EE Rough Draft
“How did Isadora Duncan find the sources of inspiration that allowed her to form such a unique choreographic style?”
May 25th, 2017
Isadora Duncan was the dance rebel of her time, San Francisco born in 1877 ( Stokes, Sewell. “Isadora Duncan.”) into a very artistic family. Her father was a man named Joseph Charles Duncan. He was a banker and mining engineer as well as a lover and master of the arts (Stokes, Sewell. “Isadora Duncan.”).Her mother was a lady named Mary Isadora Gray who taught piano lessons. Isadora was the youngest of four siblings (Who is Isadora Duncan?). Soon after her birth Isadora Duncan’s lovely music and dance filled life took a turn for the worse. Duncan's father lost his job in the bank, and further was publicly humiliated. The family became very poor and things worsened, even more, when her parents divorced by 1880 (Stokes, Sewell. “Isadora Duncan.”). Now, in a partially impoverished family and her parents divorcing when she was just an infant she still managed to grow up to be one of the most influential dancers to mainly contemporary, but also lyrical and modern dance. She has now earned herself the nickname; “The Mother of Modern Dance”( Voa. “Isadora Duncan, 1877-1927). Isadora Duncan changed the rules of dance. She liked to perform barefoot and was sometimes known as “the barefoot dancer” ("Dancing the Future, Performing the Past: Isadora Duncan and Wagnerism in the American Imagination.") she danced with bare legs as well, this was considered wrong and absurd back then. She worked hard to diminish and break the rules of classical dance. She believed heavily that ballet dance wasn’t beautiful because it was “unnatural” and not expressive. Her goal and philosophy were to bring the art of dancing back to its original form of being a natural, free, raw, organic and authentic way to express yourself through movement.Duncan’s passion for dance was ignited in her childhood, her mother being a lover of the arts signed her up for a few ballet classes. Shortly after Isadora started dancing she declared ballet as a school of “affected grace and toe walking” (Udall, Sharyn Rohlfsen). By the age of nine, Isadora and her older sister were offering dance classes to the local kids in an attempt to make extra money. Isadora had a special gift, she inspired so many children to love dance because she thought them a more valuable part of dance than just technique. She taught her students valuable lessons by showing them through her passionate belief; that dance can serve as an art form for yourself, an outlet for self-expression, She showed them that dance can be something really meaningful. Isadora Duncan had a unique personality for her time. This created a very interesting, tragic and controversial life. Through this Essay, I will look at how Isadora Duncan found the sources of inspiration that allowed her to create such a unique choreographic style that was very advanced and ahead of her time.
At age 19 Isadora started her professional career in Chicago. After a while of dancing at the Masonic temple roof garden, she met a man named Augustin Dally and joined his theater company, called the Dally company and toured with them in England in 1897. During her time touring in England with the Daly company she was also performing as a solo artist at many society functions around London. Finally after two years of this Isadora could take no more of the commercialized dancing and left. Isadora's time with the Daly company wasn’t long but it had an impact, both on her views and values in dance, and what was to come in her future. This experience allowed Isadora to make connections in England and get her name known. Being with the Daly company also would have made Isadora realize how much she disliked conforming to the dance industry. This experience would’ve sparked the fire underneath her to create change. She wanted something different for dance. Her experience with the Daly company was what really got her going to do what she was always meant to do which was creating change in dancing.
Isadora's exit from the Daly company only played out to be a chance to encounter with Ethelbert Nevin, the composer, that could have changed Duncan’s fortunes. Isadora, entranced and moved by his music, Especially “Narcissus”, “Ophelia” and “Water-Nymphs,” was inspired by his beautiful music and performed for him her dance interpretations of his compositions that she had developed a liking to. He was Mesmerized by Duncan’s enchanting dancing. Inspired by her movement Nevin arranged a concert for her in the Music Room of Carnegie Hall. The concert was a great success and engagements followed in the drawing rooms of rich New York society, attendees including Mrs. Astor, whose guests included the Vanderbilts, Belmonts and Harry Lehr. This was a huge opportunity for Isadora and started the portion of her life and her career in New York City. but It wasn’t long before she became dissatisfied dancing in front of an audience that she believed did not properly appreciate or understand her ‘art’. After this dissatisfaction, which led to the decision to leave New York behind. Isadora never became very popular in the United States. It was only until later on in her life and following her death that she became known in the United States. Americans did not appreciate her diversification and creativity. Tempted by the idea of all the famous writers and painters of London, Isadora decided that, yet again, penniless, London would indeed be her next stop.
