RP188 Isadora Duncan

 RP188 Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan lived at the beginning of the last century. She was that type of artist whose work is extremely difficult to describe or capture: a dancer. Yet her name and her reputation are alive and well. Isadora Duncan had something magical about her.

It probably all started with her mother. Duncan's mother taught her young daughter to love music, dance, and theater. Unusually, her mother also insisted that Duncan “listen to the music with her soul.” Duncan began to dance without rules. She wanted to express the feeling of the music, not stick to old-fashioned ideas of dance. Duncan was passionate about teaching this expression and freedom to other people. She began teaching when she was only five, gathering the neighborhood girls and teaching them how to move their arms like ocean waves.

Duncan believed in improvisation, not tradition. She hated unnatural movements. She sometimes danced without shoes. She loved all of the human form and wanted all of it to be free and moving. Many people were tired of the rules of traditional arts, and Duncan's philosophy appealed to them. She gained many followers and friends. Her free, natural style became very popular and influential. In fact, she is seen as the mother of modern dance. But while she was alive, she was much more appreciated in Europe than in the United States, where she was born. So she left for Europe when she was 22 years old.

Isadora Duncan changed dance forever. She minimized sets and costumes, making audiences focus on the dancer. She designed a new type of breathing. She developed a philosophy of dance which would lead to our modern dance. She made dance more athletic, and lifted dance back up to the status of high art. Dance was reborn through her.