Isadora duncan biography timeline with pictures
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Chapter 2: The Solo Dancers
Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)
Angela Isadora Duncan was born in 1877 in San Francisco, California. As a child she studied ballet, Delsarte technique and burlesque forms like skirt dancing. She began her professional career in Chicago in 1896, where she met the theatrical producer Augustin Daly. Soon after, Duncan joined his his touring company, appearing in roles ranging from one of the fairies in a "Mid-summer Night's Dream" to one of the quartet girls in "The Giesha." Duncan traveled to England with the Daly company in 1897. During this time she also danced as a solo performer at a number of samhälle functions in and around London.
Isadora Duncan in New York
Returning to New York City in 1898, Duncan left the Daly company and began performing her solo dances at the homes of wealthy patrons. Calling their program "The Dance and Philosophy," Isadora and her older sister Elizabeth offered society women an afternoon of dance pieces set to Strauss w
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Isadora Duncan was born on this day in San Francisco California. Isadora is known as the mother of "modern dance," founding the "New System" of interpretive dance, blending together poetry, music and the rhythms of nature. She did not believe in the formality of conventional ballet and gave birth to a more free form of dance, dancing barefoot and in simple Greek apparel. Her fans recognized her for her passionate dancing and she ultimately proved to be the most famous dancer of her time.
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Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)
Jose Clara drawing of Isadora
"There was never a place for her in the ranks of the terrible, slow army of the cautious. She ran ahead, where there were no paths.” - Dorothy Parker, 1928
Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), often called the “mother of modern dance” was born in San Francisco and went on to liberate dance from the confines of the ballet of her time, shedding slippers and corset to combine the use of simple, natural movement with a vibrant musicality. She sought a movement vocabulary that would illuminate the human spirit and its connection to nature and she was the first to choreograph to music not originally written for dance, including the works of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, and Scriabin. Duncan's career was marked by controversy as American audiences took exception to her bare limbs and bold movement. She was determined to succeed and left with her boundless spirit to Europe and Russia where she met and inspired the some of the great artis