Isadora Duncan, Queen of Dance. The historical role of Isadora Duncan in the development of dance Isadora Duncan character in literature

Are you here: Individual protection means

Fayzulina Svetlana

The work of Isadora Duncan - a person of bright performing individuality - was born of Duncan's harmony and system, closed in Duncan's genius, her intuitive insights and improvisational impulses. Her work did not lend itself to analytical “translation” into a complete methodology, into the foundation of a pedagogical system. Isadora herself contained the method, style, and direction of the dance.

Download:

Preview:

Municipal state educational institution

Podovinnovskaya secondary school

Stage dance by Isadora Duncan:

fashion revolution on stage

Art exam paper

Completed by: Fayzulina Svetlana.

Checked by: Nadezhda Vladimirovna Yumadilova.

S. Podovinnoe

year 2013

Introduction
Main part

1. Ballet as an art form

2. The life and work of Isadora Duncan

A) childhood and adolescence

B) first meeting with Russia

B) last dance

D) Isadora's dance - "excitement of the soul."

3 . Isadora. Fashion revolution on stage.

Conclusion
Literature.
Applications

Introduction

Ballet ( fr ballet, from italian ballo - dancing) -

This is the kind of stageart; a performance whose content is embodied in musical and choreographic images. Most often, a ballet is based on a certain plot,dramatic plan, libretto, but there are also plotless ballets. The main types of dance in ballet areclassical danceand characteristic dance. Plays an important role herepantomime, with the help of which the actors convey the feelings of the characters, their “conversation” with each other, the essence of what is happening. In modern ballet, elements of gymnastics and acrobatics are also widely used.Isadora Duncan is one of the talented ballerinas of her time. She is graceful and inimitable in dance. I admire her. The ballerina created her own style. I am studying choreography at the School of Art. I love to dance, but I would like to know more about people of art and therefore the topic of my work “Stage dance of Isadora Duncan: a fashionable revolution on stage.”

GOAL: to consider ballet as a unique plastic art form

TASKS:

Get acquainted with the history of Russian ballet
Get to know the life and work of Isadora Duncan
Create a computer presentation on the studied issue, as an aid for students in grades 8-9

Ballet as an art form

Ballet is a dance scene united by a single action or mood, an episode in a musical performance or opera. Bloomscourtierballet as a magnificent solemn spectacle. The beginning of the ballet era in France and throughout the world should be consideredOctober 151581. The first ballet was called "The Queen's Comedy Ballet" (or "Circe"), choreographed by an ItalianBaltazarini. The musical basis of the first ballets was folk and court dances, which were part ofold suite. In the second half17th centurynew theatrical genres appear, such ascomedy- ballet, opera- ballet, in which a significant place is given to ballet music, and attempts are made todramatize. But ballet becomes an independent form of stage art only in the second half.18th centurythanks to the reforms carried out by the French choreographerJean Georges Nover. Based on the aesthetics of the French Enlightenment, he created performances in which the content is revealed in dramatically expressive images.

In its evolution, ballet is increasingly approachingsportslosing along the waydramaticThe meaning of the role is sometimes ahead in technology, but behind in content.

IN comprehensive training professional artistknowledge requiredmusical culture, history, literature andscenariodramaturgy. At the same time, from the age of seven, children undergogymnasticspreparation, because the ballets of the past, which have survived to this day, have been technically improved, and modern ballet is based on a classical basis, for example balletForsythe, requires serious physical training, soballerinaSylvia GuillemI started my creative journey with gymnastics.

Ancient ballets had a sublime aesthetic and were sometimes stagedantiqueplots, for example stagingCharles Didelot « Zephyr and Flora».

IN XVIII - 19th centuriesthe artist could be at the same timeactorand a dancer, since no special development of physical abilities was required.

At the end 19th century and at the beginning XX century, drama schools were divided. The repertoire of many theaters simultaneously includeddramas, ballet divertissement departments and operettas. For example, in addition to productions inBolshoi, Kasyan Yaroslavich Goleizovskychoreographed balletsperformances V " bat" and in " Mamontov Theater of Miniatures", among which was the production "Les Tableaux vivants", meaning "a picture come to life", since Goleizovsky was primarilyartist. This phenomenon is developing in modern ballet as a “living painting”, “living photograph” and “living sculpture”. In order toput, first you need to see,draw And blind.

“Musically brought to life” paintings were born from a series of “foreign” drawingsVictor Hartmann, seen in 1874 at the exhibition Modest Mussorgsky, who in memory of a friend wrote forpiano famous suite- a series of musical paintings - “Pictures from the exhibition", published in 1886, as amended N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and many times orchestrated.

The famous ballet number "Baba Yaga", stagedLeonid Yakobsonto an orchestrated musical number by M. P. Mussorgsky, has become an integral aesthetic nuance of allconcert programs.

“Danced to life” “Pictures at an Exhibition” and in1963, When F. V. Lopukhovstaged a ballet on stageStanislavsky Theater. Thus, painting came to life first musically, then plastically.

Ballet is a complex plastic art form, it develops thanks to a person, a person with natural unique choreographic abilities. One of the striking examples of creative ballet personalities is Isidora Duncan. I will dwell on her life and work.

The amazing life of the “divine sandal,” marked either by luxury or poverty, was full of violent passions and terrible tragedies.
She was respected for her skill and talent. She was envied for the love of the public, her independence of behavior, and the patronage of the powerful. Her last love with a fair-haired Russian poet played a strange role in the fate of the dancer. This love, closeness to Yesenin’s circle and admiration for the revolution in Russia are remembered more often than the bright creative life of the great dancer Isadora Duncan.Her real name is Dora Angela Duncan.

To a simple question from journalists, when she made the first steps, Isadora invariably answered: “In her mother’s womb. Probably under the influence of Aphrodite’s food - oysters and champagne.” The mother, left by her husband, was in a constant state of irritation and depression. She cared little about the diversity of the diet of the unborn baby and strangely satisfied her gastronomic cravings - she ate only oysters, washing them down with plenty of ice-cold champagne. The child was born extremely active and playful. A year later, a favorite family pastime appeared - a tiny girl in a vest was placed in the center of the table, and she moved amazingly to any tune that was played or sung to her.

The years will fly by quickly, and in the grown-up Isadora the rare gift of depicting feelings with movements will strengthen. She will never question the thought dear to her: the richness of human life depends on the depth of feelings. She trusted this postulate unconditionally, although she constantly became a victim of this “sensual” idea.

When emotions, unable to remain at the peak of passions, weakened, the cloudless and happy time ended almost suddenly. A new page of biography has begun

...The first vivid impression of life was a fire, when two-year-old Isadora was thrown out of the window of a burning house into the arms of a policeman. The spontaneous movement of bright tongues of flame has become a symbol of the fiery, irrepressible, uncontrollable dance of Duncan...

1904 First tour in Russia. Endless snowy plains, frosty air, long Russian feasts, the heat of a Russian bath... “Snow, Russian food, and especially caviar, cured me from the exhaustion caused by Tode’s spiritual love, and my whole being longed for communication with the strong personality who stood before me in Stanislavsky's face." He is passionate about Duncan's dance and often comes to see her backstage. He is amazed that “in different parts of the globe, due to conditions unknown to us, different people are looking for the same natural principles of creativity in different spheres of art...”. In the strange American woman, he sensed an artist of the same blood. After Isadora's departure, the music of Chopin and Schumann began to appear on the Russian ballet stage; the heroes of the ballets of Mikhail Fokine, Alexander Gorsky and a little later - Kasyan Goleizovsky seemed to step out of the frontal Greek bas-reliefs; ballerinas began to lighten their costumes, and sometimes even parted with the steel toes of their pointe shoes...

At the end of the first decade of the new century, Duncan created a delightful miniature, A Musical Moment, which enjoyed continued success. On her second tour in Russia, she invariably encored this dance at least six times, each one dancing differently.

Isadora was overwhelmed by the desire to create a dance school in order to educate children in the spirit of Hellenistic beauty, and later the students themselves would introduce many others to beauty. And life on earth will be transformed beyond recognition - so thought the idealist Isadora. She opened a school, but there were not enough funds to maintain it. "I must find a millionaire! I must save the school." The desire came true - the dancer met Paris Eugene Singer, the son of a famous sewing machine manufacturer, one of the richest men in Europe.

Singer offered to take on the costs of maintaining the Duncan school so that she could calmly create new dances. Singer presented luxurious gifts. Perhaps for the first time, Isadora could not think about money. Receptions, masquerades, expensive dinners during wonderful travels. Son Patrick was the most expensive gift. She was holding the baby in her arms again. “Only instead of a white house shaking in the wind there was a luxurious palace, and instead of the gloomy, restless North Sea there was a blue Mediterranean.”

At one of the costume balls in the studio of a Parisian house, Singer became jealous of Isadora. Stormy showdowns ended with his departure to Egypt and refusal to build a theater for Isadora.

At the end of her creativity, one of Isadora’s most popular dances was the “Dance with a Scarf.” She loved to perform this phantasmagoric dance in the presence of Yesenin. The poet’s excited imagination painted a strange picture: “She holds the scarf by the tail, and dances herself. And it seems that it’s not the scarf – but the hooligan in her hands... The hooligan hugs her, and tosses her, and strangles her... And then suddenly - once! - and the scarf is under her feet. She tore it off, trampled on it - and that’s it! There’s no bully, a crumpled rag is lying on the floor... My heart aches. It’s as if I’m lying under her feet. It’s as if I’m dead.” ...she moved amazingly to any tune that was played or sung to her. Isadora often repeated the dance with a scarf as an encore. This was the case at the concert in Nice on September 14, 1927. ...On the same day, having effectively thrown the fatal scarlet scarf around her neck, she relaxed freely on the car seat. At the wheel is a young Italian, the latest hobby of fifty-year-old Isadora. Smiling, she said: “Farewell, friends, I’m going to glory!” These were her last words - her head jerked sharply and hung like a broken puppet. The scarf fell on the wheel axle of a car that was picking up speed and dug into the neck like a noose.

Those who saw Isadora dancing at least once never forgot her. A subverter of the foundations of classical dance, she had no doubt that true dance should be born “from the spiritual need to express the inner experiences of a person.” Dance and life were synonymous for her. Having refused classical dance education, she always exclaimed: “And is it really possible to teach dancing?” In the American studio Stebbins, where Isadora took her first steps, they taught plastic interpretation of music and the art of open improvisation. The movement basis was a simple gymnastic complex.

Duncan created her own style, free from stereotypes and schools. Her dance expressed the “excitement of the soul” (Roden). Beauty, simple and complex, like nature itself, was important to her. Isadora's movements did not require the most severe, grueling preparation. Duncan's program included the technique of transforming into an image, the ability to make music a symbol for the movements of the soul, and to add picturesqueness to expressive gestures. The artistic result is improvisational in nature; on stage it looks like an intuitive insight.

Claiming that the only important thing is the world of feelings, she, of course, was disingenuous. For she herself was interested in philosophy, learned foreign languages, and mastered German in order to read Schopenhauer and Kant in the original. She drew inspiration for her dance from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. A dance of watercolor purity, impressionistic understatement. The bodily harmony of her movements reached the spiritual content of the music.