Isadora was much more fit to the more developed and artistically open society and culture of Europe as it fit her personality much more than the less developed, newer, American societies and cultures ever would be able to. Feeling the Draw to Europe, Isadora, Mischievously, of course, got together enough money, which at the time was 300$, to pay for the family to go cattle-boat to London. Duncan says in her autobiography that in the amazement and delight of being in London and with their sightseeing at the British Museum, in where she fell in love with the Greek sculptures and studied them closely as well as Westminster Abbey, Kew Gardens, and many more, they simply ‘forgot’ about their limited resources. From this statement, we can see that Isadora Duncan was a free spirit. She was able to appreciate the beauty of life and embrace what the world had to offer. She could always find joy and happiness even in the hardest of times through alternative forms rather than focusing on materialistic Phenomenon.
While in London Isadora met Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a lovely woman who helped Isadora to get back on her feet. She was an English stage Actress. Mrs. Patrick Campbell had seen Isadora and her brother dancing in Kensington square gardens. Mrs. Patrick Campbell aided Isadora by introducing her to Charles Hallé. Charles Hallé was a director of the New Gallery which had a beautiful central court and lovely fountain where Isadora could dance outside and in front of a well known and well-respected audience. Isadora’s fame grew from here, newspapers loved her. Following this burst of fame, she was presented to the Prince of Wales and her financial status improved enough to rent a small house in Kensington Square.
As for the family at this point Isadora’s sister Elizabeth, with the promise of work in America, had returned to New York and Raymond, her brother, restless in London, left for Paris.
Isadora and her mother soon followed. They rented a studio in Rue de la Gaîté for 50 francs a month. In Paris, Isadora's life was beautiful, full of inspiration and life. Raymond and Isadora rose at 5 am daily and began the day dancing in the Luxembourg Gardens before walking miles around Paris and spending hours in the Louvre.Although Isadora’s fame was spreading through Paris, her financial situation was always unpredictable and unsteady. Soon to come was the arrival of Loie Fuller to her studio was much more than fortuitous.
Loie Fuller was an American dancer, famous for her sinuous Serpentine Dance, who like Duncan did not feel appreciated in America and encouraged by her warm reception in Paris became a regular dancer at the Folies Bergère. Fuller became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement, Toulouse Lautrec painted her, Rodin and Marie Curie numbered but a few of her admirers. Loie Fuller invited Duncan to join her in Berlin and tour Europe with her dance troupe. Duncan proved a huge success every place she appeared on her European tour with Fuller and finally, she had a sum of money in her bank that she believed was ‘inexhaustible’.
After collecting money and gaining fame from her European tour with Loie fuller the next chapter of Duncan’s scattered life took off. In 1904 With the family all back together, they traveled to Greece. Greece was a place Isadora admired, she loved the aesthetics of the Greeks. So once she had sufficient amounts of money she took off to do what her heart told her and bought a lot of empty, barren land outside Hymettus, mainly because it was on the same level as the Acropolis. Isadora loved the Parthenon and found it certain beauty and magic within the site that she wasn’t able to find anywhere else. By then they were all decked out in ancient Greek attire, tunics, and sandals with fillets around their hair, to the incomprehension of the locals. Raymond, Isadora's brother designed a temple and when the first cornerstone was laid, they engaged a priest to offer a black cock as a sacrifice, spilling its blood on the cornerstone and chanting incantations. The intention was never to leave Greece and never leave their temple and to dance freely, for no audience or money at the temple and stay there forever. This would be Isadora’s dream, Surrounded by the sources she took inspiration from, like the Greek sculptures and immersed in the environment of greek like and with nature all around her which inspired her. No audience or critics to worry about, just dancing for herself and for her own pleasure.
The whole dream of an idea played out to be a financial disaster, But despite this Duncan vowed this year in Greece was her best ever, Isadora was fully in her element while in Greece, it's where she belongs, free and able to dance within nature, with inspiration all around her. Although the temple was never finished she didn't care about this, she cared about the experience she had in Greece and the inspiration she was able to collect from the time she passed there and the experiences she had while living there. But yet, as the pattern of Isadora's wildlife took a course, yet another of her marvelous ideas were crushed and the unfinished temple project had quite easily depleted her ‘inexhaustible’ bank account. Sadora was very impulsive and didn't always take into consideration the repercussions of her actions. Isadora Traveled and lived so many places because of her daring heart and personality, she wanted to follow her dreams so she just did it, she didn't care or really think about anything else. Never thought about anything logistically because she was so carried away and distracted by her passion for beauty, nature, and dance, she couldn't contain her draw towards inspiration everywhere and infatuation with so many little things. To dance made her feel free, dancing liberated her from the chains of her struggles. Her rebellious nature allowed for and created a personality of an influential choreographer.
