Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878[a] – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Born and raised in California, she lived and danced in Western Europe, the U.S., andSoviet Russia from the age of 22. She died when her scarf became entangled in the wheel and axle of the car in which she was travelling inNice, France.[2]
Angela Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, the youngest of the four children of Joseph Charles Duncan (1819–1898), a banker,mining engineer and connoisseur of the arts, and Mary Isadora Gray (1849–1922). Her brothers wereAugustin Duncan andRaymond Duncan;[3] her sister,Elizabeth Duncan, was also adancer.[4][5] Soon after Isadora's birth, her father was investigated and charged[clarification needed] following the collapse of the family’s bank, which coincided with a larger reorganization of San Francisco’s finances, a period of crushing reversals and closing of silver mines.[6] Although the jury voted for his acquittal,[6] Isadora's mother (angered over his infidelities as well as the financial scandal) divorced him, and from then on the family struggled with poverty.[3] Joseph Duncan, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in 1898 when the British passenger steamerSSMohegan ran aground off the coast ofCornwall.[7]
After her parents' divorce,[8] Isadora's mother moved with her family toOakland, California, where she worked as a seamstress and piano teacher. Isadora attended school from the ages of six to ten, but she dropped out, having found it constricting. She and her three siblings earned money by teaching dance to local children.[3]
In 1896, Duncan became part ofAugustin Daly's theater company in New York, but she soon became disillusioned with the form and craved a different environment with less of a hierarchy.[9]
Photo byArnold Genthe of Duncan performingbarefoot during her 1915–1918 American tourAbraham Walkowitz'sIsadora Duncan #29, one of many works of art she inspired
Duncan's novel approach to dance had been evident since the classes she had taught as a teenager, where she "followed [her] fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into [her] head".[10] A desire to travel brought her to Chicago, where she auditioned for many theater companies, finally finding a place in Augustin Daly's company. This took her to New York City where her unique vision of dance clashed with the popular pantomimes of theater companies.[11] While in New York, Duncan also took some classes withMarie Bonfanti but was quickly disappointed by ballet routine.
Feeling unhappy and unappreciated in America, Duncan moved to London in 1898. She performed in the drawing rooms of the wealthy, taking inspiration from the Greek vases and bas-reliefs in theBritish Museum.[12][13] The earnings from these engagements enabled her to rent a studio, allowing her to develop her work and create larger performances for the stage.[14] From London, she traveled to Paris, where she was inspired by theLouvre and theExposition Universelle of 1900 and danced in the salons ofMarguerite de Saint-Marceaux andPrincesse Edmond de Polignac.[15] In France, as elsewhere, Duncan delighted her audience.[16]
In 1902,Loie Fuller invited Duncan to tour with her. This took Duncan all over Europe as she created new works using her innovative technique,[17] which emphasized natural movement in contrast to the rigidity of traditional ballet.[18] She spent most of the rest of her life touring Europe and the Americas in this fashion.[19] Despite mixed reaction from critics, Duncan became quite popular for her distinctive style and inspired many visual artists, such asAntoine Bourdelle,Dame Laura Knight,Auguste Rodin,Arnold Rönnebeck,André Dunoyer de Segonzac, andAbraham Walkowitz, to create works based on her.[20]
In 1911, the French fashion designerPaul Poiret rented a mansion –Pavillon du Butard inLa Celle-Saint-Cloud – and threw lavish parties, including one of the more famousgrandes fêtes,La fête de Bacchus on June 20, 1912, re-creating theBacchanalia hosted byLouis XIV at Versailles. Isadora Duncan, wearing a Greek evening gown designed by Poiret,[24] danced on tables among 300 guests; 900 bottles of champagne were consumed until the first light of day.[24]
Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, such as touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission, namely the creation of beauty and the education of the young.[citation needed] To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young girls her philosophy of dance. The first was established in 1904 inGrunewald, Berlin, Germany. This institution was in existence for three years and was the birthplace of the "Isadorables" (Anna, Maria-Theresa,[25][26] Irma, (Gretel),[27][28] Lisa, and Erika[29][30]), Duncan optimistically dreamed her school would train “thousands of young dancing maidens” in non-professional community dance.[31] It was a boarding school that in addition to a regular education, also taught dance but the students were not expected or even encouraged to be professional dancers.[32] Duncan did not legally adopt all six girls as is commonly believed.[33] Nevertheless, three of them (Irma,[34] Anna[35] and Lisa[36][37]) would use the Duncan surname for the rest of their lives.[38][39] After about a decade in Berlin, Duncan established a school in Paris that soon closed because of the outbreak ofWorld War I.[40]
In 1914, Duncan moved to the United States and transferred her school there. A townhouse onGramercy Park in New York was provided for its use, and its studio was nearby, on the northeast corner of23rd Street andFourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South).[41]Otto Kahn, the head ofKuhn, Loeb & Co., gave Duncan use of the very modern Century Theatre atWest 60th Street andCentral Park West for her performances and productions, which included a staging ofOedipus Rex that involved almost all of Duncan's extended entourage and friends.[42] During her time in New York, Duncan posed for studies by the photographerArnold Genthe.
