"When I was fifteen years old and I realized that there was no teacher in the world who could give me any help in my desire to be a dancer because at that time the only school that existed was the ballet, I turned, as I had noticed all other artists except dancers do, to the study of nature. Is anything more marvelous or beautiful in nature than the study of the delicated love movements of plants? My imagination was first captured by Shelley’s wonderful poem The Sensitive Plant, and for my dances I studied the movements of the opening of flowers and the flight of bees and the charming graces of pigeons and other birds."
-Isadora Duncan
-Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan celebrated the natural body and movement. She did so through her movement and in the way she dressed. Her technique was based off very childlike movement, such as running and skipping. She transformed every day movement into dance. A lot of her movement also consisted of wave motions and circular forms. Growing up she lived in San Francisco and was inspired by the continuous flowing motion of the waves and the sun. She believed that movement came from within, like rays emanating from the sun.
Besides her unique movement, she celebrated the natural body through her clothing. She was the first dancer to remove the point shoe and corset. These both restricted the dancer from being grounded into the earth and utilizing the spine. The corset was replaced by loose, flowing clothing that celebrated the natural body.
The music Duncan used also reflected ideas of nature and the natural. In what were referred to as her lyrical years she used "themes of nature set as autobiographical dance poems to the music of Chopin and Schubert" (Lori). She would emerge herself in nature for inspiration.
Taking the word natural into a new context, Duncan believed that the natural was based on the rediscovery of the classical principles of beauty, motion, and form. She became inspired by early Greek paintings and architecture. She would costume her dances with a Greek theme. She also began to study the architecture and paintings of the early Greek era and gained new ideas for movement.
Works Cited
"Who Was Isadora Duncan?" Lori Belilove and The Isadora Duncan Dance Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
From your description, i can see that Duncan's movements are free. She looks like a bird that she is flying from the picture.
ReplyDeleteDuncan's dance is the reflection of nature and nature of human. She didn't use too many delicate techniques to decorate her dance, but only presented the childlike beauty to the audience. Duncan also used the elements she were interested in to enrich her dance. To deepen her understanding of Greek culture, she even learned other art forms to gain inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThe quote you put on the top of this post is so interesting! I can't imagine living in a world where the only kind of dance is ballet. I can really relate to Duncan here because I myself am not the most technical dancer, if I were to dance in a world of only ballet I would crave another option as well. It blows my mind that almost her entire movement vocabulary stemmed from watching nature. It makes so much sense and I think the natural aspect is still very apparent in modern dance today.
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