At first, Duncan was inspired by antiquity - its harmony of forms, beauty of poses, respect for nature. Duncan's stage costume was essentially Greek. She danced in light tunics, appearing on stage barefoot and almost naked: a transparent tunic did not hide the soft lines of her beautiful body. At a time when dancers were “packed” in matte silk leotards, this was an almost revolutionary step.

Duncan's body was amazing. Once, Archduke Ferdinand, seeing Duncan on the shore in her loose bathing suit - also a tunic of transparent crepe de Chine with a deep neckline and bare legs (an audacity unheard of at that time), whispered: “Oh, how beautiful this Duncan is! How wonderfully good! Spring is not as good as it is..."

The movements of her dance - steps, easy running, low jumps, loose batmans with legs raised no higher than 45 degrees, expressive poses and gestures, sometimes melodious, sometimes passionate, sometimes tender, sometimes sharp - were reminiscent of drawings in ancient frescoes and vase paintings. Emotional freedom triumphed in the dance. The movements did not obey any rules. I dance as I feel. The dance needed neither a dramatic plot, nor costumes, nor decorations. Only music, light, tunic and performer.

Critics wrote enthusiastically about her: “Duncan dances naturally, simply, as if she were dancing in a meadow, and with all her dance she fights with the dilapidated forms of the old ballet.” “These beautiful raised arms, imitating playing the flute, playing the strings, ... these hands splashing in the air, this long strong neck ... - I wanted to bow to all this with living classical worship!”

Portraits and photographs cannot convey the divine melody of Isadora’s movements. The most reliable “document” is the reviews of... poets. For Isadora's dance is associative and metaphorical. “Isadora Duncan dances everything that other people say, sing, write, play and draw. Music is embodied in her and comes from her” (Maximilian Voloshin). “In her dance, form finally overcomes the inertia of matter, and every movement of her body is the embodiment of a spiritual act” (Sergei Solovyov). “...She is about the unsaid. There was a dawn in her smile. In the movements of her body there was the aroma of a green meadow. The folds of her tunic, like murmuring, beat in foamy streams when she gave herself up to dancing freely and cleanly” (Andrei Bely). A portrait of Isadora was placed in the central place of Blok’s office...

Dance is the first and main passion of her life... Love is the second, a worthy rival of dance in terms of the power of passion. She was called a courtesan of the twentieth century. She painfully anticipated love, anticipated it, waited patiently. From the youngest, crystal-clear girl years.

She danced in light tunics, appearing on stage barefoot and almost naked: a transparent tunic did not hide the soft lines of her beautiful body.
In my work I want to focus on one of the most beautiful love stories. This is the love story of Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesenin.

Everyone discouraged her from going to Soviet Russia. Red Russia inspired horror and fear. She dreamed of visiting the world of a proletarian state. “I am convinced that the greatest miracle in the history of mankind is taking place in Russia, which has only taken place over the past two millennia...”
What prompted the famous star, whose art was admired by outstanding artists, painters, and musicians, to leave for hungry Russia? The main goal was the creation of a school in Moscow, where she tried to solve new problems, which she formulated as follows: “I want the working class, for all its hardships that it has suffered for years, to receive the highest reward, seeing its children cheerful and beautiful.”

She is 44 years old - the “divine sandal” looks almost older than her years. But the Moscow public is still devoted to her. Now she is doubly an innovator: she fights not only against the canonized forms of ballet academicism, but also conveys the revolutionary spirit of the era. She dances ponderously, heavily and sluggishly, but the ovation does not cease, and Lenin himself greets her from the royal box.

Duncan lived in Soviet Russia for three years. The Moscow studio named after Isadora Duncan outlived its legendary founder by more than twenty years. The studio's first performance took place in 1921 on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. Duncan's repertoire of “revolutionary dances” consisted of “Marseillaise” and “Internationale”. Particularly successful were the compositions “Slavic March” and “Varshavyanka”, in which “the banner of the revolution was picked up from the hands of fallen fighters by new and new fighters”...

In Moscow, Isadora experiences a dramatic romance with Sergei Yesenin. Their first meetings are described in many memoirs. The evidence varies. Some depict the sublime romance of a suddenly flared up feeling, others - passion in a drunken stupor. It is unlikely that the authors deserve reproaches of dishonesty; rather, there were several meetings. And they were just as turbulent and contradictory as the short life together of the American dancer and the Russian poet. Having seen Isadora dance at a concert, Yesenin dreamed of meeting her. Their acquaintance took place at a literary evening hosted by the artist of the Chamber Theater Yakulov: “...She arrived in a red silk chiton and, entering the hall, looked around those present with a tired gaze. In the corner, on a low sofa, she saw the curly head of a blond, a young man of amazing beauty, looking at her with strange eyes shining with a yellowish tint... After a while she was lying on the sofa, and Yesenin was sitting at her feet. Isadora stroked his curls and whispered tenderly and admiringly." This is how their love began. In 1922, Duncan married a golden-haired elf, old enough to be her son, and accepted Soviet citizenship.

At times Yesenin loved her almost manically, not leaving her alone for a minute. A caring and gentle lover, he caught her every glance. But suddenly he was torn apart by fits of rage. He scolded Isadora with the last words, beat her, and hid from her. Came back again. Isadora forgave him everything, admired his talent, youth, and beauty. She took care of him like a son. One of Isadora’s biographers wrote: “She was a mother in all manifestations of love. Until the end, she could not be either a wife or a mistress. ... She gave herself without discriminating, like a mother, without discriminating, gives everything to her children.”

Europe, America, Europe again... In America, Yesenin was terribly tormented that he was perceived as his last love, as the autumn whim of a brilliant dancer, and not as a poet. Everything comes to an end. Their dramatic relationship came to an end. Isadora was tired of Yesenin, and besides, each time he behaved more and more dirty and cynical. In November 1923, upon returning to Russia, after another scandal, they finally broke up.

Having learned in Paris in 1925 about Yesenin’s suicide at the Angleterre Hotel, in the very room where they lived during their first trip together, Isadora admitted: “I was shocked by Sergei’s death, but I cried and suffered so much because of him that, it seems to me, he has exhausted all human possibilities for suffering." WITH

A year later, in order to pay off the artist’s debts, her dear house and studio in Nuilly were put up for sale. The day before the auction, Isadora received a notice from the Moscow court that, as Yesenin’s official widow, she would inherit the royalties for all his poems. Isadora renounces her inheritance in favor of the poet's mother and sisters. The next day the property in Nuyi was sold. If Isadora had agreed to receive Yesenin’s inheritance, the house could have been redeemed.

Duncan's true passion was not only dance, but also the desire to teach it to people. Of course, children are the most receptive little creatures to art, who have not yet gone far from nature, who sincerely believe that running and jumping is much easier than just walking.
The craving for dance pedagogy has lived in Duncan almost since childhood. In any case, as a “thin and strange child” at the age of ten, she and her sister organized their own school, where “teachers” “taught what were called “secular dances.” Secular dances are dances that were taught

Throughout her life there will be a chain of studios, brought to life by her “disgust” for the theater with its elves dressed in long tunics “of white and gold gauze with two tinsel wings.” The desire to create her own school was uncontrollable, but the end of her endeavors was always predetermined - complete financial collapse. She opened schools in Germany, France, America and they, as a rule, did not exist for long.

“My ideas of dance were to depict human feelings and emotions,” the goal of the classes was “to lead the child’s soul to the source of light.” The main task is to educate a new harmonious person, the future, through the means of dance and music. How to achieve this? “Teach your child to raise his hands to the sky, so that in this movement he comprehends the infinity of the Universe, its harmony and perfection.” Instill in your child faith in the wonders of the surrounding endless movement and then tell him: “Since you are the most perfect in the kingdom of nature, your movements should contain all the beauty of nature, but moreover, the beauty of your human mind, and your understanding of the beautiful...”.

In the fall of 1921, an advertisement was placed in Rabochaya Moskva about the opening of “Isadora Duncan’s school for children of both sexes aged 4 to 10 years.” It was stated that “preference in admission is given to children of workers.” Children (initially there were more than a hundred of them) went to school daily for preliminary classes. Later their number was reduced to forty. This was the maximum that was possible to feed and warm in the hungry and cold Moscow of the twenties. Duncan sent a telegram to her American impresario: “Can you organize my performances with the participation of my student Irma, twenty delightful Russian children and my husband, the famous Russian poet Sergei Yesenin.” However, these first foreign tours of the Moscow studio did not take place due to the fact that the American authorities refused visas to the school students, and subsequently deprived Duncan of American citizenship “for Soviet propaganda” and loyalty to revolutionary ideas.

After Duncan left, the school in an old mansion on Prechistenka was run by her adopted daughter and devoted student Irma Duncan and studio director-administrator Ilya Shneider.

There were many imitators of Duncan's free plastic surgery. Under the influence of the triumphant performances of the dancer herself and the students of her school, rhythmic studios multiplied in Moscow and St. Petersburg like mushrooms after rain. Of these, the most famous were “Heptakhor” in the northern capital, which existed until the early 30s, and the studio “Moscow plastic classes” under the leadership of E. Rabenek (later the studio was led by Lyudmila Alekseeva) in the Moscow House of Scientists, which still exists today. All studios were different, sometimes not similar to Duncan's. But they all adopted the main goal - to teach children the beauty of free movements born of music. Their organizers were eager to experiment and search for new forms.

Conclusion.

Duncan failed to create a direction or a methodological basis for teaching. The work of Isadora herself - a person of bright performing individuality - was born of Duncan's harmony and system, closed in Duncan's genius, her intuitive insights and improvisational impulses. Her work did not lend itself to analytical “translation” into a complete methodology, into the foundation of a pedagogical system. Isadora herself contained the method, style, and direction of the dance.

Today, performances and concert miniatures, exhibitions and festivals are dedicated to Isadora Duncan. Her performing style can be seen in all areas of modern dance. Her approach to creativity excites the imagination of heads of plastic and movement studios. The memory of her gives birth to new books and films. Great actresses, including Vanessa Redgrave and Maya Plisetskaya, are trying to unravel the mystery of her fate.

...In the largest Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise, lies Isadora, a great woman of the world, the first star of the rising dance era of the twentieth century, whose rebellious spirit is still alive today...

The element of dance, the element of love and simply natural elements precisely conspired to determine the life of this woman! The element of water suggested to her the nature of the dance, and the fire, which destroyed her wardrobe, forced Duncan to come out to the audience for the first time, wrapped in a piece of light fabric. "She's dancing naked!" – ill-wishers were indignant. And few of those sitting in the hall realized that this bacchante, who shook the foundations of Puritan morality with her very appearance, was, in fact,... a naive girl who still had no idea what this very “earthly love” was.

While working on my essay, I learned about the life and work of Isadora Duncan. Her human qualities of kindness, determination, curiosity, merging with creative activity and dance flexibility, gave rise to virtuoso dance miracles on stage. Love is the quality that is developed in her to the highest degree. Her love for dance did not stop her from showing love to her neighbors and relatives. In the course of my work, I created a computer presentation that can be used as a teaching aid not only in a secondary school, but also in the School of Arts. I accomplished my goals and objectives.

