Isadora duncan
Dora Angela Duncan, known as Isadora Duncan, was born May 27, 1877, in San Francisco. Duncan is considered to be the leading pioneer in early modern dance, dancing in a spontaneous way never seen before in the professional realm. Due to a troubled and unstable early personal live, Duncan taught local dance lessons from a young age, and dropped out of the 6th grade. Determined to pursue the arts, she joined Augustin Daly's company in New York. Duncan felt restricted by the hierarchy of the theatre that placed directors on a pedestal higher than the actors themselves, and left the company after only two years. Similarly, experiences with ballet would have restricted her creativity and left Duncan feeling unfulfilled by the strict ideas of form presented to her. After this, Duncan would preform at private parties and functions with her innovative ideas. Though evolving, her work always rebelled against the pictorial standards of performance in her time.
Duncan sought to remove the additions of elaborate stages, costumes and choreography to focus on portraying an idea or subject as simply as possible. Oftentimes this reduced the production to her sole form onstage. By using mainly the body to portray the setting, subject, events or idea of a performance, it is broken down to the mastering form and movement and space. Also, Duncan danced to illustrate; moving to the verses of poetry or song. Rather than choreographing moves to a piece of music, Duncan would memorize the piece and draw upon instinct and spontaneity for her work. To remove elaborate costumes, Duncan only preformed in simple garments, choosing lightweight pieces that highlighted free movement, though scandalous in their time. After traveling extensively through Europe, Duncan opened a studio in Soviet Russia, as the social movement seemed to parallel her spiritual ideas of artistic enlightenment and class equality at the time. Her pupils were not taught to become professional dancers, rather, Duncan believed that free dance was a spiritual entity that could revitalize. Due to her untimely death in 1927 due to an auto accident, Duncan's pupils were left with little to do than try to imitate their late master's work.
Duncan is considered the mother to modern dance, with her influence reaching throughout the western world. Her radical ideas of embodiment rather than pictorialization and dance as a soul revitalizing art resounded with those who believed in the artistic revolution. Under her influence, the twentieth century transitioned seamlessly into today's dance modernism.
Duncan sought to remove the additions of elaborate stages, costumes and choreography to focus on portraying an idea or subject as simply as possible. Oftentimes this reduced the production to her sole form onstage. By using mainly the body to portray the setting, subject, events or idea of a performance, it is broken down to the mastering form and movement and space. Also, Duncan danced to illustrate; moving to the verses of poetry or song. Rather than choreographing moves to a piece of music, Duncan would memorize the piece and draw upon instinct and spontaneity for her work. To remove elaborate costumes, Duncan only preformed in simple garments, choosing lightweight pieces that highlighted free movement, though scandalous in their time. After traveling extensively through Europe, Duncan opened a studio in Soviet Russia, as the social movement seemed to parallel her spiritual ideas of artistic enlightenment and class equality at the time. Her pupils were not taught to become professional dancers, rather, Duncan believed that free dance was a spiritual entity that could revitalize. Due to her untimely death in 1927 due to an auto accident, Duncan's pupils were left with little to do than try to imitate their late master's work.
Duncan is considered the mother to modern dance, with her influence reaching throughout the western world. Her radical ideas of embodiment rather than pictorialization and dance as a soul revitalizing art resounded with those who believed in the artistic revolution. Under her influence, the twentieth century transitioned seamlessly into today's dance modernism.
The video gives an example of Isadora Duncan’s unique style of dance by reciting a loosely choreographed dance to The Three Etudes by Alexander Scriabin. Catherine Gallant of Dances by Isadora performs the piece. Gallant performs barefoot in a free flowing gown as established by Duncan’s canon for modern dance. The dance is a perfect representation of Duncan’s innovative attitude towards dance; spontaneous, creative, and personal. The communication of themes and storylines is achieved with emotional gestures, mime and sign language. Duncan always danced from musical suggestion or internal inspiration rather than performing a heavily choreographed piece. She always strived to be anti-balletic and personal with her movement. Here, Gallant relies on rhythm and interpretation of musical highs and lows rather than ‘distracting’ the audience with other elements of mis-en-scene. Modern canon puts as much focus as possible on the dancer themselves, so that the only other elements present are lighting, music, minimal costuming, and interaction with the floor. The dancer is the major narrative and interpretive medium. The only other form of mood creation takes the form of deep red lighting, aiding n the creation of a desperate mood.