Izzy & Isadora--Duncan, that is
One of my most inspirational dance she-roes who helped pioneer Modern Dance
“I…Isadora…hereby vow…that I will dedicate myself to the pursuit of Art and Beauty, and to the single life. I will never submit myself to any claims other than those of Truth and Beauty. Beauty is Truth…Truth: Beauty. That is all we know on Earth, and all we need to know.”
~ISADORA, 1969 movie starring Vanessa Redgrave
From: *ALSO* A Belly Dancer, posted to my old blog, May 2020:
…As I compile the videos for this series of posts about my dance adventures, I am astounded by how deeply the threads of my favorite Modern Dance pioneer she-roes run through me. Given the brevity of my Modern training—a little over 2 years—and the fact that I had never been able to transform these video clips into living-room-obsessed, VHS over-played garbage—I’d only glimpsed some of them once during class—I can only attribute such influence to the way these old souls speak to mine across the ages.
…I have Phoenixed again multiple times in the past 2 decades. I’m in ashes once more as I write this, but I’ve begun to blow on the embers of what will emerge in this incarnation…
My old, buried love of Modern and Expressionist Dance is one.
If you missed it last time, both of these forms were part of the dance rebellion that sparked across the US and Europe in the late 1800s against the strictures of Ballet. Which was precisely what called to me.
ISADORA DUNCAN — “THE MOTHER OF MODERN DANCE”
For my Modern Dance Muses, we must naturally (badum-tsss) pay deep tribute to Isadora Duncan. Although she is not my namesake, people have asked me if she was for decades. But no, my stage name “Isidora” was bestowed upon me by two of my oldest and dearest friends for its meaning: “the gift of Isis.” Although daunted to be compared with the great Duncan, I have always been overjoyed when people are reminded of her upon meeting me.
I also find some of the century-spanning coincidences between us eerily fascinating.
Her tribute movie’s release date almost coincides with my birth date.
She had a tragic history with lovers and car accidents, particularly the ultimate one that killed her. The long scarf she was wearing around her neck got caught in the spokes of an automobile and strangled her.
Seeing as my neck traumas — two of them vehicular, two from violent men — are the bane of my dancing and martial training, my eyebrow raises in a most Spockly fashion.
So back to college: during my Modern Dance days, one of the first movement styles we delved into was Isadora Duncan’s. Later, I read her memoir, My Life, and watched the portrayal of her life and her arts in the 1968 movie, Isadora, starring Vanessa Redgrave, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in this role. Arguments fly about the accuracy of this rendition. Nevertheless, that movie greatly impacted my dancing.
It also breathed ferocious life back into the vow I had made in elementary school to protect and nurture my artistic expression, no matter what sorts of tomatoes were hurled at me, and no matter how many shackles people tried to make me wear — both professionally and romantically.
In counterbalance to the hours I spent honing meticulous technique from my videos of the butt-whupping belly dance queen of the era, Isadora Duncan dwells in my right-brain, creative and emotive roots:
Her lack of concern for “perfectly” disciplined movement.
Her innovative and philosophical spirit.
The flow of her fabrics.
Her joy and her sorrow.
Her ethereal lightness and fiery power.
Her love of dancing outdoors.
She is there in my Earth and Air Elements. Bare feet on grass or in sacred spaces. Wind in hair. Veils fluttering in the breeze while trailing little girls like the pied piper. Isadora’s were called the Isadorables.
(And so am I. That’s one of my many nicknames: Isadorable. Also…Isadorkable. Ahem.) 😜
She took her inspiration from Greek art, from nature, and from folk and social dances. In The Art of the Dance, she described herself as — not the character or narrator of the myths she portrayed — but as the “soul of the music.” She led the pioneer charge in choreographing to songs that had not been composed specifically for dance.
Her style is based in natural, organic movement, a deviation from the rigid Ballet technique that reigned in her day. In her memoirs, she cited the solar plexus as the “central spring of all movement.”