Introduction to the discipline

Modern dance is a dance that seeks to express spiritual needs

human soul, this is the language of feelings, expressing the most secret movements of the soul

shi. The naturalness and free expression of the dancers serve this purpose.

the best way. Modern dance is always a dance on the edge, to the limit

full of emotions. With the emergence of modern dance, new

opportunities for dancers through the use of movements that express

exorbitant heaviness, as well as ugliness, since “ugly” movements

dance skills along with beautiful movements contribute to the expression

feelings and emotions.

“Improving the body, mind and soul” remains relevant in

Nowadays. Modern dance helps the physical development of a person and

extinguishes him spiritually. Ballet training is based on the exact constant

movement program. Modern dance rejected this program, changing and proving

The point is that movement occurs naturally and individually. Dance movements

modern are dictated by nature and are built according to the anatomical laws of motion

movements of the human body. “True dance does not consist of various

new steps and poses. They are of no use to the dancer: he must only find

features of movement that most truthfully express the movements of his soul

shi.” This is a method of movement, subordinate to breathing and anatomically justified -

significant body movements. This is a specific dance system with its own

principles and laws of technical execution, in which the body acquired

your full-blooded tongue. Education of the muscular system, free from

canons of classical dance, develops and liberates the human body.

It gives the ability to control oneself, to move easily and plastically, freely

hold on in life. This new type of dance was born from the principles laid down by

known to Isadora Duncan, and imbued with her psychological truth.

Section 1. From the history of the issue

The historical role of Isadora Duncan in the development of dance

“The history of modern dance is the history of personalities...”, said one

interview with A. Girshon. Undoubtedly, a new dance - modern dance - began with

named after Isadora Duncan. "The charm of the first will always be for her name

a light halo." Her historical role bears comparison with the roles

all the founders of new eras and styles: she was inspired by the enthusiastic

a spirit of denial, a spirit of magnificent rebellion, creative protest against

generally accepted forms of art.

Francisco. At the age of 5, hiding her age, she was sent to school. Due to family arrangements

As a matter of fact, she was often left alone. Wandering by the sea, she betrays

indulged in my own fantasies. Everything danced around her: flowers, birds, waves.

Well, she danced too. At the age of 13, Isadora left school to seriously

enjoy music and dancing. In 1895, 18-year-old Isadora Duncan, accompanied by

driving his mother to Chicago. But an attempt to conquer this city

her work with her art ended only in disappointment for her. Then, in

New York, she studied at a ballet school for a year, working in the theater, where she became

Pantomime performances took place. At the end of 1896, with Daly Isadora's troupe

went on tour to England. Returning at the beginning of 1898, Ice-

Dora Duncan parted ways with the troupe, concentrating her efforts on her own

independent career. Among the first dances of her repertoire were

“Ophelia” and “Narcissus” - both to music by E. Nevin; "Breath of Spring", "Dance"

joy" - both to music by Strauss; "Rubai of Omar Khayyam" - three to music

Strauss and three to the music of Mendelssohn. These lyrical dances were based

us on literary sources. In 1899, she and her mother, sister

and two brothers in the hold of a cattle ship, the only kind

transport, which was then affordable for them, is sent to conquer the Euro-

pu. Here she meets influential people, finds her patrons

lei. Her tours begin. 1900-1901 - Paris; 1902 - Ber-

Lin and Vienna. Success was rapidly rushing ahead of her. In 1903 Isadora

was able to go to the desired Greece. Greek dance was the ideal for Aise-

dora. Her dances are characterized by the spirit of Greek simplicity. Greek technique like

explains Ginner, a contemporary of Duncan, begins with an assessment of the role, which

This is performed by every part of the body. The ancient Greeks valued so highly

the beauty of a person's foot that they would never think of covering it up

while dancing. Each part of the body had its own emotional functions.

“The significance of the liberated body in dance is equal to the principle of pure colors

Pressionists... Isadora Duncan was the first to dance without shoes...” To her

the best stages in Europe applauded her performances everywhere

went to a full house. Its first appearance in Russia dates back to 1904-

1905 years. Her performances in Russia made a significant impression,

It was from this era that Russian ballet began to join Chopin and Schumann.

Duncan gains recognition as dramatic inspiration

revival of ballet in the 20th century.

In 1906, fate rewarded A. Duncan with the birth of her daughter Diedra, and in

In 1910, son Patrick was born. Love occupied a large place in life

dancers. But all of A. Duncan's novels ended dramatically, and the children

were the light in the series of her unhappy loves. In January 1913, both children

The Isadoras and their governess were traveling by car from Paris to Versailles, and

the car and the children fell into the Seine. A. Duncan cannot recover from this loss.

never curled.

At the beginning of her creative career, A. Duncan studied plastic arts

interpretation of music, the art of open improvisation (takes place in our

days). She had a rare gift for painting music, using it for pro-

awakening your own emotions, visions and dreams. "About musical

There was a lot of talking and arguing about her dances. Duncan dance defined

as a “mimic illustration for music”, as “the aspiration of the life of the spirit,

concentrated in music, rhythmically embodied in selected fantasies

zee images." In the sounds of a musical work, she looked for the eternal

rhythms guided by the hand of the creator. Not an illustration, but a translation into another language

would be an accurate description of her dancing.” The movement basis was that

where is a simple gymnastics complex. And, living in London, on tour with

Daly's troupe, Isadora took ballet lessons from Ketty Lanner (approx.

ballerinas of the Royal Theatre). While practicing classical dance, she

I convinced myself more of his inadequacy. And the more she's into it

She became convinced, the stronger her determination to follow her own path strengthened.

She abandons classical forms, becoming a “subverter” of class.

sic dance. Her dance is based on the principle of naturalness of human life -

centuries in dance.

Isadora's dance was strongly influenced by the school of François Delsarte

(1811-1871), his theory of body movements. Plastic system of F. Delsarte

contains an analysis of many types of gesture and body positions. Stre-

trying to find out how movement becomes material for art

figurativeness, he established an extremely precise scale of functional

of every part of the body in its connection with emotions and was the first to scientifically substantiate

human gestures, giving each of them a name. Delsarte recognized the gesture

purposeful and organically connected with the experienced feeling. He

said that there is nothing more terrible and regrettable than a gesture that does not carry in itself

it makes no sense that any feeling, experience or joy a person experiences

gives through gestures, postures. And no matter what the words say, the movements neither

when they don't lie. His theory became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. and lay down in

the basis of A. Duncan’s creative quest. Having determined for ourselves that the human body

Ka can be divided into three main zones: the head - the mental zone, the upper

torso - emotional and spiritual zone, lower torso - vital and physical

Skye, Isadora was inclined to believe that the source of movement originates in

upper torso, so she was interested in the emotional and spiritual

sides. “Movement is motivated by emotion, and the instrument of its expression

there must be a human body.” “With all the grace of your being, your

with her pirouettes, yearnings, trembling nakedness under the veils, she created

created a new language, an ensemble of metaphors capable of conveying musical

times,” wrote composer Gustave Charpentier.

Isadora was the first to use ugly movements as an important element

dance ment. "Dance of the Furies", created by her in 1911, showed how

ugly dance moves can help express feelings and

emotions. For her, the only criterion for assessing movement was answers to

questions: is it natural? Is it true? Is it expressive? “She reproduced

in his dance he exhausts the whole gamut of human emotions, - said Fokin, -

America's Greatest Gift to the Arts."

With the outbreak of the First World War, Isadora began to create dances based on

political and social themes such as "La Marseillaise" and "Slavic

All American representatives of modern dance considered themselves post-

by A. Duncan, despite the fact that her creative path took shape in

mainly in Europe. Isadora had many followers, but became the main

she was not given the opportunity to be an innovator of a new direction in choreography.

. America's first modern dance school

In America, the first modern dance school was opened in 1915.

home of Shawn and Ruth St. Denis. The program of this dance school was “completely

enhancement of body, mind and soul." Pupils learned Spanish,

Greek and oriental dances. Use of Greek themes and symbols

phonic music - a clear influence of A. Duncan. At school, in addition to dance, we study

Other types of art and philosophy also began to appear. Much attention was paid

costume, which was considered an integral part of plastic expressiveness

sti. For the technical virtuosity and pomp of Denishawn's performance

purely compared with the Russian Ballets. The emergence of school and creative

the search for its organizers suggests that modern dance is gradually becoming

rotated into a certain dance system with its own principles and

laws of technical execution. The appearance of the school was the first attempt

how to systematize the “new” dance and Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis began

the first professional modern dance teachers.

Saint-Denis (1879-1968) was a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.

She shared the views of F. Delsarte and did gymnastics according to his system.

topic. She became famous for performing theatrical cult

dances of the East. “Ruth Saint-Denis was undoubtedly one of the brightest

stars of the new dance. It has achieved some kind of almost ideal embodiment

tion. Along with her realism, Ruth St. Denis was intoxicating with a striking sensibility.

lism of her image. Her dance is spontaneous, reckless, crazy, at the same time

deeply thought out, conscious... Of all the considered options for Ruth's dance

Saint Denis alone has style." Ruth Saint-Denis was fascinated by oriental tan-

So, later, after breaking up with Ted Shawn, she organized in New York

oriental dance school, where I conducted yoga and meditation sessions. "Before 1963

“I gave concerts, gave lectures, and taught for years.”

Ted Shawn (1891-1972) was a dancer, teacher, and choreographer.

rum He started dancing at the age of 17. In 1910 he organized a school and

a small troupe. In 1914 he became a partner of R. Saint-Denis. T. Shawn

led a men's dance group. “He laid the foundation for professional

nal American male dance. Using in dance performances

Valian folklore of different peoples, including American Indians, T.

Shawn has enriched the vocabulary of modern dance.” Denis Shawn School was

professional school and existed until the 30s of the 20th century, giving

birth of the first generation of American choreographers and performers

modern dance Such famous teachers and choreographers came from this school.

phys, like Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Martha Graham.

Martha Graham - founder of the modern dance system.

Principles and laws of motion in her technique

In the history of modern dance, one name stands above all. This name is Martha Grae-

chem. She was born into the family of a psychiatrist in the city of Allegheny (Aleghsney),

Pennsylvania May II, 1893. Her family's ancestors were early American

Caen settlers, Irish great-grandfather came to America from Scotland with

goal to make a career in Pittsburgh. Nanny, Catholic Lizzie, incredible

a thinker, knew many fairy tales. As a child, the future famous dancer

The girl was surrounded by servants in the house and gardeners - Japanese and Chinese. So about

At the same time, M. Graham was influenced by two religions: Presbyterian and Romani.

but Catholic. After studying at college, in 1916 she began to seriously

New dance class at Denishawn School in Los Angeles. by her teachers

there were Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. T. Shawn drew attention to the dark-skinned ex-

centric girl with long strong legs and gave her a leading role in

fantastic ballet “Xochitl” to the music of Grun. So the dance began

shaft career M. Graham.

“Small, with black hair, a long face and very, very

thin. She did whatever she wanted with her body. She had a small one

the foot is as flexible as it is strong. She was small in stature, but in her

there lived enormous power. It was God’s gift of strength and flexibility...,” recalls M.