Back In Berlin, Isadora met Gordon Craig, the first of the series of partners she had. One of the many controversial at the time beliefs Isadora had was, against marriage. Because she was against marriage Isadora had several partners. Gordon Craig being the first of the series of more serious “partners” because she couldn't call them husbands. He was the son of Ellen Terry, a very famous Shakespearean actress. Isadora soon became pregnant with Gordon Craig's child, giving birth in 1906 to a daughter, who Gordon wished to be named Deirdre. Now leaving Craig, Returning to Paris and heading back out to pursue her longed-for dream of her own dancing school, Duncan took two large apartments in le Rue Danton. Money problems still plagued Duncan and half in jest she longed for a millionaire. Paris Singer (son of Isaac Singer, the sewing machine magnate) appeared almost on cue. Yachts, rich living and a son she named Patrick were all short lived. Her relationship with Singer ended when he became frustrated with her because she refused to marry him, along with a small affair with the pianist Singer had hired for Isadora to dance in accompaniment with, singer became fed up with Isadora’s attitude and stubborn ways, and that was the end of their relationship, but a far greater tragedy was to befall her. Her two children, with their nurse returning from Neuilly to Versailles, were in their car when it ran out of control and into the Seine. Both children drowned. Deirdre, only 7 years old and the son Patrick, only 3 years old. It is doubtful whether Duncan ever recovered from this, damaged and depressed, desperate for another child to fill her sorrows. She begged a man named Romano Romelli, an Italian sculptor to give her a child. She became pregnant but the child, a son, died shortly afterward, only making matters worse. Isadora's life was spiraling out of control and things were only going downhill from here, there was only more tragedy to follow for Duncan.
In 1921, Duncan went to Moscow and against her strongly rooted morals Married. She married a younger man, his name was Sergei Yesenin, a renowned poet, 18 years younger than herself, he was 27, she was 43. The marriage lasted barely a year. After accompanying Duncan on a tour of Europe and the US, Yesenin left her. In 1925, he was found dead in St Petersberg, an apparent suicide. After this, it is presumed that Duncan felt pretty lost in her life due to the death of her children, the suicide of her first husband who she had broken her moral promise to herself by marrying and previous splits from her partners. After this period of her life, Duncan did some weird things, she took Soviet citizenship and developed a fervent belief in communism. Duncan had lost herself.
In later years, Duncan, now plumper and with the inevitable money problems, became notorious for her scandalous affairs, financial situation and public drunkenness. Duncan at the time she was alive didn't really have a great reputation. She was different from other women who were a lot more reserved. She was very opinionated and stood up for what she believed in and this made her an outcast, especially in her time. A lady was supposed to be very reserved and conform to the social norms. They were expected to act and look a certain way. In her later life when she became an adult she was notorious for her scandalous love life, public drunkenness and financial issues this shows that her life was very hard and she did not fall under the expectation of the social norms and expectations a woman and a dancer especially were expected to fall under. People, mostly in America wouldn’t take her work seriously and didn't appreciate her work because they weren't able to overlook her modern, well ahead of her time personality. She was an absolute outcast for her time and I believe this is what lead her to create such a great legacy for herself now, by rebelling and doing things differently. She really took a chance by doing what she did in her time. It took a very long time for Duncan to gain the respect of people for her work. She took а huge risk by acting the way she did and her personality is what reflects the most on how her dance career became so influential, essentially forming modern and contemporary dance, overall Isadora's attitudes and behaviour show that she was not afraid of people's judgement and wanted to live life in a different way than what was expected of her by society.
Isadora Duncan was very religious at one time of her life and her dance style can be traced back to her religious values. One of her quotes, a phrase that perfectly embodies this philosophy is “ a god dances through me” (“A God Dances through Me”). Many people who had the pleasure of seeing her dance said that it was like God was there with her when she danced she embodied freedom and spirituality. She moved with such peace and freedom. A Sculptor, José Clara had said once after she had seen Isadora perform in Paris that “when she appeared we all had this feeling that God – this is to say certainty, simplicity, grandeur, and harmony – that God was present.” She awakened or recreated all the fervours of the ideal and of art; the finest dreams and highest visions were born and unfolded through the magic of her movements” (“A God Dances through Me”). Her dancing style is very much influenced and formed by her religion. Her dance style is based on free-spiritedness, natural movements, and greek inspired looks. she is passionate about the expression of yourself rather than telling a set story like in classical ballet. Physically her dancing consisted of a lot of skipping, running, leaping, tossing, twirling and jumping. The Duncan technique, when performed incorrectly, can often look like bad Ballet dancing. This is why Duncan dancing often has had and still has a negative connotation among highly trained dancers. In the modern-day teaching of the Isadora Duncan style, it is essential to try to stay true to the athleticism and strength that Isadora incorporated into her movement, as well as the romantic and soft elements, or else the purpose will be lost and the dance style and message will not be communicated properly.
