Full Description
Part artistic study, part intimate memoir, this book illuminates the technique and repertory of American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) and her enduring legacy from the perspective of an artist and scholar who has reconstructed and performed her work for 35 years. Providing an overview of modern activities and trends in the teaching and performance of Duncan's dance, the author describes her own work directing The Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble, the company that sought to implement Duncan's mission to create not a school of dance but "a school of life."
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. First Principles: From Breath to Organic Motion
2. Dancing Innocence and Awakening: Childhood and Youth
3. Training for Dance and the Dance of Life
4. Beingness and the Art of Enlightened Performance: Ave Maria
5. Enlightened Performance and Dancing the Chorus: Blessed Spirits
6. The Art of the Solo Dancer: The Brahms, Chopin and Gluck Dances
7. Dancing Community and Joy: The Strauss Waltzes
8. Apollonian Form, Beauty and the Natural Body
9. Dancing the Ecstasy of Dionysus: Bacchanal
10. Dancing the Music
11. Dancing Tragedy and Triumph: Mother, Revolutionary and Nocturne
12. Women Warriors: Dances of Revolutionary Russia
Epilogue. The Dancer of the Future: Onward into the Light
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