Cunningham. She was characterized by lyrical qualities and a well-learned

“Deni-shown” has an oriental style of performance.

Until 1923, M. Graham worked in the school troupe, performing leading

roles in plays. She is drawn to find her own path in choreography. "IN

our days, when people are opposed to hostile and threatening re-

ality, choreography can no longer be just art - self-willed

a whim of the imagination or the revival of a beautiful romantic dream.

A person does not want to forget himself, but to know himself. Dance must become an act

active participation in life, a necessity,” said M. Graham. Since 1923

year she begins dancing in the Broadway revue Greenwich Village Follies,

choreographing dances for myself. Since 1926 - begins teaching in the theater

1926 M. Graham made her debut in New York with great success as

choreographer, but for now maintaining an exotic style of dance taken from

Denishawn School.

In 1927, M. Graham organized her own troupe of those devoted to her

students and begins to create her own style of dance and choreography.

This happened during the formation of the art of modern dance as

directions in choreography. It was at this time that M. Graham began to make

the first steps in creating your own unique technology.

Significant influence on the formation of M.’s aesthetic views.

Graham was favored by the composer Louis Horst, with whom she had a deep connection

personal and creative relationships. L. Horst was for M. Graham her

support “pillar”, a person who was initiated into her creative

quest. He introduced M. Graham to the ideas of Mary Wigman, a representative

German expressionist school of dance. Expressive-plastic

dance M. Wigman considered a biologically natural reflection

certain moments of a person’s psychological state,

contrasting it with classical ballet. "She dances without music, and her

an impeccably developed body, allowing all turns and poses, and her

dancing against the backdrop of Yoda, sky and earth contrasts with all the most wonderful

the extravagance of expressionism, as a magnificent promise of the future - organ-

the individuality of dance, which should not be confused with the old "natural"

"Isadora's naturalism." Mary Wigman believed that space is the world

dancer, this is a reflection of infinity, a symbol of the ever-changing

around the dance environment. Movement fills the dancer's soul with delight

complete merging with space, and these ideas turned out to be close to M. Graham.

The dancer must “peer, think through space,” as

if it were impenetrable, moving - “listen to

space” and “carve” a place for yourself in it. Getting to know the views

German dancer helped M. Graham free herself from stylization

and exoticism inherited from Saint Denis.

In her creative searches, she determined that the movement was

depends on three basic constants: time, space, energy. He

believed that the performer’s internal energy was released and

“splashes out” into space during the dance. Like K.S. Stanislavsky,

M. Graham emphasized that emotion provokes movement.

Movement, she believed, should and can define emotion more accurately,

than words. “No matter what the words say, the movements never lie..., dance

should not do anything that you can say in words. He must

expressed through actions colored by deep feelings that can

be expressed only by movements." Having created her own school and troupe, she

She also created her own language of movements, developing in detail its execution technique.

An important component of her technique was the so-called internal impulse:

"She not only used our bodies, she also used our souls,

our inner life...”, her students recall.

M. Graham's technique lessons began with simple movements that

turned into long dance chains with the addition of various

positions of arms and legs and changes in directions, levels of movement This new

the technique was very bold and was not limited by generally accepted

traditions and stereotypes. She started with her own beautiful body

Graham and the extraordinary movements she performed. This technique

dance was and is an opportunity to find a way of self-expression through

body movement in dance, the appearance of which is largely made up of breathing. M.

Graham found the answer to her own questions by discovering new movement

body capabilities. She paved the way to create her own style

dance using contraction and release. Any movement must be

motivated by the dancer's inner life. Martha said that when

inner life is not developed, “sterility” develops, and lack of

motivation will lead to meaningless movement, meaningless movement

Towards decline. This is a completely new approach to the physics of motion, subordinate

breathing and anatomical changes during the respiratory process. M.

Graham exposed the mechanism of movement - effort and relaxation, carefully

hidden in classical dance. These became the most important elements of its

technology, its concept of movement based on “compression -

release." It is an outpouring that fills the entire body. She said,

that movement must not be invented, but discovered within oneself. Martha Graham

used all sorts of ways to awaken the imagination, including

lessons work on hundreds of animal images. Marta taught in free

manner, fully concentrating on the subject. Every year to classes

new movements were added.

In 1938, Eric Hawkins came into Martha's life. He became the first

a man in the troupe, and later her husband. His UOI appearance was coming

femininity in art M. Graham. This was a new stage in her life and

creativity. “With the arrival of men, the character of the company changed, and with it

this changed the technology. What was smooth and strong has now become

weightless and swift, like mercury,” recall the first performers

Martha Graham troupe.

M. Graham introduces a classical dance lesson into the troupe’s work, which

Eric Hawkins began teaching. He was classically trained and before

upon joining the company, he danced in the Balankhinsky Ballet. There were dancers

shocked by the appearance of a machine in the studio. Ballet was an antagonist for them.

“I loved her old technique more. Yes, people had knee pain. But this

it was more inventive, it was more exciting. A lot of

exercises with parallel legs have disappeared, exercises on the floor too

were changed...,” recalls John Butler. Technology has expanded and

enriched, but the basic technical principles remained unchanged. E.

Hawkins, dancing in "American Document" (1938), added to the movement

weight, power and strength, which was not there before. In "Letter to the World" (1940)

An established men's group participated. M. Graham has changed a lot here

his technique for the sake of creating “masculine” movements. Inside some

variations and parts of the scenes the main dance of men and women retained

gender relations, but more in an emotional sense than through

movements. The main changes were brought about by the introduction of men's

athleticism, which was a significant change in vocabulary. In the 40s V

the troupe began to receive dancers with classical choreographic

preparation. M. Graham, taking into account and using classical dance, created

his own system of correlation between classical dance and his own technique. She

was interested in using classical dance to develop

of your technology.

M. Graham, interested in all types of art, created her own “theater

dance." She approached the process of creating an image like a dramatic actor.

Dramatic training of performers was important in the troupe

Graham. The dramatic approach to the dance was obvious, this was facilitated by

the inner depth of Graham's creativity, her superhuman strength and

a dramatic talent that was legendary. It would be appropriate here

cite the recollections of John Butler, a member of the troupe from 1943 to 1953: “I

heard her sobs. It wasn't just crying or even despair. This

there was something greater and deeper, almost animal suffering. These were the streams

tears. There was something extraordinary, something out of a Gothic story or

Greek tragedies." This happened after breaking up with Eric Hawkins.

Throughout Graham's life, her technique continually grew,

expanded and changed. But she always remained that “...from which we

depended not only for endurance training, but also for obtaining

source to the motivation of emotional satisfaction,” says Peter

Sperling, company dancer from 1973 to 1987, associate professor of dance at

University of Michigan. Members of the troupe helped M. Graham in creating

and conducting classes and experiments, calling her studio a “temple of the pelvic

truths." In 1957, the film “The World of the Dancer” was shot, where they reveal

Graham's main ideas and her troupe are presented. Sophie Maslova and Gertrude

Schurr, being in the company of Graham, made a practical Description of the lesson and

We created a detailed training program. In practice, this program has 4

level of study and takes about three years. The program includes, in addition to

studying Graham technique, studying music, composition, educational

seminars and performances.

In the Graham technique, the class begins on the ground. Next came

kneeling exercises, knee bending exercises, which

developed into a series of movements in order to rise from the butt. Movements

body and arms were performed in a standing position using various

jumping along class diagonals and in circles. New patterns have been introduced

counts: slow quarter, double count for percussive movement or count

thirds for lyrical movements. Changing accent and counting, mixing

rhythms and uneven metering have become familiar to modern dance.

Patterns of 10 or 5 counts also became common. Dancers must dance

barefoot. “They have to come to class and get their bodies ready to go.

School is a disciplined place because there is only one

freedom is discipline,” said M. Graham, “I prefer to teach

their students from the age of nine. I'm biased towards availability

previous training and would prefer it to be ballet. Eat

things that should be familiar: fifth position, for example, then pile,

the use of various zela poses, but only ordered ones.”

In 1970, at the age of 76, having been 49 years on stage, M Graham

left the troupe. "My body can't do what I want anymore," she said.

she. She fell into depression, losing her desire to live. Renaissance

happened only in 1973: “My work must continue even if I

I can’t dance on my own anymore.” M. Graham continued to live, rehearsing,

traveling, creating new dances for the troupe and observing classes at the School.

In 1984 she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. Until the very last

She remained elegant and smart throughout the day. In 1991, M. Graham passed away.

Her book, The Martha Graham Notebooks, published in 1973, sheds light on

sources of Graham's creativity as a dancer and choreographer.

Having traced the life path of M. Graham, we can confidently say that

her dancing technique changed as her personality changed

performer, who has transformed in her aesthetic perception,

in an intuitive search for movements that would reflect social

Problems. “You have so little time to prepare for a birth in

a moment, for a moment,” noted M. Graham.

“We remember Martha” - this is the title the series is published under

interviews and memoirs edited by Joseph X. Mazo. The author creates

portrait of a purposeful artist devoted to art, faithful

certain principles and values of evolutionary change. This is a portrait

a woman who, aware of her strength, is ready to admit mistakes and begin

create anew: “She could be merciless with her

dancers and generously inspire them. She could be sharp and tactful,

had a sharp mind and loved to laugh, loved soda, counted sweat in

class "pure pretense", was practical. And those who worked with her

they understood that they were communicating with a genius.”

At the beginning of the 20th century. she, in fact, became the oracle of the choreography of the new

time. Various ideas of European and American modern dance have been found

in her work the most holistic and versatile realization. At the same

time, the art of M. Graham was the fruitful basis of a new stage

development of modern dance. Directly or indirectly, her work influenced

almost all foreign choreographers who came on stage at the beginning

fifties of the XX century. School of Contemporary Dance M. Graham,

established in 1927 in New York, is now the largest center

Historically, dance was used by people as part of religious rituals and public celebrations. Evidence of this is found in many documents from the prehistoric era. Court dances have probably existed as long as kings and queens. The variety of dance forms included folk, social, ballroom, religious and experimental and other forms. A major branch of this art was Theater Dance, which originated in the Western World. The roots of modern ballet, the dance that we all know, go back to France in the sixteenth century - the Renaissance.

Most choreographers and dancers of the early 20th century had an extremely negative attitude towards ballet. Isadora Duncan considered it ugly, meaningless gymnastics. Martha Graham (Graham) saw in him Europeanism and imperialism, which had nothing in common with the Americans. Merce Cunningham, despite using some basic ballet technique in his teaching, approached choreography and performance from a position directly opposed to traditional ballet.

The twentieth century was definitely a time of breaking away from everything that ballet had been based on. A time of unprecedented creative growth for dancers and choreographers. A time of shock, surprise and spectators who changed their understanding of dance. A time of revolution in the full sense of the word.

The sixties marked the development of postmodernism, which changed course towards simplicity, the beauty of small things, untrained bodies and artless, simple movements. The famous "No" manifesto, rejecting all costumes, plots and "show" for the sake of raw, unprocessed movement, is perhaps the brightest extreme of this wave of new thought. Unfortunately, the lack of costumes, plots and props does not contribute to the success of a dance show - and after a short time, “scenery”, “art design” and “shock level” again appeared in the lexicon of modern dance choreographers.

