Isadora
Duncan (1878- 1927)
Isadora's grandparents, on her mother's side, had survived the long haul across America in a covered wagon and settled in California. They were devout Irish Catholics and brought their children up with the same values. The connection created between Isadora and her grandmother was an important part of her childhood. It created the ground for Isadora's views towards the importance of the maternal line to be built on.
Isadora's mother, Mary Dora, married Charles Duncan. Mary Dora had four children by him. The carelessness of her husband, their poverty stricken life, and his gift of charming women lead to their divorce. Mary Dora's ideal Catholic life fell into ruin. Consequently, as a counter balance, she began teaching her children the writings of great classic poets and the pronounced atheist, Robert Ingersoll. At this time Isadora was age 12.
The poverty continued. Their family moved from place to place in San Francisco, escaping bills for rent. They lived day to day and made just enough to survive. This was a family of starving artists. But the independence of the family and the independence of their mother left a lifelong impression on Isadora. In her art and in her life she made certain that she had no restraints.
The children, who were brought up listening to classical music, played and sung by their mother, and reading classical poems, naturally had attractions to the idealized arts. Isadora's attraction was with the movement of the body, but she was bored with the present accepted form of dance, ballet. For her it didn't allow her expression to come through. She was determined to let her body move how it wanted, in simple steps of walking, running, or skipping. With this love of movement and the families need for money Isadora and her sister, Elizabeth, started a dance school in 1892-3. There they taught the classic dances to anyone that would pay, regardless of age or sex.
In 1894 the father that Isadora had pictured as the devil himself had returned. He had received a small fortune and bought a house for the family in Oak Ridge, CA. There they conducted their dance classes in the spacious rooms for 2 years. For those two short years the family live in serenity in the house until Isadora's father again lost all his assets (this was his fourth time loosing all he owned) and returned to another family of his.
Isadora was now 17 and decided to begin making money dancing for audiences. Her attitude was undefeatable as she knew that she was a genies and had discovered a new form of dance. Although she failed in finding a job in San Francisco she succeeded in finding one in Chicago recently after she and her mother moved there. To get it though she had to change her Greek inspired style of costume and put a little selling pizzazz into the dance. The world was not quite ready for her yet (America wouldn't be ready for her until after her death).
In Chicago Isadora met Agustin Daly after a determined solicitation and received a place in his touring theater group. Daly was a lover of traditional theater and found Isadora's dancing threatening to his ideals. After Isadora's roaring success in the first scene of her second play with him he made certain that for the rest of her time with him the lights would be turned down for her acts.
Her family had now moved with her to New York city. For two years they lived there and Isadora worked for Daly. Although, she couldn't last much longer than that. Her emotions took control and she felt a need for change; her talents were not being used there. So, impulsively, she quite the theater group and began giving private performances. Once Isadora had given a performance for a gathering of the Vanderbilts, Belmonts, and Fishes. She was disgusted by their pompousness and stated that they had no sense of art. During these performances women would often leave shocked by the bare legs and arms. Her loose fitting Greek costumes were one representation of her freedom and her style of dance was another, but the shock value was to great for these women.
Isadora and her family soon moved to London by they way of a cattle
boat. There she continued her private performances. Then in 1900 Isadora
moved to Paris with her brother, Raymond, where she would visit the Louvre
each day and received a few advances by admirers (of which Rodin was one).
She found patrons to support her, modeled her costumes on the Primavera,
and lived a life of passion in the purest since. She fell in and out of
love constantly, letting her emotions run wild. It was at this time that
she began meditating for hours to find her center of movement, her life
energy, then she would dance. She began touring with Loie Fuller's dance
company around Europe.
In Vienna she met Kunstler Hause who took her to Budapest to dance.
There she met Oscar Beregi, an actor. He was her Romeo and her first sexual
encounter. But, as with all of her relationships, it didn't last. He could
not live up to her idealistic expectations and she broke it off.
She then went to Munich where they adored her and moved onto Berlin continuing the triumphs. After a few successes Isadora returned to Paris to find failure. A Ballet Co. had taken over the dance circuit and Isadora's dance was just too untraditional. Then she decided to go through Italy to Greece (finally to Greece!!). There she danced in the theater at Athens and put together a chorus that she would take with her to tour in Munich and Berlin. After the tour Isadora traveled to Bayreuth to work under the patronage of Cosima Wagner. Here she attempted to start a school that would teach the techniques of her techniqueless dance. Although, failure followed as it would all of her schools. Isadora could not teach the freedom that she embodied.
In 1904 Isadora met Gordon Craig who was already a father of eight illegitimate children. Traveling around Europe with him her affair ended in her pregnancy. For Isadora this was not a bad situation as it might have been for many other women at the time. Contradictory to most beliefs at the time, along with accepted behaviors, Isadora believed that a woman should have children whenever she wanted. With such beliefs combined with the fact that Isadora always had wanted children this became a joyous time for her. In 1906 her daughter, Dierdre, was born; and in 1907 Isadora returned to Moscow without Craig.
In Moscow Isadora started another school that her sister, Elizabeth, would take care of while she went to America to broaden the acceptance of her dance. Isadora began her pursuit on Broadway, who's strict conservativeness would not have her. Then Walter Damrosch, the conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, asked her to dance to his music at the Metropolitan Opera House. The audiences there were a bit more accepting of new ideas. It was a success.
Afterward Isadora returned to Paris. She wanted to find someone who could support her dream dance school and did. Not long after returning to Paris Isadora became acquainted with the millionaire, Singer (son of the creator of Singer sewing machines). Who would support her school and daughter. Isadora became pregnant again, this time with a son. Before he was born, though, Isadora performed at the Metropolitan Theater and proved to be too much for even the most accepting of American audiences, being that she was unmarried, pregnant, and presenting herself proudly as such to a large public. She was not to dance there again (or nearly anywhere else in the US for that matter).
When she returned to Europe she married Singer, despite her feelings against marriage, and started her family. Instilling the love of dance into her children and seeing her dance school finally take root. Isadora's life was beginning to work out. Then her children drowned when the car they were in rolled into the Seine. Isadora's life returned to chaos.
Isadora then began going through the motions of life with a depressed passion. In 1917 she left Singer ending a relationship of quarrels. In 1919 tried again to open a school (her old one had closed down during the war) and failed again.
The USSR offered to open a school for her if she would go there to teach. She agreed with the ideals in mind of no class systems, but found a much different story there when she arrived. Disappointed she moved back to the US now married to a Russian Poet, Sergei Esenin. Once while performing in Boston and disgusted with the styles of the times she preached that what she saw wasn't art but simply lustful trends and bore her bare breast stating that it was graceful art. Soon after that Esenin and Isadora separated.
In 1927 Isadora Duncan died carrying with her a huge debt of backed
rent. Leaving this world just as she had found it with the exception of
the door she had installed for further advancements in artistic interpretation.
Duncan, I.; My Life; Horace Liveright, 1929; pp.359
MacDougall, A.R.; Isadora: A Revolutionary In Art and Love; Thomas
Nelson and Sons, 1960; pp.284
Mazo, J.H.; Prime Movers: The Makers Of Modern Dance; Isadora Duncan;
Princeton Book Co, 1977; pp.35-60
Terry, W.; Isadora Duncan; Dodd And Mead Co, 1963; pp.167
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