Shpota Yevgenia
Dragomanov
National Pedagogical University
Institute of Arts, student
Pet’ko Lyudmila,
Scientific supervisor,
Ph.D., Associate Professor,
Dragomanov
National Pedagogical University (Ukraine,
Kyiv)
ISADORA DUNCAN AND HER DANCE
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ïåäàãîãè÷åñêèé óíèâåðñèòåò èìåíè Ì.Ï.Äðàãîìàíîâà (Óêðàèíà, ã.Êèåâ), ²íñòèòóò
èñêóññòâ, ñòóäåíòêà
Ïåòüêî Ëþäìèëà, íàó÷íûé ðóêîâîäèòåëü
ê.ïåä.í., äîöåíò ÍÏÓ èìåíè
Ì.Ï.Äðàãîìàíîâà (Óêðàèíà, ã.Êèåâ)
Isadora Duncan was an American who, like Jimi Hendrix in later years,
initially found fame in England. She was one of the founders of free
expressionist dance, often employing long flowing costume, based on that of
Ancient Greece [2].
She was born on May 26, 1877 (some sources say May 27, 1878), in San
Francisco, California, Isadora Duncan developed an approach to dance that
emphasized naturalistic movement. She was a hit in Europe as a performer to
classical music and opened schools that integrated dance with other types of
learning. She later faced immense tragedy with the death of her children and
spouse's suicide. She died on September 14, 1927 [1].
The youngest of the four children, the future Isadora Duncan, began
ballet lessons in early childhood. She chafed under traditional ballet style
and developed her own style that she found more natural. Isadore Duncan's first
public appearances in America made little impact on the public or critics, and
so she left for England in 1899 with her family, including her sister,
Elizabeth, her brother, Rayomond, and her mother.
There, she and Raymond studied Greek sculpture at the British Museum to inspire
her dance style and costume – adopting the Greek tunic and dancing barefoot
[6].
Thirty-sixth annual conference «Dance ACTions – Traditions and Transformations» was held June 8–11, 2013 at the Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway [3]. There were two very
interesting researches devoted Isadora Duncan’s creation.
In the history of dance, Isadora Duncan’s name is very well known, while
those of her adopted daughters, Anna, Irma, Theresa, Lisa, Margot, and Erika
are surprisingly less known, although they had a significant impact on the
history of dance. The name “Isadorables,” as Isadora’s daughters came to be
called, was coined by the French critic Fernand Divoire in 1909; they played a
key role in continuing the Duncan method, writes in herself article Emi
Yagishita from Waseda University (Tokyo), a
member of the Japanese Society for Dance Research, a dancer who performs many
dance forms and holds the Certification in Duncan Dance from the Isadora Duncan
Dance Foundation in New York City.
The author in her paper focuses on the activities and characteristics in
the period during which they separated from Isadora in 1921. The activities of
each of her daughters are discussed in depth, particularly their dance school
and performances, on the basis of an examination of unpublished materials,
which include photos, brochures, and newspaper and magazine articles from the
United States and Europe, as well as interviews. The present study a) finds the
true heirs of Duncan Dance, b) defines each of the Isadorables’ activities and
characteristics, and c) clarifies how Isadora’s protégés passed
on Duncan Dance. Owing to the Isadorables’ efforts, Duncan Dance spread all
over the world and continues to be pursued even to this day [3; 4, 427].
Next investigator Elena Yushkova (PhD, Russia) stresses that American dancer and dance reformer Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) became an
important part of Russian culture from the moment of her first performance in
1904 in St. Petersburg. Her subsequent Russian tours took place in 1905,
1907-1908, 1909, and 1913. In 1921 she was invited to Soviet Russia by its new
Bolshevik government and founded the School of Duncan in Moscow. All her visits
were widely covered by the Russian Media. Journals such as Vesy (Scales), Theater and Art, Apollo, Zolotoe Runo (Golden Fleece),
Masks, Studio, along with the newspapers Russia, Theater, Stock Exchange Bulletin, Russian Word, and later – Izvestiya, Art’s Life, Ogonyok and
others published numerous reviews – some
enthusiastic, some critical, and some outright insulting. The coverage of
Duncan’s performances varied according to the artistic and social contexts of
certain periods of time as well as to the dancer’s ideas and techniques across
various periods of her life. If the theater criticism of the Silver Age (1900s)
saw in her work an embodiment of the idea of ‘the unspoken’ (the
highest and symbolic reality, something beyond expression) and a basis for a
new Gesamtkunstwerk, the Soviet newspapers and magazines of the 1920s
found in her art ‘the roar of the revolution’s trumpet’ and a possibility to
educate new Russian people using a new revolutionary approach to education [3; 5, 435].
Isadora
Duncan founded dance schools around the world, including in the United States,
the Soviet Union, Germany, and France. Most of these schools failed quickly;
the first she founded, in Gruenwald, Germany, continued for a longer time, with
some students, known as "Isadorables," carrying on her tradition [6].
Bibliography
1. Isadora Duncan.
Biography [Web site]. – Access
mode: http://www.biography.com/people/isadora-duncan-9281125
2. The last words of Isadora Duncan
[Web site]. – Access mode:
http://phrases.org.uk/quotes/last-words/isadora-duncan.html
3. Thirty-sixth Annual Conference,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. Focus:
Dance Actions – Traditions and
Transformations, June 8–11, 2013, Trondheim, Norway, 2013. – [Web site]. – Access mode: https://sdhs.org/proceedings-2013-trondheim
4. Yagishita Emi. ) Isadora Duncan’s Adopted
Daughters, the “Isadorables” : Their Activities and Characteristics. PP. 427–435 [Web site]. – Access mode:
https://sdhs.org/proceedings/2013/pdf/Yagishita_29.pdf
5. Yushkova Elena. Perception of Isadora
Duncan's art in Russian criticism : Proceeding of the International conference
DanceACTions – traditions and transformations. – Norway, 2013. – ÐÐ. 435–446 [Web site]. – Access mode: https://sdhs.org/proceedings/2013/pdf/Yushkova_38.pdf
6. Lewis Jone Johnson. Isadora Duncan [Web site]. – Access mode:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/dance/p/isadora_duncan.htm