“The Dance of the Future, I see America Dancing, and Richard

Wagner” by: Isadora Duncan

Presentation by: Andrew Giles and Francesca San Roman and Edited By:

Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay Picart

The Dance of the Future

• “So you see that to convince people, I am of little value and ought not to speak. But I am brought from the seclusion of my study, trembling and stammering before a public and told to lecture on the dance of the future.” (262)

 www.seminaire-sherbrooke.qc.ca/.../ D/duncan.htm

Sources of dance

• What si the real source of dance?

• “We do not stand on the beach and inquire if the ocean what was its movement in the past and what will be its movement in the future” (262)

• -If animals are put under false restrictions, they lose the ability to move in harmony with nature; same with civilized man…

Is ballet a true expression?

 • -Ballet goes against

the will of the individual, the movements are unnatural.

www.mnstate.edu/.../ kandinskyannotations4.htm

 

Duncan’s hopes for dance instruction

• What did Duncan want to teach about movement?

www.lpm.com.br/ lpm-po5.htm 

Ballet VS New Dance

• Dancing school of the future is to show the ‘ideal form of woman’. (264)

• Question of ballet vs. new dance was one whose ramifications went beyond dance. . .

Discussion question

• Is Dance a natural expression of the soul through the body, or a disciplined practice meant to be aesthetically pleasing to the audience?

 

www.cariboo.bc.ca/.../ Digests03Nov3/Heather

I See America Dancing

• Inspired by Walt Whitman to see a new American expression.

 • “ . . . I, too, had a Vision: the Vision of

America dancing a dance that would be the worthy expression of the song Walt heard when he heard America singing.” (265)

Jazz-- the great American music?

-What did Duncan believe about Jazz and dance?

www.sc.edu/.../collection/ dustjackets/jazz.html 

Discussion question

• This was written in 1927. Do you believe the music she speaks of has been invented yet? Will ever be invented?

www.librairie-chatrian.com/ varietes-et-style-...

Discussion question

• In Duncan’s eyes, could Wagner have created the new American expression, since she believed his work- transcended boundaries?

Works Cited

•  Ed. Marshall Cohen, and Roger Copeland. What is Dance? New York: Oxford UP, 1983.

• www.seminaire-sherbrooke.qc.ca/.../ D/duncan.htm

• www.mnstate.edu/.../ kandinskyannotations4.htm

• www.lpm.com.br/ lpm-po5.htm

• www.cariboo.bc.ca/.../ Digests03Nov3/Heather

• www.sc.edu/.../collection/ dustjackets/jazz.html

• www.librairie-chatrian.com/ varietes-et-style-...

• hem.passagen.se/.../ romantic/richard_wagner.htm