Isadora believed in tracing the Dance’s roots to its sacred arts, and pursued her burning desire to return dancing to a high art form, rather than mere entertainment.
Within me, all of these things are her legacies.
Original Photos & Footage of Isidora Duncan:
More about her style and those who have kept it alive:
And yes, you saw that correctly. Those who only picture the floating, prancing Isadora in white Greek-ish gowns have probably forgotten that she was also a scandalous, exotic rebel in her day.
The Duncan-ness is also there in my Fire Element. I am a Fire Sign, after all, and you can see this when I pay homage to a roaring fire as I dance around it, turning my core into a furnace and shooting sparks out my fingertips toward the stars. Or when I dance out my angst against the things that grieve me and hack me off.
She burns in my blood with all her freedom, outspokenness, eccentricity, athletic vigor, sensuality, and passion. Ahem…and her not so great taste in abusive men, unfortunately, but we work on that. Every day. Every marital arts class. Every trauma therapy session. Every soul-searching dive into healing and creativity, of which dance is a huge part.
Here is a taste of her hair-flinging, fist-raising, eroticism, and fangs, as depicted in the Regrave movie:
I particularly adore the skill required to wield grace, softness and light hand-in-hand with fire and rebellious might.
This is the opening scene of said film, and a mindset that has come to dominate my artist’s heart:
On and off from my teenage years until I was thirty, I had toyed with the notion of never marrying. Being born to a Catholic family in Northern Minnesota of the early 70s, this was seen as one of the most horrifying of my harebrained notions. I toyed with it anyway, and made the official decision after my first betrothal fell apart during college. I only rescinded this choice when a drunk driver disabled me in 2000, and I became financially desperate.
While bombing out of my second marriage in flames, I renewed this vow, even though it meant taking a flying leap off a financial cliff with no wings. I splatted. I do not care.
I will NEVER bind myself into legal shackles with another human being again.
Isadora Duncan is one of the many inspirational figures who gave me the guts to follow my heart. It has always whispered, sung, and shouted that, in art, Passion is just as important as Principle, and that “perfect” Discipline can never hope to capture an audience if it is devoid of Devotion and Emotion. In her words:
“The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul.”
I present unto you why Isadora Duncan is my Muse, and one of my greatest Modern Dance (great-great-grand) Mothers. I am awed and honored to share half of her name, as well as the pieces of her inheritance that burn so fiercely within me:
UP NEXT: In the same semester that I was introduced to the Modern Dance pioneers who made such an impact upon my dancing, I also discovered the dance form that would knock the trajectory of my career — in fact, my whole life — 167 degrees sideways: BELLY DANCE.
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What the Modern Dance pioneers were rebelling against - and what I eventually did, too - the strictures of Ballet:
Ugly Ducklings, Swans & Birds of Different Feathers
Fall 1991, 18 years old. I used to think I was good at dance. Now, training among real dancers for the first time in my life — dancers who have been taught by other real dancers since they were in elementary school or younger — I feel like a one-legged ox on a tightrope. The gazelles leap and prance around me. The swans flit and float.
And then there’s me...
How I got started dancing:
Solid Gold Dancer, Baby
Fall 1980 Second Grade A teensy town in Northern Minnesota, pop. 333 From my bedroom, I hear the front door go ka-thump! I do a little jig. At last! Free! My fifteen minutes of bliss. And how will I spend it? Doy, dancing! Mom is a teacher’s aide at the school, so she has to be there fifteen minutes before I do. She told me goodbye before she left, and I pret…
MORE SOURCES
For your geeking pleasure about these topics, and the origins of my research:
3) Isadora Duncan on Wikipedia, where you can find links and references to many other sources about her.
4) Today’s Isadora Duncan Dance Company
6) The Art of the Dance, another of her books
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This was super interesting. Reminded me of the quote of standing of the shoulders of giants.
Also, is she the inspiration for the name of this substack?