Isadora had the ability to create a dance that was authentic. The theory of dance was only established in the 1930s. This is when dance became a form of entertainment for the public and when choreographic processes were formed. So back when Isadora Duncan was dancing there were no set, generic steps or rules for everyone to follow in order to “choreograph” a dance, it was just plain, raw, natural dancing and everyone did it in their own way. As for Isadora, her process was very unique, she was patient and waited for inspiration to strike her so that every movement was sparked by something meaningful. Every movement had intent. She says in her book “I spent long days, and nights in the studio seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body’s movement. For hours I would stand quite still, my two hands folded between my breasts, covering the solar plexus. I was seeking and finally discovered the central spring of all movement, the crater of motor power, the unity from which all diversities of movements are born, the mirror of vision for the creation of dance” although Duncan was a dancer, and what we would recognize nowadays as a choreographer, she never calls herself a choreographer, because how Isadora danced and created “finding” movements. Her unique style stems from her process, finding an element to “call her forth” and carry her away into her frenzy of dancing, when she found this element to take her into this creative state she was able to then be in a place where she could just dance without thinking, letting the music and inspirations that stuck with her carry her away into what seemed like a different world, she would leave reality for the time being and return to life when the music stopped, it’s like a power took her over while she was dancing. And she was able to achieve this through her patience and her belief that authentic movement would come to her, she would wait, a small figure on a huge opera house stage Duncan “evoked a fullness and presence that radiated out of her open arms and chest into the cavernous theater.” she would stand in stillness waiting for the music to inspire her motion, creating suspense and curiosity in her audience. Isadora Duncan had a very great awareness of space that influenced her style, she was able to enter a different world when she danced, but still be aware of the space she had around her so that she could, see it, feel it and sculpt it. Many dancers are not able to do something referred to in the performing arts called “breaking the third wall” and “breaking the fourth wall” many dancers fail to do this because they don't have a good sense of space, they stay within their own physical reach space. Another factor that takes away from the quality of dancers nowadays is that they fail to be in the moment when they dance because they are thinking too much about the choreography. They are dancing with only themselves and the mirror rather than dancing with their surroundings. There is an absence of physical awareness. Anything that is interactive with the three-dimensional space outside of the body seems to be a foreign concept for most dancers these days. Dancing today is a lot more technical and people aren't able to deliver a unique, powerful performance because they are so focused on perfect technique which is very hard to achieve with the advanced movements in today's dance choreographies. Isadora, however, was able to do all these things dancers seem to not be able to nowadays because she didn't have a set dance that she was performing. She had nothing to perfect, nothing to distract her because her movements were authentic and came from the spirit, she wasn't focused on her technique, although this is often a huge criticism that the Isadora Duncan style gets, but this is what allowed her to deliver her dances in such a captivating way, this is what allowed her to be unique.
Through my experience in dance I have learned and been told that honesty in choreography is essential, a choreographer must ask themselves “what is it I want to portray, what do I believe in, and what do I want to say”. Isadora believed in the body as a manifestation of the spirit. Isadora danced her beliefs. She felt that dance should be an expression of the dancers soul – this one comes from her spirituality, Women should dance their true identity – this one springs from her feminist views, she believed that the human body is “natural” not shameful and she believed that the natural world is a source of inspiration these two come from her free-spirited personality and peace of mind. The painting “Primavera” (spring) painted in 1482 by Sandro Botticelli hung in Isadora's childhood home. Critics have said that she looks like she has just stepped straight out of a Botticelli painting. This shows that from a very young age Isadora was able to recognize and appreciate the beauty in everything surrounding her and she was able to pull inspiration from her surroundings. Isadora's dancing can be described as “pastoral” she was inspired by spirituality and nature.When she danced she didn't have a set, practiced routine that she was planning on performing. Her dancing was very improvised, this way, to her it was more authentic to what she wanted to communicate and what she was feeling and that exact moment that she was dancing. Due to her unique ways of creating her dances many people have said that it wasn’t her moves that were interesting, but her performance that really drew people in, tied everything together, and set her above the par compared to the rest. Dance is an art that is unique in its medium, and with this Isadora believed that the body was the key to the soul and spirit and how she could express her soul and spirit and show people what that looked like through her dancing. Isadora said “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it” () .this meaning that dance, in some cases can be a much more powerful form of communication than words.
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