Abstract In this article, the writer discusses that the name Isadora Duncan stands for freedom of spirit and its universality. She is considered the founder of modern dance philosophy. The writer notes that due to her, among others, at the beginning of the twentieth century, dance became an academic object of study. The writer maintains that it is clear and beyond any doubt that Isadora Duncan brought innovations in the technique of the dance, but furthermore she also changed the role dance played in people's lives all over the world. The writer concludes that one may not have heard about Isadora Duncan, but people all over the world enjoy watching people dance on stage or dancing themselves on the ring dance without knowing that they owe some part of their pleasure to such pioneers as Isadora.
From the Paper "She lived a tumultuous life, always on the verge, like her dance. She had two unofficial relationships and one child from each of them. She was also married for a short period of time to the Russian poet, Serghei Esenin. Her life was full of terribly tragic, but also happy moments. She made life achievements, founded a dance school that brought her legacy to the next generations and changed dance forever. She danced as she lived: free of any restraints and ready to confront old mentalities and break the rules. She set an example for the women at the beginning of the twentieth century. She dared to go over the limits set by the narrow minded and brought her understanding of art and her talent all over Europe and the USA. She freed dance from the ritualism and the rigid form imposed by ballet and made it regain its natural roots, finding inspiration in the Greek forms of art among others. Nature itself was another of the important sources of inspiration in her work."
Abstract Based on the film "Isadora", this paper describes the life and dancing tradition promoted by Isadora Duncan. The paper highlights her non-conformist position in art and life.
Abstract This paper looks at the life of Isadora Duncan, a pioneer in modern dance. It discusses her early life, personal life and education. The paper then addresses how her dance style was influenced by various elements such as Greek influence and American culture. It looks at Duncan's education and how this impacted her art. The paper concludes with the status of Duncan's dance style today and the existance of the Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble.
From the Paper "Isadora Duncan is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern dance as it is known today. Since childhood she had loved poetry, beauty and rhythm. She had a large amount of practical common sense juxtaposed with a dreaming quality, inherited from her father. As her childhood was marked by poverty, Duncan hated reality, and was a rebel (Dickson, 2001). This was all worsened by her parents? divorce and her mother's insistence that her father was practically subhuman. Furthermore Isadora's mother disavowed their faith and accepted atheism. The child's confusion was heightened by the fact that when she met her father, he was a charming, lovable man. This resulted in the fact that Isadora never lost her contempt for the institution of marriage as she had grown up with it."
Abstract This paper reviews the life of the artist, dancer and teacher Isadora Duncan born in 1878 and discusses her contribution to American dance. It examines how Isadora Duncan is largely credited with establishing what we now know as modern dance and how she infused the accepted dance modalities of her day with ideas old and new. It analyzes how Duncan's attitudes and approaches came from her native America and how these ideas involved a stress upon unfettered athleticism for both men and women. Duncan wished to develop the body's capacity for jumping, stretching and expressing emotions rather than pure excellence and form in isolation.
From the Paper "Thus, although she lived and traveled extensively in Europe, it is important to remember Duncan's origins in the United States and subsequent influence upon American dance's cavalier attitude towards formulaic traditions. ?Born in 1878 in San Francisco, Isadora Duncan grew up in a childhood filled with imagination and art. Her mother introduced her four children (Isadora was youngest) to classical music, as well as Shakespeare, poetry, literature and art. Isadora spent many hours playing and dancing upon the beach, and even taught dance classes to younger children as a way to earn a little extra money for the struggling family. In her teenage years, Isadora traveled to Chicago and New York with some of her family members, working and performing in various productions such as Mme. Pygmalion, Midsummer's Night Dream or vaudeville shows with limited success."
Abstract This paper presents a brief biography of the dancer, Isadora Duncan, as well as a description of her philosophy of the dance form. The paper also discusses her influence on and contribution to modern dance.
From the Paper "Duncan's personal success as a dancer should not diminish what is perhaps her greater contribution, her success as a teacher and a creator of her own tradition. She began her first school in Grunewald, Germany in 1904, selecting children from the poorer classes and providing completely for all their physical and materials need from her own pocket. Later, she established schools in both Russia and Paris. Interestingly enough, these schools are proudly proclaimed as providing an unbroken legacy of tradition with their founders. ?The existence of Isadora's dances lies in the transmission of the choreographies from one dancer to another in an unbroken line of generations of Duncan dancers,? writes Lori Belivoe in the periodical and press release of the foundation that bears Isadora's name. (Belivoe, Isadora Duncan Foundation for Contemporary Dance, "Isadora Duncan Legacy and Schools") Duncan's indefinable, inexact balance between classicism and personal, inner artistic poetic expression manifested in dance thus became a "tradition" in and of itself."