By the eighties, classical dance returned to its starting point, and modern dance (or, by this time, contemporary dance) became a highly technical weapon of professionals, not far from politics. Two forms of dance, contemporary dance and classical ballet, peacefully coexist side by side, experiencing only a tiny fraction of former hostility towards each other and almost without entering into rivalry. Today, the art of dance is imbued with creative competition and choreographers often strive to ensure that their work is called the most shocking. However, there is still beauty in art, and modern dance amazes with such professionalism, strength and flexibility that have never been seen before.

To understand what modern dance is today, it is necessary to turn to its history, starting from the reason for the emergence of a new direction.

So, at the beginning of the 20th century, a new dance direction appeared in America and Europe (called modern by the Americans and contemporary dance by the Europeans), as an alternative to the existing classical ballet, as one of the ways to express new feelings and thoughts characteristic of art of that time, boldly rejecting the conventions of ballet forms, differing from it in greater freedom and expressiveness of means.

There were several major figures at the origins. The new vision of dance was greatly influenced by the ideas of the French teacher, composer F. Delsarte (1881-1971), who argued that only natural gesture, freed from conventions and stylization, is capable of conveying human feelings.

The Swiss teacher and composer Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) connected music education with the movement. Music must be “physically experienced.” Based on Dalcroze's ideas, the Institute of Rhythm worked in Leningrad in the 1920s, whose employees sought to create “dancing music.”

If Delsarte and Jacques-Dalcroze are theorists and authors of the concept of new dance, then the famous American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) is considered the direct founder of modernism, who embodied the idea into movement. Accusing classical ballet of being soulless and artificial, Duncan sought to reproduce free plasticity, the plasticity of Ancient Greece, and danced barefoot in light transparent tunics. It is difficult to describe modern dance more accurately than Duncan herself did in her autobiography “My Confession”: “Freedom of body and spirit gives rise to creative thought, body movements must be an expression of internal impulse. The dancer must get used to moving as if the movement never ends, it always exists the result of internal comprehension. The body in dance should be forgotten, it is only an instrument, well-tuned and harmonious. In gymnastics, only the body is expressed through movements, but in dance, feelings and thoughts are expressed through the body." “Isadora made us consider the art of dance important and noble. She made us consider it an art” (Agnes de Mille).

It should be noted that the time itself - the beginning of the 20th century - was fertile ground for the emergence and development of ideas that reflected a person’s new perception of himself and the world. The language of ballet dance, so familiar and predictable, no longer corresponded to the changed life, since it depicted a person in whom faith was lost. Ballet remained a classic, and emerging artistic movements, such as expressionism and surrealism, found expression in the productions of modernist choreographers in Europe and America.

Modern dance is one of the areas of modern foreign choreography, which originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. in the USA and Germany. The term "modern dance" originated in the United States to describe stage choreography that rejected traditional ballet forms. Having come into use, it replaced other terms (free dance, Duncanism, barefoot dance, rhythmic dance, expressive, expressionistic, absolute, new artistic) that arose in the process of development of this direction. What was common to representatives of modern dance, regardless of which movement they belonged to and in what period they proclaimed their aesthetic programs, was the intention to create new choreography that, in their opinion, met the spiritual needs of man in the 20th century. Its main principles: rejection of canons, embodiment of new themes and plots using original dance and plastic means.

In an effort to achieve complete independence from traditions, representatives of modern dance eventually came to the adoption of certain technical techniques, in opposition to which a new direction was born. The goal of a complete departure from traditional ballet forms could not be fully realized in practice.

The ideas of modern dance were anticipated by the famous French teacher and stage movement theorist F. Delsarte, who argued that only a gesture freed from convention and stylization (including musical) is capable of truthfully conveying all the nuances of human experiences. His ideas became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century after they were artistically realized by two American dancers who toured in Europe. L. Fuller performed in 1892 in Paris. Her dance "Serpentine" was based on a spectacular combination of free body movements, spontaneously generated by the music, and costume - huge fluttering bedspreads, illuminated by multi-colored spotlights.

Isadora Duncan - the founder of a new direction

Duncan considered nature to be her source of inspiration. Expressing personal feelings, her art had no common features with any choreographic system. It appealed to the heroic and romantic images generated by music of the same nature. The technique was not complicated, but with a relatively limited set of movements and poses, the dancer conveyed the subtlest shades of emotions, filling the simplest gestures with deep poetic content. Duncan did not create a complete school, although she opened the way to something new in the art of choreography. Improvisation, barefoot dancing, rejection of the traditional ballet costume, turning to symphonic and chamber music - all these fundamental innovations of Duncan predetermined the path of modern dance

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….3

1.1 History of dance. Modern dance……………………………5

1.2 Duncan is the founder of a new direction……….13

2.1 Started dancing even before birth…………………..14

2.2 The Great “Sandal”……………………………………………………….16

Conclusion……………………………………………………………27

References……………………………………………………...30

Introduction:

As a child, Isadora was unhappy - her father, Joseph Duncan, went bankrupt and ran away before she was born, leaving his wife with four children in her arms without a means of support. Little Isadora, who, having hidden her age, was sent to school at the age of 5, felt like a stranger among her prosperous classmates. This feeling, common to all Duncan children, rallied them around their mother, forming the “Duncan clan,” challenging the whole world.

At the age of 13, Isadora left school, which she considered completely useless, and took up music and dancing seriously, continuing her self-education.

At the age of 18, young Duncan came to conquer Chicago and almost married her admirer. It was a red-haired, bearded forty-five-year-old Pole, Ivan Miroski. The problem was that he was also poor. And in addition, as it turned out later, he is also married. This failed romance marked the beginning of a series of failures in her personal life that haunted the dancer her entire life. Duncan has never been completely, unconditionally happy.

Relevance of the topic.Isadora insisted that dance should be a natural continuation of human movement, reflect the emotions and character of the performer, and the impulse for the appearance of dance should be the language of the soul. All these ideas, innovative in nature, naturally came into conflict with the ballet school of that time. A harsh assessment of the ballet itself, however, did not prevent Duncan from admiring the grace and artistry of two Russian ballerinas - Kshesinskaya and Pavlova. Moreover, with the latter they later even became good friends who sincerely appreciated each other’s talent.

The dancer's performances began at social parties, where she was presented as a piquant addition, an exotic curiosity: Isadora danced barefoot, which was new and quite shocked the audience.

The tour significantly improved Duncan's financial situation, and in 1903 she and her family made a pilgrimage to Greece. Dressed in tunics and sandals, the eccentric foreigners caused quite a stir on the streets of modern Athens. The travelers did not limit themselves to simply studying the culture of their beloved country; they decided to make their contribution by building a temple on Kapanos Hill. In addition, Isadora selected 10 boys for the choir, which accompanied her performances with singing.

Target works: consider the work of Isadora Duncan.

Tasks:

1. Show Isadora Duncan as the founder of modern dance;

2. Describe the biography and work of Isadora.

CHAPTER I. Isadora Duncan, founder of modern dance

1.1 History of dance. Modern dance

Perhaps the history of dance is no shorter than the history of mankind. We can only guess what dancing looked like in early eras.

Natya Shastra is an early manuscript describing dance. It is based on a modern interpretation of the classical Indian dance Bharathanatyam.

In European culture, one of the first mentions of dance is made by Homer in his “Iliad” - he describes chorea (Greek round dance, dance).

The early Greeks developed the art of dancing into a system expressing a variety of passions. For example, the dance of the Furies terrified everyone who was watching it. The Greek philosopher Aristotle equated dance with poetry and argued that dancers, through body movements in a certain rhythm, can convey manners, passions and actions. Outstanding Greek sculptors studied the poses of dancers imitating certain states.

Pre-history of dance

16th and 17th centuries: court dance

The prerequisite for the emergence of ballet was a new way of thinking and the philosophy of the Enlightenment: now man became the center of the universe and could control his existence with the help of the arts and sciences. “By using music that exactly imitated the proportional harmony of the planets, sixteenth-century man believed that he could attract planetary influences to himself. The dance itself was an imitation of the movement of the heavens" (Designing for the Dancer, Elron Press, London, 1981).

By the end of the 16th century, court ballet had reached its peak: it was entirely financed by the French monarchy, which used it to extol its own greatness. Ballets became part of luxurious, huge holiday extravaganzas that lasted for several days in a row and included all types of entertainment. Essentially, all these holidays were a way of self-aggrandizement of the French Court.

18th and 19th centuries: from court dancing to Romanticism

Already by the beginning of the 18th century, ballet migrated from the French Court to the Paris Opera to the versatile theatrical figure Jean-Baptiste Lully, who “preserved the basic concept of ballet - the complexity of the form, in which dance is an integral and significant element.” During this century, ballet spread throughout Europe and evolved from a sophisticated way of moving images during a major performance into a performance art in its own right, ballet d'action. This new form almost completely destroyed the artificiality inherent in court dance and established a new law: “art should strive to imitate nature, nature.” As a result, costumes and choreography became freer and more conducive to revealing the expressive talents of the body. The door opened to the world of naturalistic costumes and heelless shoes - pointe shoes, which provided the dancer with great opportunities when lifting onto half-toes.

The Romantic era of the early 19th century, with ballets focusing on emotion, fantasy and rich spiritual worlds, marked the beginning of true pointe work. Now the ideal ballerina (whose qualities were then embodied in the legendary Marie Taglioni) in her shoes seemed to barely touch the surface of the stage and her disembodied spirit seemed not to know what the earth was. At this time, the rising stars of female dance completely eclipsed the presence of the poor male dancers, who were in many cases dubbed simply moving statues, existing only for the ballerinas to lean on. This situation was slightly corrected at the beginning of the twentieth century by the rise of Nijinsky's star from the Russian Ballet. By this time, our traditional ballet costumes, choreography, scenery, props had already developed, in a word, everything had become almost the same as it is now.

The beginning of the twentieth century: from ballet to modern dance

The Russian ballet, which started a revolution in ballet art, tried to break the outdated forms of classical ballet. Currently, the artistic possibilities of ballet technique and accompanying music, scenery and multimedia are more global than ever before. The boundaries that define classical ballet are constantly being pushed and blurred, and what emerges in their place now barely evokes traditional ballet terms like “spin.”

New thinking broke out. Dance artists began to take into account personality traits, ritual and religious aspects, primitiveness, expressiveness and emotionality. In this atmosphere there was a boom in modern dance. Suddenly there was a new freedom in what was now considered acceptable, called accepted art, in which many people now wanted to create. All the attributes of the new art became as valuable as ballet costumes - or even more valuable than them.

Most choreographers and dancers of the early 20th century had an extremely negative attitude towards ballet. Isidora Duncan considered it ugly, meaningless gymnastics. Martha Graham (Graham) saw in him Europeanism and imperialism, which had nothing in common with the Americans. Merce Cunningham, despite using some basic ballet technique in his teaching, approached choreography and performance from a position directly opposed to traditional ballet.

Late twentieth century: development of modern dance

To understand what modern dance is today, it is necessary to turn to its history, starting from the reason for the emergence of a new direction.

