Isadora Duncan, Dance Performance
- Artist/Author/Producer: Isadora Duncan
- Confronting Bodies: Mayor, James Curly
- Dates of action: 1922
- Location: Boston, Ma.
- Description of the Art Work
- "She possessed no technique as we know it, yet combined simple steps,
runs, jumps, and turns to express effectively her concepts of beauty and
truth with a masterful understanding of choreographic form.
In her dancing, Duncan rebelled against the bad ballet of her day.
In her lifestyle, she protested the rules society placed on women and the
laws governing marriage, divorce, property and child custody." Dance
Magazine, (Book Review),September 1986
- Description of incident
-
After pro-communist remarks and exposure of her person during a Boston
performance, Mayor James Curly prohibits her from performing in Boston
again. (National Association of Artists Organizations)
"When Isadora Duncan returned to the United States in October, 1922
after her triumphant appearances in Moscow, she brought back boundless
enthusiasm for the Soviet system and a Russian husband almost two decades
her junior. Her return was widely covered in the press because she and
Sergei Esenin, her new husband, were briefly detained by the immigration
officials at Ellis Island under suspicion of being "Bolshevist agents."
(Simon Karlinsky, New York Times Book Review, May 9, 1976 pg. 3)
- Results of incident
- "In a heady atmosphere of shock, this sensual, magnetic woman became the
idol of royalty, students, musicians, millionaires and Red Russians. At
her last performances in America, police stood onstage with "the
Bolshevik hussy" to guard the peace. By the time she died at 49 -dying as
recklessly as she lived- most of her ideas were being lived out by the
youth of the 1920's" (Jack Hamilton, Look, 12-10-68, pg. 70)
Source: National Association of Artists Organizations