Duncan had planned to leave the United States in 1915 aboard theRMSLusitania on its ill-fated voyage, but historians believe her financial situation at the time drove her to choose a more modest crossing.[43] In 1921, Duncan's leftist sympathies took her to theSoviet Union, where she founded a school in Moscow. However, the Soviet government's failure to follow through on promises to support her work caused her to return in 1924 to the West and leave the school to her protégée and adopted daughter, German-born Irma Doretta Henrietta Erih-Grimm Duncan (1897—1977).[44] In 1924, Duncan composed a dance routine calledVarshavianka to the tune of the Polish revolutionary song known in English asWhirlwinds of Danger.[45]
Duncan in a Greek-inspired pose and wearing her signature Greek tunic. She took inspiration from the classical Greek arts and combined them with an American athleticism to form a new philosophy of dance, in opposition to the rigidity of traditional ballet.
Breaking with convention, Duncan imagined she had traced dance to its roots as a sacred art.[46] She developed from this notion a style of free and natural movements inspired by the classical Greek arts, folk dances, social dances, nature, and natural forces, as well as an approach to the new American athleticism which included skipping, running, jumping, leaping, and tossing.[47][failed verification] Duncan wrote of American dancing: "let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance."[48] Her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique.
Duncan also cited the sea as an early inspiration for her movement,[49] and she believed movement originated from thesolar plexus.[50] Duncan placed an emphasis on "evolutionary" dance motion, insisting that each movement was born from the one that preceded it, that each movement gave rise to the next, and so on in organic succession. It is this philosophy and new dance technique that garnered Duncan the title of the creator of modern dance.
Duncan's philosophy of dance moved away from rigidballet technique and towards what she perceived as natural movement. She said that in order to restore dance to a high art form instead of merely entertainment, she strove to connect emotions and movement: "I spent long days and nights in the studio seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement."[50] She believed dance was meant to encircle all that life had to offer—joy and sadness. Duncan took inspiration from ancient Greece and combined it with a passion for freedom of movement. This is exemplified in her revolutionary costume of a white Greek tunic and bare feet. Inspired by Greek forms, her tunics also allowed a freedom of movement that corseted ballet costumes andpointe shoes did not.[51] Costumes were not the only inspiration Duncan took from Greece: she was also inspired by ancientGreek art, and utilized some of its forms in her movement (as shown on photos).[52]
Duncan with her children Deirdre and Patrick, in 1913
Duncan bore three children, all out of wedlock. Deirdre Beatrice was born September 24, 1906. Her father was theatre designerGordon Craig. Patrick Augustus was born May 1, 1910,[53] fathered byParis Singer, one of the many sons ofsewing machine magnateIsaac Singer. Deirdre and Patrick both died by drowning in 1913; while out on a car ride with their nanny, the automobile accidentally went into theRiver Seine.[53] Following this tragedy, Duncan spent several months on the Greek island ofCorfu with her brother and sister, then several weeks at theViareggio seaside resort inItaly with actressEleonora Duse.
In her autobiography, Duncan relates that in her deep despair over the deaths of her children, she begged a young Italian stranger, the sculptorRomano Romanelli, to sleep with her because she was desperate for another child.[54] She gave birth to a son on August 13, 1914, but he died shortly after birth.[55][56]
When Duncan stayed at the Viareggio seaside resort with Eleonora Duse, Duse had just left a relationship with the rebellious and epicene youngfeministLina Poletti. This fueled speculation as to the nature of Duncan and Duse's relationship, but there has never been any indication that the two were involved romantically.