The Swiss teacher and composer Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) connected music education with the movement. Music must be “physically experienced.” Based on Dalcroze’s ideas, the Institute of Rhythm worked in Leningrad in the 1920s, whose employees sought to create “dancing music.”

If Delsarte and Jacques-Dalcroze are theorists and authors of the concept of new dance, then the famous American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) is considered the direct founder of modernism, who embodied the idea into movement. Accusing classical ballet of being soulless and artificial, Duncan sought to reproduce free plasticity, the plasticity of Ancient Greece, and danced barefoot in light transparent tunics. It is difficult to describe modern dance more accurately than Duncan herself did in her autobiography “My Confession”: “Freedom of body and spirit gives rise to creative thought, body movements should be an expression of internal impulse. The dancer must get used to moving as if the movement never ends, it is always the result of internal comprehension. The body in dance should be forgotten, it is just an instrument, well-tuned and harmonious. In gymnastics, only the body is expressed through movements, but in dance, feelings and thoughts are expressed through the body.” “Isadora made us consider the art of dance important and noble. She made him consider it art” (Agnes de Mille).

It should be noted that time itself - the beginning of the 20th century - was fertile ground for the emergence and development of ideas that reflected a person’s new perception of himself and the world. The language of ballet dance, so familiar and predictable, no longer corresponded to the changed life, since it depicted a person in whom faith was lost. Ballet remained a classic, and emerging artistic movements, such as expressionism and surrealism, found expression in the productions of modernist choreographers in Europe and America.

MODERN DANCE, one of the directions of modern foreign choreography, which originated in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. in the USA and Germany. The term "modern dance" originated in the United States to describe stage choreography that rejected traditional ballet forms. Having come into use, it replaced other terms (free dance, Duncanism, barefoot dance, rhythmic dance, expressive, expressionistic, absolute, new artistic) that arose in the process of development of this direction. What was common to representatives of modern dance, regardless of which movement they belonged to and in what period they proclaimed their aesthetic programs, was the intention to create new choreography that, in their opinion, met the spiritual needs of man in the 20th century. Its main principles: rejection of canons, embodiment of new themes and plots using original dance and plastic means.

The ideas of modern dance were anticipated by the famous French teacher and stage movement theorist F. Delsarte, who argued that only a gesture freed from convention and stylization (including musical) is capable of truthfully conveying all the nuances of human experiences. His ideas became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century after they were artistically realized by two American dancers who toured in Europe. L. Fuller performed in 1892 in Paris. Her dance “Serpentine” was based on a spectacular combination of free body movements, spontaneously generated by the music, and costume - huge fluttering bedspreads, illuminated by multi-colored spotlights.

1.2 Duncan is the founder of a new direction

However, the founder of a new direction in choreography was A. Duncan. Her preaching of renewed antiquity, the “dance of the future,” returned to natural forms, free not only from theatrical conventions, but also historical and everyday ones, had a great influence on many artists who sought to free themselves from academic dogmas. Duncan considered nature to be her source of inspiration. Expressing personal feelings, her art had no common features with any choreographic system. It appealed to the heroic and romantic images generated by music of the same nature. The technique was not complicated, but with a relatively limited set of movements and poses, the dancer conveyed the subtlest shades of emotions, filling the simplest gestures with deep poetic content. Duncan did not create a complete school, although she opened the way to something new in the art of choreography. Improvisation, barefoot dancing, rejection of the traditional ballet costume, turning to symphonic and chamber music - all these fundamental innovations of Duncan predetermined the path of modern dance

CHAPTER II. Biography and creativity of Isadora

2.1 Started dancing even before birth

If she had been born not on May 26, 1878, but in Ancient Hellas, the priests would have seen in her gift the earthly incarnation and revived “practice” of the muse Terpsichore. If she had not lived in the disturbed Europe of the beginning of the bloody 20th century, modern feminists would have made her their tribune and role model. If she had not been mortal, people would never have known that even the frantic grief of loss cannot extinguish in the heart of a woman who devoted herself to art the desire to find her male god, the inspirational god Apollo. Well, the most surprising thing about her romantic life was that a rare biographer did not feel a sense of confusion from the huge number of mystical details, the cloying and concentration of which for a fictional literary image could become a reason for criticism to accuse the writer of promoting fatalism and the far-fetchedness of the plot. Are you a vessel in which there is emptiness, or a fire flickering in a vessel? This was not said about her, but nevertheless one day a bright spark of divine fire flared up for her, illuminating the path in art, in one of the Greek vases depicting an ancient dance, which made the famous Isadora Duncan out of the aspiring American ballerina.

On that May day when Isadora Angela Duncan was born, the mother of the future star of European scenes suffered two disappointments at once: the first sounds she heard, barely recovering from childbirth, were the furious screams from the street of the depositors of her husband’s bank, who had fled the day before with their savings, God knows. Where; the first thing that the unfortunate woman saw was that the newborn was almost convulsively beating the air with her legs. “I knew that a monster would be born,” she told the midwife, “this child cannot be normal, he jumped and jumped while still in my womb, this is all punishment for the sins of her father, the scoundrel Joseph...” She did not see in The baby's first movements are a mirror image of her future fate. However, despite the complete lack of the gift of foresight, the music teacher managed to put her daughter and three older children on their feet without the help of a rogue father, and even gave them a good education. However, these efforts were of little use to Isadora: at the age of 13, she dropped out of school and became seriously interested in music and dancing. Nevertheless, the attempt to conquer Chicago ended in nothing for her, except for the first stormy romance with a fiery-red seducer - married Pole Ivan Miroski, who burned her soul to such an extent that the dancer chose to escape from bitter happiness to Europe, not even disdaining that the only type of transport that she could afford at that time was the hold on a ship for transporting livestock. Foggy London breathed upon her the stiffness and intimacy of secular salons, which, in conditions of fierce competition, could only be conquered by something stunning. Just what – temperament? On the other side of the English Channel, her main rival Mata Hari had already found her credo in dance, risking undressing in front of the public, and bewitched her with oriental steps.

2.2 The Great "Sandal"

In deep thought, Isadora wandered through the halls of the British Museum and searched, searched... The grace and artistry of the outstanding Russian ballerinas Kshesinskaya and Pavlova were too academic and implied a long and grueling drill with lessons, enslavement by a jeweled dogma. The greedy American had neither time nor mental strength for all this - she breathed a thirst for freedom in art and in life... A huge red-figured antique vase, taken from Athens, caught my eye. A slight tilt of the head, fluttering folds of the tunic, a hand flying above the head in a graceful gesture. A bearded warrior sat at the dancer’s feet, raising a cup of wine. There is nothing more beautiful than a galloping horse, a sailing ship and a dancing woman. Through the centuries, the artist was able to convey the deep admiration of a man for the dancing hetaera, a representative of the most seductive, most free from humiliating life and the most educated female caste of the ancient world, performing at an artistic banquet of the classical era - a symposium. Who was this dancer, and who is her audience? She is Thais, Aspasia or Terpsichore herself; is he Pericles, an associate of the great Alexander Ptolemy... or one of the Greek gods in earthly form? A flame of insight flashed before Isadora...

Within a few days, she found a patron in the person of the famous actress Campbell, whom she infected with her idea - dance should be a symbol of freedom, a continuation of natural grace, speaking in the language of emotions, and not once and for all rehearsed gestures. The prudent queen of salons arranged a debut for her protégé at one of the private receptions, where she presented her almost as an “exotic appetizer.” And she made the right decision - the daring Isadora, who performed barefoot and wearing a tunic instead of a tutu, managed to largely copy ancient Greek performances, and saw admiration in the eyes of the audience. Success rushed ahead of her in the sandals of Hephaestus - already in 1903, Isadora was able to go on tour to the coveted Greece, where she honed her skills in plastic improvisation. She was applauded by the best stages in Europe, and her performances were sold out everywhere. And the newspapermen, like bloodhounds, rushed to investigate the details of the personal life of this amazing woman. And we also ran into a gold mine.

Finally, happiness smiled on Duncan: she was engaged for a small role in the New York theater by the famous Augustin Daly. This was an opportunity. Ivan Mirotsky fell into despair at the thought of separation. They swore eternal love. The girl promised that as soon as she achieved success in New York, they would immediately get married. At that time, Isadora was not yet an ardent supporter of free love, for which she later fought.

In New York she was accepted into the troupe. A year later she left with the theater on tour to Chicago. Isadora was looking forward to meeting her betrothed. It was a hot summer, and every day, free from rehearsals, they went into the forest and took long walks. Before leaving for New York, Isadora's brother found out that Mirotsky had a wife in London. The bride’s mother was horrified by this news and insisted on separation.

The unique style that distinguished Isadora Duncan's dance routines arose from her study of the dance art of Greece and Italy and was based on some elements of the system of rhythmic gymnastics developed by Francois Delsarte. In 1898, Isadora’s entire wardrobe was destroyed by a terrible fire at the Windsor Hotel in New York, so during her next performance she appeared in front of the public in an improvised costume that she herself had come up with. The audience was shocked - Isadora appeared on stage almost naked. From that time on, the strong, slender body of the young dancer began to be fitted with the famous flowing clothes, tied under the chest and on the shoulders in the ancient manner. She did not accept pointe shoes and danced like Aphrodite on her fingers. Her bare feet were beautiful, strong and light.

Isadora went on a grand tour of Europe and soon became the darling of the entire continent. She entered into a contract with impresario Alexander Gross, who organized her solo performances in Budapest, Berlin, Vienna and other European cities. Shocked but excited audiences flocked to theaters to watch the passionate dance performance of a half-naked Isadora, improvising to the music of famous composers (Strauss's "Blue Danube" or Chopin's "Funeral March").

Isadora was one of those who chooses her own men. And, one must admit, she chose with excellent taste. In Budapest, the talented actor and handsome Magyar Oscar Berezhi chose a career over a relationship with her, then the writer and teacher Henrik Thode broke under the weight of sanctimonious morality and broke up with Isadora after the first scandal of his legal wife. Then theater director Gordon Craig appeared in her life, already engaged to someone else. At the age of 29, the dancer received the first award in her life from this unhappy love - her daughter Deirdre was born, which means “sadness” in Celtic. It was then, having suffered after a difficult birth, Isadora made a statement, later picked up by feminists: “Who came up with the idea that a woman should give birth in pain? I don’t want to hear about any women’s social movements until someone figures out how make childbirth painless. It's time to stop this senseless agony." And yet, after the marriage of the next “Apollo” with his former bride, the great dancer made a disappointing conclusion for herself: love and marriage do not always go hand in hand, and love itself cannot be eternal. At the end of 1907, she gave several concerts in St. Petersburg, where she met a new candidate for the role of the only man for the rest of her life. She was unlucky again - Konstantin Stanislavsky, also a genius and also a handsome man, made it clear to her that he saw in Isadora nothing more than the ideal embodiment of some of his ideas.

The world-famous “barefoot”, with her deafening romances with married men, broke taboos rooted in the consciousness of society, and those who could give her long-awaited happiness were happy that they were her lovers, nothing more. She remained alone on her dance Olympus, giving the ungrateful a return to the distant origins of art. At this stage of her life, she seemed to have almost touched the realization of the eternal female dream, having met the sleek and handsome rich man Paris Eugene Singer, the heir to the inventor of the sewing machine. He not only paid all her overdue bills, but was even ready to propose marriage. However, he was so jealous that he set a condition for marriage, stipulating a place for Isadora somewhere between a toothbrush and a sewing machine. Isadora said that she could not be bought. Almost immediately after their son Patrick was born, they separated. The new drama broke the actress: she began to imagine funeral marches, then two children’s coffins among the snowdrifts. “Madness” turned out to be a premonition of the first real trouble, because in a series of novels, children were its only light.

In January 1913, after meeting Singer, both of Isadora's children, together with their governess, were traveling by car from Paris to Versailles. On the road, the engine suddenly stopped, the driver looked under the hood and tugged something. The car, knocking the driver off his feet, took off and fell into the Seine along with its passengers. She never recovered from this loss. Isadora was haunted by visions - one day she imagined that she saw her babies entering the water. A passerby picked up a sobbing woman who had fallen to the ground. “Save my sanity, give me a child,” she moaned. The young man was engaged. The boy born from their relationship lived only a few days. Isadora began to drink, newspapermen even replaced her last name with Drunken (drunk).

Fortunately, she soon had the chance to start life from scratch. In 1921, Lunacharsky officially invited the aging dancer to open a dance school in Moscow. In response, she was the first of the Western artists to welcome the new revolutionary state and didn’t even go - she ran... But you can’t run far from yourself. In Soviet Russia, she was overtaken by a new fatal passion.

At one of the receptions, organized in the mansion allocated to her for the school of “experimental ballet,” the golden-haired Sergei Yesenin appeared. He was bewitched: not knowing a word of English, he took off his shoes and danced some kind of wild dance. But Isadora understood everything: she stroked his head, repeating only two Russian words - “angel” and “chort”. Three hours after they met, they left together into the magical Russian night... She was 44 years old, he was 26. But for both, this passion was the last, wild, exhausting. Was spiritual fusion possible for them? Hard to say. After all, Yesenin spoke only Russian, but she barely learned a dozen words in a foreign language. If they had understood each other in time, everything could have turned out differently...

The poet went crazy from her dance with a scarf, fiery and temperamental, when the scarlet cloth curled around the woman’s hot body, allegorically symbolizing the storm of revolution over the ever-young earth that gives life. But the idyll of their life together quickly ended: the “Moscow mischievous reveler” loved and hated Isadora. The great seductress, who in her work cherished great simplicity in art and female freedom, endured everything like a woman - both his crazy impulses and spree. And she even repeated through a stream of tears, having caught a boot that almost hit her head, in broken Russian: “Serozha, I love you.” And he, breaking free from her embrace, hid with friends, sending telegrams that it was all over, but returned again, overwhelmed by tenderness and repentance, and she ran her fingers through his curls when he fell face down on her knees... To snatch her beloved from permanent spree and disappointment with the poisonous rebuke of the then literary beau monde of new Russia, Isadora resorted to a trick - having formalized her marriage with him in 1922, she took Yesenin abroad. For the first time in her life, she, who had never been married before, was happy.

However, in Europe, the poet became even more sad after talking with Russian emigrants: “Here again they drink, fight and cry yellow sadness to the accompaniments. They curse their failures, remember Moscow Rus'...”. Since there was no sanatorium for the drinking Yesenin in Paris, Isadora took him to her homeland. In America, both were treated with squeamish apprehension, almost as a Trojan horse for the Bolsheviks in the sphere of culture. Duncan was not embarrassed by this: spitting on high society, “red Isadora” began performing in proletarian neighborhoods, she was received with a bang, life smiled at her. But here for the first time she learned what marriage is in the understanding of a man. When the press called the poet “young husband Duncan,” he literally exploded. Yesenin was patriarchal at heart and could not bear such humiliation. Hardly, to the point of unconsciousness and destruction of furniture in restaurants, he started drinking again. One day, having paid the bills for his “festivities,” Isadora could not stand it and told him: “Go home!” He left, but rushed to her again from the Belgian border, unable to bear the separation. Alas, it was no longer possible to glue the broken cup back together. Wild passion died, killing those in whom it lived, like a fatal disease. 2 years after the breakup, the poet was taken out of the loop at the Angleterre Hotel in St. Petersburg.

Duncan tried to lose herself in the dance. “Isadora dances everything that others say, sing, write, play and draw,” Maximilian Voloshin said about her, “she dances Beethoven’s “Seventh Symphony” and “Moonlight Sonata”, she dances “Primavera” by Botticelli and the poems of Horace.” But this was more a look back at the past than real life. Even a short affair with Russian pianist Viktor Serov could not resurrect her. She tried to commit suicide... A couple of days after she was pumped out, on September 14, 1927, in Nice, Isadora Duncan got behind the wheel of a sports car. It was cool, but she refused to put on a coat, tying a long scarf around her neck. The car took off, but did not travel even a hundred meters. The end of the scarlet scarf was pulled into the spokes of the wheel by a gust of wind... The head of the 50-year-old dancer fell sharply, slamming her face into the car door. The scarlet scarf strangled her.

It is hardly worth looking for an allegory in this, they say, the founder of the new philosophy of natural dance was killed by the symbol of the revolution fluttering in the wind, just as the proletarian noose itself strangled free art. Dying, she managed to say: “Farewell, friends, I’m going to glory!” And in this glory was her happiness. Well deserved. Even if it is not as desired by her as the simple female happiness given to many.

Already in her young years, the girl rejected the strict canons of classical ballet, striving for naturalness in dance. Her first performances in America did not bring her success, and at the age of 21 she left the United States, sailing to England on a cattle ship. Her meager savings did not allow for more.

In London, she was taken under the patronage of the famous actress CAMPBELL, who invited the ballerina to perform at private receptions. By this time, Duncan’s dance had already been formed, taking as a basis examples of ancient Greek plastic art, which she studied in the halls of art of Ancient Greece in the British Museum. The ballerina changed her traditional ballet costume - a tutu - to a tunic, performed barefoot on stage, and abandoned the language of conventional gestures.

Duncan's innovation aroused the admiration of dance lovers, and she was soon greeted by packed theaters and concert halls throughout Europe. During her first visit to Russia in 1905, she attracted the attention of Sergei DYAGILEV. The ballerina's personal life was also a constant topic in newspaper headlines. As in art, she constantly broke taboos ingrained in people's minds. She gave birth to two children without marrying either father. In 1913, a tragedy occurred in Paris that shocked the ballerina. The car in which her children and the nanny accompanying them fell into the Seine, and all three drowned.

The year 1920 marked a new stage in the ballerina’s life: she was invited to Soviet Russia to organize her own ballet school. She was one of the first among Western artists to welcome the young revolutionary state, and this decision was quite consistent with her nature.

Her acquaintance with the poet Sergei Yesenin, who was 17 years younger than her, ended with their marriage in 1922. Duncan decided to tour the United States and went there with the poet. But the timing was bad: America was frightened by the “Red Menace” - and they were greeted as Bolshevik agents. The obstruction staged in Boston when she introduced Yesenin to the public during one of her performances forced her to leave her homeland with the words: “Farewell, America! I'll never see you again."

My stay in Europe was also unhappy. Yesenin left her, returned to the USSR and soon committed suicide. And two years later in 1927. Isadora also died tragically when, during a car ride, a long scarf draped around her neck fell under a car wheel and strangled the artist.

CONCLUSION:

Behind the ramp of white hyacinths against the backdrop of heavy folds of one-color fabric, suddenly emerging from the shadow hidden in them, slender half-maiden, half-adolescent figures in transparent tunics, dimly revealing the outlines of their bodies, silently, in the deep silence ensuing from the music, perform the joyful sacraments of dance ...

Among the general public there are the most distorted ideas about this emerging art. When they say: “Plastic dances”, “Ancient dances”, “dances a la Duncan”, “Sandals”, this only indicates a deep misunderstanding of the meaning of the phenomena taking place before our eyes.

Since Isadora Duncan appeared and, in her triumphant march across Europe, convinced us that the ancient element of dance had not died, everything that happened in this area became inevitably associated with her name. But she was not the first, because she herself was a student of Louis Fuller, who, in turn, followed the path first outlined by Francois Delsarte. Isadora Duncan only opened doors wide and opened paths to the future.

There is nothing more arbitrary than to look at these dances as illustrations of music, and on the other hand to treat them as a new form of ballet. The latter view is especially common. Ballet, which took on the form of a new dance, only aggravated the confusion. In fact, ballet and dance are different in their very essence. Ballet is for the eyes only. In ballet, the dancer is aware of himself, but only in gesture, only on the surface of the body. In the ancient dance associated with the name of Isadora Duncan, the rhythm rises from the very depths of a person’s unconscious essence, and a whirlwind of music carries away the body like the wind carries away a leaf.

The view that this new dance is an illustration of music is also incorrect. There is a deeper connection between music and dance. Music is the sensory perception of number. And if the orders of numbers and their combinations, on which a musical melody is built, are perceived by our being sensually, then this is only because our body, in its long biological evolution, was built in those numerical combinations that now sound to us in music.

Music is literally our body's memory of the history of creation. Therefore, each musical beat exactly corresponds to some kind of gesture, preserved somewhere in the memory of our body. An ideal dance is created when our whole body becomes a sounding musical instrument and for each sound, as its resonance, a gesture is born. That this is in fact the case is proven by hypnotic experiments: hypnotized people, given a known motive, repeat the same movements. The dances of the famous Madeleine dancing under hypnosis are based on this. But dancing under hypnosis is a cruel experience on the human soul, not art. The path of art is to achieve the same thing, but through conscious creativity and awareness of your body.

To make your body as sensitive and ringing as the wood of the old Stradivarius, to achieve the fact that it becomes entirely one musical instrument, sounding with internal harmonies - this is the ideal goal of the art of dance.

What is more beautiful than a human face, truly and harmoniously reflecting those waves of moods and feelings that rise from the depths of the soul? We need our whole body to become a face. This is the secret of Hellenic beauty; there the whole body was a mirror of the spirit. Dance is the same sacred ecstasy of the body as prayer is the ecstasy of the soul. Therefore, dance in its essence is the highest and most ancient of all arts. It is higher than music, it is higher than poetry, because in dance, outside the medium of words and outside the medium of an instrument, a person himself becomes an instrument, a song and a creator, and his whole body sounds like the timbre of a voice.

In her autobiography, she says this about her birth: The character of the child is determined already in the womb. She couldn't eat anything except oysters, which she washed down with ice-cold champagne. She and her family made a pilgrimage to Greece. By the eighties, classical dance returned to its starting point, and modern dance, or by this time contemporry dance, had become a highly technical weapon of professionals not far from politics.

