed in Austria by Karl Piller, Wien VIII, 1937. ISBN 0-87127-028-5
- Life Into Art. Isadora Duncan and Her World. Edited by Doraee Duncan, Carol Pratl, and Cynthia Splatt. Foreword by Agnes de MilleAgnes de MilleAgnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...
. Text by Cynthia Splatt. Hardcover. 199 pages. W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. ISBN 0-39303-507-7 - Duncan Dance: A Guide for Young People Ages Six to Sixteen by Julia Levien (with illustrations by the author from life and memory). “A Dance Horizons book”. 1994. ISBN 0-87127-198-2
- Anna Duncan: In the footsteps of Isadora (Ilsadoras fotspar) by Anna Duncan. Stockholm: Dansmuseet, 1995. ISBN 91-630-3782-3
- Isadora: A Sensational Life by Peter Kurth. Little Brown, 2001. ISBN 0316507261
- Maria Theresa: Divine Being, Guided by a Higher Order (The Adopted Daughter of Isadora Duncan) by Pamela De Fina. 2003. Pittsburgh: Dorrance. ISBN 0-8059-4960-7
- Isadora & Elizabeth Duncan in Germany; edited by Frank-Manuel Peter. Cologne: Wienand Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-87909-645-7
- Isadora Duncan, in Narrate, uomini, la vostra storia by Alberto SavinioAlberto SavinioAlberto Savinio, real name Andrea Francesco Alberto de Chirico was an Italian writer, painter, musician, journalist, essayist, playwright, set designer and composer. He was the younger brother of 'metaphysical' painter Giorgio De Chirico...
, Bompiani,1942, Adelphi, 1984.
External links
- Three famous photographs of Isadora Duncan
- isadoraNOW Foundation
- Dances By Isadora, Inc.
- Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, Inc.
- Isadora Duncan's Web Links
- Isadora Duncan International Institute, Inc.
- Isadora Duncan Dance Group (London/Paris)
- Modern Duncan biographer, Peter Kurth's Isadora Duncan page
- Image Galleries @ NYPL & Library of Congress
- Isadora Duncan Archiv, a German web site.
- Place where she lived during her childhood (map)
- Isadora Duncan Heritage Society Japan
- 1921 passport photo , Isadora Duncan
- Archive film of Anna Duncan dancing a piece by Isadora Duncan in 1942 at Jacob's Pillow