Early years and career
Even before Isadora Duncan’s birth, her father went bankrupt and left the family. The dancer’s mother, music teacher Maria, moved her four children to Auckland and raised them on her own.
At the age of five, Isadora, who hid the girl’s age, was sent to the first grade. Later, Duncan, who thought school was useless, abandoned it and went into self-education – he was 13 at the time. Stebbins placed special emphasis on teaching music and dance in his studio. Loie Fuller, the founder of modern dance, played an important role in shaping Isadora’s performance style.
At the age of 18, Duncan moved to Chicago and began performing in nightclubs. She danced barefoot in a loose tunic and amazed the audience with her plasticity. Soon, Isadora went to London with her family on a cattle ship. He began performing at social events, evenings of artists and artists to promote himself.
Duncan’s resilience consisted of smooth running, air jumps, walking and expressive gestures. The artist improvised a lot and had the art of pantomime. The absence of shoes and loose robes made the dancer particularly light. Behind him remained the nickname “big sandals”.
Critics wrote of her: “Duncan dances naturally as if she were dancing in a meadow, and with all her dance she struggles with the dilapidated forms of old ballet. “Those beautiful raised hands imitating playing the flute, playing the strings. These hands leaping in the air, this long, strong neck.
Thanks to exotic dances, Duncan quickly became famous and won patrons. In 1901 he signed a contract to attend concerts throughout Europe and joined the Loi Fuller group in Paris. After the tour, which reinforced Isadora’s success, she opened dance schools in Germany and France. In 1903 the artist visited Greece, where he began the construction of a temple for dance on Kopanos Hill. In the same place, she chose a choir of ten male singers to accompany her dances, including during the tour. In 1904 Duncan opened a dance school for girls near Berlin.
Working in Russia
Duncan first visited Russia in 1904 and went to St. He gave several concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow. He had many fans and followers, who opened studios in the country to teach the artist’s dance style.
Two of Duncan’s books were published in Russia – “Dance of the Future” (1907) and “My Life” (1930). With the help of dance, the artist spread a new philosophy of free women, developed intellectually and physically.
“If my art is symbolic, then this symbol is only one: a woman’s freedom and liberation from the rigid traditions that underlie puritanism,” Duncan wrote in his autobiography.
In 1921, the RSFSR People’s Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky promised the artist financial assistance to open a dance school in Moscow. He enthusiastically accepted the Bolsheviks’ offer to move to his country:
“As the steamship sailed north, I looked with disdain and pity at all the old institutions and traditions of bourgeois Europe that I had left behind. From now on I will be just a comrade among comrades, developing a broad work plan for this generation of humanity. Farewell to the old world, inequality, Injustice and animal cruelty have made my school unfeasible.
In the autumn of 1921, the newspaper Rabochaya Moskva announced the opening of the “Isadora Duncan school for children of both sexes from 4 to 10 years old”. At the reception, the artist gave a special preference to the children of the workers. At first, more than 100 children studied at the school, but later their number was reduced to 40, as the promised financial support was not enough. Duncan raised most of the funds for the school on his own, including food for students. He left the USSR in 1924, leaving his adopted daughter Irma Duncan in charge of the institution. The school existed until 1949.
Personal life before Yesenin
Duncan was going to marry Ivan Miroski, a poor Pole in his youth, but he was already married. She met actor Oscar Berezhi in Budapest and had a tumultuous romance with her. After her affair with theater director Gordon Craig, 29-year-old Isadora gave birth to her daughter Derdry.
In 1907 Duncan performed in St. Petersburg, where he met Konstantin Stanislavsky, who admired his work. She sympathized with the director and once kissed him on the lips. In her autobiography, Isadora wrote that at that moment Stanislavsky “had a very surprised look.” In 1910, Duncan gave birth to a son, Patrick, from Paris Singer, son of Isaac Singer, the inventor of the sewing machine.
“I thought I was so happy, maybe the happiest woman in the world. Art, success, wealth, love – and most importantly cute children, ”the artist wrote.
However, due to the jealousy of her lover, she decided to part with him. In 1913 both Duncan children went to Versailles with their governess. On the way, the car’s engine stopped and the driver went out to check it out. However, the car suddenly started and entered the Seine River. Both children died. Duncan could not survive this blow all his life.
She gave birth to a baby boy who died within hours of birth in 1914. Isadora also adopted six of her students.
Yesenin and romance with death
At the age of 43, Duncan started dating 27-year-old Sergei Yesenin. In the fall of 1921, they met at a party of the artist Georges (George) Yakulov. The dancer came to the event in a red draped tunic and conquered the poet. One of the journalists wrote that Isadora was lying on the sofa and was kneeling next to Yesenin. According to an eyewitness, the artist stroked her hair and said “Golden head”.
He spoke little Russian, and the poet did not speak English. Despite the age difference and language barrier, their relationship developed rapidly. The artist understood that there was little hope for a career in the Soviet Union, and she wanted to take her young lover on tour. In order to avoid major problems with obtaining a visa to Yesenin, they got married on May 2, 1922. This was the first official marriage of the artist. Both spouses took the double surname Yesenin-Duncan. Rumors said that Yesenin fell in love not with Duncan, but with his glory.
It was rumored that before marriage Isadora corrected her date of birth in her passport. She was worried that her young husband wouldn’t like the big age gap. How much his age has changed is still unknown.
The lovers communicated with gestures and with the help of an interpreter. After the wedding, Yesenin accompanied Duncan on tours of France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the United States. The poet could not come to terms with the fact that on tour he was perceived only as a friend of Duncan. He was subject to frequent mood swings, shouting at his wife, and even raising his hand at her occasionally. Yesenin also had an addiction to alcohol, and one day Isadora called the police to calm her husband. After the appearance of inappropriate behavior, the poet constantly apologized, and his wife repeatedly forgave him. Their marriage lasted two years.
When Duncan went abroad without Yesenin, he sent her a telegram: “I love someone else. Married. Happy. Yesenin. It was about Galina Benislavskaya, with whom the poet lived. In reality, Yesenin did not marry her. At the end of 1925, he committed suicide in the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad. Less than two years later, Duncan was gone.
On September 14, 1927, the dancer went on a car ride in Nice. She was wearing baggy clothes as usual. Suddenly, the edge of Duncan’s long red scarf caught on the steering wheel, swirled around it, and pulled the performer out of the car. The cause of his death was a broken neck.
Duncan’s ashes are kept in the columbarium at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.