Duncan was loving by nature and was close to her mother, siblings and all of her male and female friends.[57] Later on, in 1921, after the end of the Russian Revolution, Duncan moved to Moscow, where she met the poetSergei Yesenin, who was eighteen years her junior. On May 2, 1922, they officially married, and Duncan took Soviet citizenship. After that Yesenin accompanied her on a tour of Europe and the United States. However, the marriage was brief as they grew apart while getting to know each other. In May 1923, Yesenin returned to Moscow. Two years later he was found dead in an apparent suicide.[58]
Duncan also had a relationship with the poet and playwrightMercedes de Acosta, as documented in numerous revealing letters they wrote to each other.[59] In one, Duncan wrote, "Mercedes, lead me with your little strong hands and I will follow you – to the top of a mountain. To the end of the world. Wherever you wish."[60]
However, the claim of a purported relationship made after Duncan’s death by de Acosta (a controversial figure for her alleged relations) is in dispute.[61][62][63][64] Friends and relatives of Duncan believed her claim is false based on forged letters and done for publicity’s sake.[65] In addition, Lily Dikovskaya, one of Duncan’s students from her Moscow School, wrote inIn Isadora’s Steps that Duncan “was focused on higher things”.[65]
By the late 1920s, Duncan, in her late 40s, was depressed by the deaths of her three young children. She spent her final years financially struggling, moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels. Her autobiographyMy Life was published in 1927 shortly after her death. The Australian composerPercy Grainger called it a "life-enriching masterpiece."[66]
In his bookIsadora, An Intimate Portrait,Sewell Stokes, who met Duncan in the last years of her life, described her extravagant waywardness. In a reminiscent sketch,Zelda Fitzgerald wrote how she and her husband, authorF. Scott Fitzgerald, sat in a Paris cafe watching a somewhat drunken Duncan. He would speak of how memorable it was, but all that Zelda recalled was that while all eyes were watching Duncan, she was able to steal the salt and pepper shakers from the table.[67]
On September 14, 1927, inNice, France, Duncan was a passenger in anAmilcar CGSS automobile owned byBenoît Falchetto [fr], a French-Italian mechanic. She wore a long, flowing, hand-painted silk scarf, created by the Russian-born artistRoman Chatov, a gift from her friend Mary Desti, the mother of American filmmakerPreston Sturges. Desti, who saw Duncan off, had asked her to wear a cape in the open-air vehicle because of the cold weather, but she would agree to wear only the scarf.[68] As they departed, she reportedly said to Desti and some companions, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire! " ("Farewell, my friends. I go to glory!"); but according to the American novelistGlenway Wescott, Desti later told him that Duncan's actual parting words were,"Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love"). Desti considered this embarrassing, as it suggested that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a tryst.[69][70][71]
Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled in the wheel well around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck.[2] Desti said she called out to warn Duncan about the scarf almost immediately after the car left. Desti took Duncan to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.[68]
AsThe New York Times noted in its obituary, Duncan "met a tragic death at Nice on theRiviera". "According to dispatches from Nice, Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement."[72] Other sources noted that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck.[73] The accident gave rise toGertrude Stein's remark that "affectations can be dangerous".[74] At the time of her death, Duncan was a Soviet citizen. Her will was the first of a Soviet citizen to undergoprobate in the U.S.[75]
Duncan was cremated, and her ashes were placed next to those of her children[76] in thecolumbarium atPère Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[77] On the headstone of her grave is inscribedÉcole du Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris ("Ballet School of the Opera of Paris").
Duncan as a fairy inA Midsummer Night's Dream, 1896
Duncan is known as "The Mother of Dance". While her schools in Europe did not last long, Duncan's work had an impact on the art and her style is still danced based upon the instruction ofMaria-Theresa Duncan,[78] Anna Duncan,[79] and Irma Duncan,[80] three of her six pupils. Through her sister, Elizabeth, Duncan's approach was adopted byJarmila Jeřábková from Prague where her legacy persists.[81] By 1913 she was already being celebrated. When theThéâtre des Champs-Élysées was built, Duncan's likeness was carved in itsbas-relief over the entrance by sculptorAntoine Bourdelle and included in paintedmurals of the ninemuses byMaurice Denis in the auditorium. In 1987, she was inducted into theNational Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame.
Anna, Lisa,[82] Theresa and Irma, pupils of Isadora Duncan's first school, carried on the aesthetic and pedagogical principles of Isadora's work in New York and Paris. Choreographer and dancerJulia Levien was also instrumental in furthering Duncan's work through the formation of the Duncan Dance Guild in the 1950s and the establishment of the Duncan Centenary Company in 1977.[83]
Another means by which Duncan's dance techniques were carried forth was in the formation of the Isadora Duncan Heritage Society, by Mignon Garland, who had been taught dance by two of Duncan's key students. Garland was such a fan that she later lived in a building erected at the same site and address as Duncan, attached a commemorative plaque near the entrance, which is still there as of 2016[update]. Garland also succeeded in having San Francisco rename an alley on the same block from Adelaide Place to Isadora Duncan Lane.[84][85]
In medicine, the Isadora Duncan Syndrome refers to injury or death consequent to entanglement of neckwear with a wheel or other machinery.[86]
In 1976,Saturday Night Live parodied Isadora Duncan in aGreat Moments in Herstory sketch during Season 1, Episode 15. Hosted byJill Clayburgh, the skit featured Clayburgh as Duncan andGilda Radner in a comedic retelling of the dancer’s tragic demise, exaggerating the absurdity of her fatal scarf accident.[95]
Post-hardcore bandBurden of a Day's 2009 album Oneonethousand features a track titled "Isadora Duncan". The lyrics include references to a letter Duncan wrote to poet Mercedes de Acosta and her reported last words of "Je vais à l'amour."
