Images of Isadora
The Search for Motion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11223759 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Deborah Jowitt (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 21-29 |
| Publication date | 1985-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Dance Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1478076 |
| OpenAlex | W2316430179 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
It is far back, deep down the centuries that one's spirit passes when Isadora Duncan dances; back to the very morning of the world, when the greatness of soul found free expression in the body, when the rhythm of motion corresponded with the rhythm of sound, when the movements of the human body were one with the wind and the sea, when the gestures of a woman's arm was as the unfolding of a rose petal, the pressure of her foot upon the sod as the drifting of a leaf to earth. Isadora Duncan inspired many such passages of fervid prose among her admiring contemporaries. From the beginning of her career, around the turn of the twentieth century, to her death in a bizarre automobile accident in 1927, those who saw her dance were less interested in writing about what she actually did than in presenting their bedizened responses to her. Yet even as she evoked a fragrant never-never land, this American was creating a contemporary image for the stage dancer. Not a steely-legged virtuoso whipping off pirouettes, not a coquettish quasi-virgin, not a disembodied nymph, but a noble-spirited woman, bold, yet pliant — tree to use her imagination and her body as she wished
Art · Art history · Dance · Greatness · Literature · Soul · Taste · Theology · Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2021 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |