Photograph by Arnold Genthe
Isadora Duncan
Linked to the Gielguds through the Terrys (see Gordon Craig)
People called her a great artist – a Greek goddess – but she was nothing of the kind. She was something quite different from anyone or anything else. GORDON CRAIG
She does not fit into any category because she was a poet of motion. MARGOT FONTEYN.
Isadora Duncan danced in her own way from a very young age. At five, in her homeland of America, she gathered children together in her backyard to teach them her way of moving. She sought to teach others her language of dance throughout her life through performances in theatres, private salons and gardens and through the creation of Duncan dance schools in Germany and Russia. She said “To dance is to live. What I want is a school of life”
Isadora with her students at Grunewald
Photograph by Paul Berger
Her inspiration was divine, and she believed that Hellenic Greece held the key to the secret of the movement she desired. Soon after her arrival in Europe she travelled with her family to Athens, and ascended the Acropolis to behold the perfection of the Parthenon.
Isadora at The Parthenon
Photograph by Edward Steichen
“For the last four months each day I have stood before this miracle of perfection wrought of human hands… and I did not dare move, for I realised that of all the movements my body had made none was worthy to be made before a Doric Temple. And as I stood thus I realised that I must find a dance whose effect is to be worthy of this Temple – or never dance again… For many days no movement came to me. And then one day came the thought 'These columns which seems so straight and still are not really straight, each one is curving gently from the base to the height, each one is in flowing movement, never resting, and the movement of each is in harmony with the others. And as I thought this my arms rose slowly towards the Temple and I leaned forward – and then I knew I had found my dance, and it was a Prayer'."
She did not use a vocabulary of steps or a technique such as ballet, she sought the “the divine expression of the human spirit”. Her performances uplifted and inspired those who saw her and caused adulation across the globe. At one of her performances in London the great actress of the day, Dame Ellen Terry, jumped to her feet and addressed the audience “Do you realise what you are looking at? Do you understand that this is the most incomparably beautiful dancing in the world? Do you appreciate what this woman is doing for you – bringing back the lost beauty of the old world of art?”
Isadora by Rodin
She inspired poets to write about her, musicians to compose for her and artists to try to capture her magic in all formats. Among her many admirers was the great artist Rodin and the theatre reformer Stanislavski. Some dancers and choreographers shunned her work as having no technique but most were able to appreciate her true spirit. “I didn’t think I’d like it” said Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Royal Ballet, Sir Frederick Ashton, “but I was completely captivated… the way she used her hands and arms, the way she ran across a stage – these I have adapted in my own ballets”.
As the era of motion picture filmmaking was only just dawning, it was left to a few stills photographers to record a glimpse of her glory for future reference. Max Eastman said, “It was never easy to coax Isadora Duncan into a photographer's studio. Like a wild and wise animal, she fled from those who sought to capture the essence of her — which was motion — by making her stand still.”
Isadora with Deirdre and Patrick
Photograph from L'Illustration
As a woman she was very a passionate lover and a devoted “earth mother” to her children. Her first intense love affair was with Gordon Craig, the celebrated scenic designer and son of Dame Ellen Terry. She bore Craig a daughter, Deirdre, who tragically died aged seven along with Isadora’s four year old son Patrick and their nurse when the automobile they were travelling in ran into the river Seine in Paris, where they all drowned. Isadora never recovered from this tragedy and was haunted with grief for the rest of her life.
The writer Dorothy Parker praised her as "magnificent, generous, gallant and fated" and called her "Duncan Disorderly". She was plagued with alcoholism and as well as inspiring audiences with her art she also liked to shock them. In Boston in 1922 she lifted the folds of her scarlet tunic and cried, “You don’t know what beauty is! This-this is beauty”.
Her last words to her friends as she drove off in the “chariot” of a new acquaintance - a young man she called “her Greek god” were “Adieu, mes amis, je vais a la gloire” – (goodbye my friends, I go to my glory). She was wearing her favourite red shawl; of which she had said to her friend Mary “This shawl is magic dear… I feel waves of electricity coming from it… what a red – the colour of hearts blood”. As the car drove off the fringes of the shawl got caught in the spokes of the wheel, her neck was broken and she died instantly.
“Isadora’s end is perfect” wrote Jean Cocteau – “a kind of horror that leaves one calm”.
Isadora in "La Marseillaise"
Photograph by Arnold Genthe
Written by Suzanne Gielgud, with references from 'Isadora, The Sensational Life of Isadora Duncan' by Peter Kurth and 'The Magic of Dance' by Margot Fonteyn.