^abcWhile Duncan's birth date is widely given as May 27, 1878, her posthumously discovered baptismal certificate records May 26, 1877. Any corroborating documents that might have existed were likely destroyed in the1906 San Francisco earthquake.[1]
^Desti helped Crowley write his magnum opusMagick (Book 4) under her magical name of "Soror Virakam", and also co-edited four numbers of his journalThe Equinox, and contributed several collaborative plays.
^abKurth, Peter (2001).Isadora: A Sensational Life. Little Brown. pp. 11–13.ISBN978-0316057134.
^Ean Wood,Headlong Through Life: The Story of Isadora Duncan (2006), p. 27: "They...would all be drowned, along with 104 others, when the S.S. Mohegan, en route from London to New York, ran aground on the Manacle Rocks off Falmouth, in Cornwall."
^Daly, Ann (2002).Done into dance : Isadora Duncan in America (Wesleyan ed.). Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.ISBN0-8195-6560-1.OCLC726747550.
^"Lineage".Isadora Duncan International Institute. Retrieved27 August 2025.The Isadora Duncan International Institute dances, which are Isadora's original choreographies, preserved by the Isadora Duncan International Institute include those from the period of Grunewald School (1905-1908) and subsequently, as taught by Isadora Duncan and her sister, Elizabeth, to the "Isadorables": Anna, Irma, Maria-Theresa, and Lisa Duncan.
^"Duse, Eleanora (1859–1924)".glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. 2006-09-10. Archived fromthe original on 2007-07-03. Retrieved2007-07-02.
^S.A. Yesenin. Life and Work ChronologyArchived 2016-09-18 at theWayback Machine. The Complete Works by S.A. Yesenin in 7 Volumes. Nauka Publishers, 2002 // Хронологическая канва жизни и творчества. Есенин С. А. Полное собрание сочинений: В 7 т. – М.: Наука; Голос, 1995–2002.
^Hugo Vickers,Loving Garbo: The Story of Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton, and Mercedes de Acosta, Random House, 1994.
^Cole, Steve (director) (2001).Greta Garbo: A Lone Star (Television production).American Movie Classics. 39.98–40.5 minutes in.
^abDikovskaya, Lily (2008).In Isadora's Steps: The Story of Isadora Duncan's School in Moscow, Told By Her Favourite Pupil. Book Guild Ltd. pp. 25, 39, 48.ISBN978-1846241864.
^Gillies, Malcolm; Pear, David; Carroll, Mark, eds. (2006).Self Portrait of Percy Grainger. Oxford University Press. p. 116.
^Milford, Nancy (1983).Zelda: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins. p. 118.
De Fina, Pamela.Maria Theresa: Divine Being, Guided by a Higher Order. Pittsburgh: Dorrance, 2003.ISBN0-8059-4960-7
About Duncan's adopted daughter; Pamela De Fina, student and protégée of Maria Theresa Duncan from 1979 to 1987 in New York City, received original choreography, which is held at theNew York Library for the Performing Arts atLincoln Center.
Duncan, Anna.Anna Duncan: In the footsteps of Isadora. Stockholm: Dansmuseet, 1995.ISBN91-630-3782-3
Duncan, Doralee; Pratl, Carol and Splatt, Cynthia (eds.)Life Into Art. Isadora Duncan and Her World. Foreword byAgnes de Mille. Text by Cynthia Splatt. Hardcover. 199 pages. W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.ISBN0-393-03507-7
Duncan, Irma.The Technique of Isadora Duncan. Illustrated. Photographs by Hans V. Briesex. Posed by Isadora, Irma and the Duncan pupils. Austria: Karl Piller, 1937.ISBN0-87127-028-5
Kurth, Peter.Isadora: A Sensational Life. Little Brown, 2001.ISBN0-316-50726-1
Levien, Julia.Duncan Dance: A Guide for Young People Ages Six to Sixteen. Illustrated. Dance Horizons, 1994.ISBN0-87127-198-2
Peter, Frank-Manuel (ed.)Isadora & Elizabeth Duncan in Germany. Cologne: Wienand Verlag, 2000.ISBN3-87909-645-7
Savinio, Alberto.Isadora Duncan, inNarrate, uomini, la vostra storia. Bompiani,1942, Adelphi, 1984.
Schanke, RobertThat Furious Lesbian: The Story of Mercedes de Acosta. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois Press, 2003.
Stokes, Sewell.Isadora, an Intimate Portrait. New York: Brentanno's Ltd, 1928.
.jpg)
.jpg)