Abstract This paper looks at the life and works of dancer Isadora Duncan. It explains that Duncan was unknown as a classical ballerina, in which she trained, but became famous once her style changed into a free modern style, which became her trademark. The paper discusses how Duncan's free style impacted the modern dance industry today.
From the Paper "At twenty, she arrived in London, having studied classical ballet in New York. She stayed in London one year, acted and danced in such plays as Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" but she was restless, fame eluded her (she had then, and later, always expected that her every movement would win her applause and stardom). She started to learn about and love everything Greek. No wonder that, when she arrived in Paris, she utilized her version of a Greek dancing outfit: bare legs, a diaphanous long skirt, and grand gestures that defied the "classical" tradition. Her words were often as outrageous as her dancing. "Dance is a religion and should have its worshippers." (Terry, p. 27)."
Abstract This paper discusses Isadora Duncan's book "My Life" and her life in relationship to 'Section I' of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of the Open Road", which Duncan professes to be her favorite poem, probably because it reveals Duncan's specific philosophies of freedom and dance. The author points out that, in her life as a mother, a lover and a wife and her work as a dancer, who developed modern dance, Duncan broke away from conventional views seeking freedom from social and professional taboos and constraints.
The paper stresses that nature is Duncan's source of technique and dance content in which she expresses unbound freedom through her use of arms and upper body movements combined with simple steps, a style which Duncan intended to be the divine expression through the body of the human spirit.
From the Paper "The fourth stanza in "Open Road" moves on to a depiction of nature, as well as acceptance. The sufficiency that he finds in nature feeds the poet's freedom. Isadora Duncan finds in the freedom of nature the freedom of her inner expression. She was born at the seaside: "...I have noticed that all the great events of my life have taken place by the sea. My first idea of movement, of the dance, certainly came from the rhythm of the waves." Thus the freedom and movement that make up the radical free-form dance style that was Duncan's invention, are profoundly inspired by the sea. Again, the restriction placed upon her by the public school is sharply juxtaposed by the afternoons when she danced and played next to the sea. Duncan is also much influenced by the stars and astrology."
Compares portrayals of women's social, personal & artistic roles in dancer's autobiography & feminist writer's polemic in the two works "My Life" by Isadora Duncan & "Sexual Politics" by Kate Millet.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 2 sources, 1996, $ 47.95
From the Paper "Isadora Duncan led a remarkable life that was atypical for women, even in modern society. Duncan eschewed conventions concerning motherhood and marriage, and travelled the world in her quest to perfect her art--the dance. Duncan exhibited both similarities and dissimilarities to Kate Millett's description of women in Sexual Politics.
Millett (1970) blames the patriarchal bias of society for the subordination of women, the family unit serving as the foundation of such beliefs. In her estimation, "Serving as an agent of the larger society, the family not only encourages its own members to adjust and conform, but acts as a unit in the government of the patriarchal state which rules its citizens through its family heads" (Millett, 1970, p. 33). Isadora Duncan's rebellion against traditional female roles perhaps..."
Abstract This paper examines how European and American theatrical dance had always centered on ballet until the early 20th century, when it became fashionable in dance circles to rebel against the strictures of tradition. It looks at how modern dance, which resembles modern art and music in that it is experimental and iconoclastic, developed primarily in the United States and Germany. It discusses how, in the beginning, modern dance was often misunderstood by audiences and how, by the 1950s, modern dance was firmly established in the dance world. It also shows how modern dance is said to be based on the four principles of substance, dynamism, metakinesis, and form, and how, due to the creative efforts of the modern dance pioneers, dancers today use a broader range of techniques, styles, and source materials than ever before.
From the Paper "The first American dancers to break from classical ballet were Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis (Modern pp). Although their styles differed, their unconventional approaches opened the door to a new era in dance history, namely the American modern dance movement of the 1920's (Modern pp). Those involved in this movement based their works on personal experience, using their bodies as instruments to express emotions such as passion, fear, grief or joy (Modern pp). The dancer created form as an outgrowth of his or her own communicative impulses, rather than adhering to the set form and limited range of gestures of ballet (Modern pp)."