Share your work on social networks

If this work does not suit you, at the bottom of the page there is a list of similar works. You can also use the search button

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….….3
CHAPTER I. Isadora Duncan, founder of modern dance
1.1 History of dance. Modern dance………………………………………….…5
1.2 Isadora Duncan is the founder of a new direction……………….8
CHAPTER II. Biography and creativity of Isadora
2.1 Ancient Greek plastic art of Isadora…………………………………….....9
2.2 The famous “sandal”………………………………………….……......11
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….……...17
References………………………………………………………......20

INTRODUCTION

Isadora Duncan's life promised to be unusual from the very beginning. In her autobiography, she says this about her birth: “The character of a child is determined already in the womb. Before my birth, my mother experienced a tragedy. She could not eat anything except oysters, which she washed down with ice-cold champagne. If they ask me when I started dancing, I answer - in the womb. Perhaps because of oysters and champagne."

Isadora was unhappy as a child; her father, Joseph Duncan, went bankrupt and ran away before she was born, leaving his wife with four children in her arms and no means of support. Little Isadora, who, having hidden her age, was sent to school at the age of 5, felt like a stranger among her prosperous classmates. This feeling, common to all Duncan children, rallied them around their mother, forming the “Duncan clan,” challenging the whole world.

At the age of 13, Isadora left school, which she considered completely useless, and took up music and dancing seriously, continuing her self-education.

Relevance of the work. Isadora insisted that dance should be a natural continuation of human movement, reflect the emotions and character of the performer, and the impulse for the appearance of dance should be the language of the soul. All these ideas, innovative in nature, naturally came into conflict with the ballet school of that time. A harsh assessment of the ballet itself, however, did not prevent Duncan from admiring the grace and artistry of two Russian ballerinas, Kshesinskaya and Pavlova. Moreover, with the latter they later even became good friends who sincerely appreciated each other’s talent.

The dancer's performances began at social parties, where she was presented as a piquant addition, an exotic curiosity: Isadora danced barefoot, which was new and quite shocked the audience.

Goal of the work : consider the work of Isadora Duncan.

Tasks :

1. Show Isadora Duncan as the founder of modern dance;

2. Describe the biography and work of Isadora.

CHAPTER I. Isadora Duncan, founder of modern dance

1.1 History of dance. Modern dance

The sixties marked the development of postmodernism, which changed course towards simplicity, the beauty of small things, untrained bodies and artless, simple movements. The famous “No” manifesto, which rejects all costumes, plots and “show-off” for the sake of raw, unprocessed movement, is perhaps the brightest extreme of this wave of new thought. Unfortunately, the lack of costumes, plots and props does not contribute to the success of the dance show and after a short time, “scenery”, “art design” and “shock level” again appeared in the vocabulary of modern dance choreographers.

To understand what modern dance is today, it is necessary to turn to its history, starting from the reason for the emergence of a new direction.

If Delsarte and Jacques-Dalcroze are theorists and authors of the concept of new dance, then the famous American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) is considered the direct founder of modernism, who embodied the idea into movement. Accusing classical ballet of being soulless and artificial, Duncan sought to reproduce free plasticity, the plasticity of Ancient Greece, and danced barefoot in light transparent tunics. It is difficult to describe modern dance more accurately than Duncan herself did in her autobiography “My Confession”: “Freedom of body and spirit gives rise to creative thought, body movements should be an expression of internal impulse. The dancer must get used to moving as if the movement never ends, it is always the result of internal comprehension. The body in dance should be forgotten, it is just an instrument, well-tuned and harmonious. In gymnastics, only the body is expressed through movements, but in dance, feelings and thoughts are expressed through the body.” “Isadora made us consider the art of dance important and noble. She made him consider it art” (Agnes de Mille).

The ideas of modern dance were anticipated by the famous French teacher and stage movement theorist F. Delsarte, who argued that only a gesture freed from convention and stylization (including musical) is capable of truthfully conveying all the nuances of human experiences. His ideas became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century after they were artistically realized by two American dancers who toured in Europe. L. Fuller performed in 1892 in Paris. Her dance “Serpentine” was based on a spectacular combination of free body movements, spontaneously generated by the music, and costume - huge fluttering bedspreads, illuminated by multi-colored spotlights.

1.2 Isadora Duncan - the founder of a new direction

Duncan considered nature to be her source of inspiration. Expressing personal feelings, her art had no common features with any choreographic system. It appealed to the heroic and romantic images generated by music of the same nature. The technique was not complicated, but with a relatively limited set of movements and poses, the dancer conveyed the subtlest shades of emotions, filling the simplest gestures with deep poetic content. Duncan did not create a complete school, although she opened the way to something new in the art of choreography. Improvisation, barefoot dancing, rejection of traditional ballet costume, turning to symphonic and chamber music all these fundamental innovations of Duncan predetermined the path of modern dance

CHAPTER II. Biography and creativity of Isadora

2.1 Ancient Greek sculpture of Isadora

On that May day when Isadora Angela Duncan was born, the mother of the future star of European scenes suffered two disappointments at once: the first sounds she heard, barely recovering from childbirth, were the furious screams from the street of the depositors of her husband’s bank, who had fled the day before with their savings, God knows. Where; the first thing that the unfortunate woman saw was that the newborn was almost convulsively beating the air with her legs. “I knew that a monster would be born,” she told the midwife, “this child cannot be normal, he was jumping and jumping while still in my womb, this is all punishment for the sins of her father, the scoundrel Joseph...” She did not see in The baby's first movements are a mirror image of her future fate. However, despite the complete lack of the gift of foresight, the music teacher managed to put her daughter and three older children on their feet without the help of a rogue father, and even gave them a good education. However, these efforts were of little use to Isadora: at the age of 13, she dropped out of school and became seriously interested in music and dancing. Nevertheless, the attempt to conquer Chicago ended in nothing for her, except for the first stormy romance with a fiery-red seducer - married Pole Ivan Miroski, who burned her soul to such an extent that the dancer chose to escape from bitter happiness to Europe, not even disdaining that the only type of transport that she could afford at that time was the hold of a ship for transporting livestock. Foggy London breathed upon her the stiffness and intimacy of secular salons, which, in conditions of fierce competition, could only be conquered by something stunning. But what about temperament? On the other side of the English Channel, her main rival Mata Hari had already found her credo in dance, risking undressing in front of the public, and bewitched her with oriental steps.

2.2 The famous “sandal”

In deep thought, Isadora wandered through the halls of the British Museum and searched, searched... The grace and artistry of the outstanding Russian ballerinas Kshesinskaya and Pavlova were too academic and implied a long and grueling drill with lessons, enslavement by a jeweled dogma. The greedy American had neither the time nor the mental strength for all this; she breathed a thirst for freedom in art and in life... A huge red-figured antique vase, taken from Athens, caught my eye. A slight tilt of the head, fluttering folds of the tunic, a hand flying above the head in a graceful gesture. A bearded warrior sat at the dancer’s feet, raising a cup of wine. There is nothing more beautiful than a galloping horse, a sailing ship and a dancing woman. Through the centuries, the artist was able to convey the deep admiration of a man for the dancing hetaera, a representative of the most seductive, most free from humiliating life and the most educated female caste of the ancient world, performing at the artistic banquet of the classical era symposium. Who was this dancer, and who was her audience? She is Thais, Aspasia or Terpsichore herself; is he Pericles, an associate of the great Alexander Ptolemy... or one of the Greek gods in earthly form? A flame of insight flashed before Isadora...

Within a few days, she found a patron in the person of the famous actress Campbell, whom she infected with her idea - dance should be a symbol of freedom, a continuation of natural grace, speaking in the language of emotions, and not once and for all rehearsed gestures. The prudent queen of salons arranged a debut for her protégé at one of the private receptions, where she presented her almost as an “exotic appetizer.” And she was right: the daring Isadora, who performed barefoot and wearing a tunic instead of a tutu, managed to largely copy ancient Greek performances, and saw admiration in the eyes of the audience. Success rushed ahead of her in the sandals of Hephaestus already in 1903, Isadora was able to go on tour to the coveted Greece, where she honed her skills in plastic improvisation. She was applauded by the best stages in Europe, and her performances were sold out everywhere. And the newspapermen, like bloodhounds, rushed to investigate the details of the personal life of this amazing woman. And we also ran into a gold mine.

Isadora was one of those who chooses her own men. And, one must admit, she chose with excellent taste. In Budapest, the talented actor and handsome Magyar Oscar Berezhi chose a career over a relationship with her, then the writer and teacher Henrik Thode broke under the weight of sanctimonious morality and broke up with Isadora after the first scandal of his legal wife. Then theater director Gordon Craig appeared in her life, already engaged to someone else. At the age of 29, the dancer received the first award in her life from this unhappy love - her daughter Deirdre was born, which means “sadness” in Celtic. It was then, having suffered after a difficult birth, Isadora made a statement, later picked up by feminists: “Who came up with the idea that a woman should give birth in pain? I don’t want to hear about any women’s social movements until someone figures out how make childbirth painless. It's time to stop this senseless agony." And yet, after the marriage of the next “Apollo” with his former bride, the great dancer made a disappointing conclusion for herself: love and marriage do not always go hand in hand, and love itself cannot be eternal. At the end of 1907, she gave several concerts in St. Petersburg, where she met a new candidate for the role of the only man for the rest of her life. She was unlucky again Konstantin Stanislavsky, also a genius and also a handsome man, made it clear to her that he saw in Isadora nothing more than the ideal embodiment of some of his ideas.

In January 1913, after meeting Singer, both of Isadora's children, together with their governess, were traveling by car from Paris to Versailles. On the road, the engine suddenly stopped, the driver looked under the hood and tugged something. The car, knocking the driver off his feet, took off and fell into the Seine along with its passengers. She never recovered from this loss. Isadora was haunted by visions; one day she imagined that she saw her babies entering the water. A passerby picked up a sobbing woman who had fallen to the ground. “Save my sanity, give me a child,” she moaned. The young man was engaged. The boy born from their relationship lived only a few days. Isadora began to drink, newspapermen even replaced her last name with Drunken (drunk).

CONCLUSION

Such an ideal dance may not yet exist. Isadora Duncan is only a promise of this future dance, only the first hint of it. But the path to its implementation has already begun.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Volynsky A.L. "Book of Rejoicings", 2000
2. Zakharov R. “Conversations about dance”, “Composition of dance”, “Notes of a choreographer” “The Art of a Choreographer”, 2003.
3. Smirnov “The Art of the Choreographer”, 2002
4. G. Denis & Luc Dassville "All Dances", 2004
5. Isadora Duncan “My Life”, “Dance of the Future” 2000
6. Kasatkina T.S. “Isadora”, 2003
7. Kostrovitskaya. V, Pisarev A. "School of Classical Dance", 2004
8. Tarasov "Classical dance. School of male performance", 2004.
9. Serebrennikov N.N. "Support in duet dance, 2002
10. Stukolkina N. “4 exercises”, 2001
11. Ustinova T. “Preserve the beauty of Russian dance”, 1999
12. Bekina S.I., Lomova T.P. "Music and Movement", 1998
13. Kokh I.E. "Fundamentals of Stage Movement, 2002
14. M. Tobaas, M. Stewart, 1999
15. Sobinov B.M. "Dancing gymnastics", 2004. Powerful air pistol Umarex SA 177

PAGE 4

Other similar works that may interest you.vshm>
3414.		Creativity of Le Corbusier	12.42 KB
	Among the most significant figures of world culture of the 20th century, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) occupies a special place. The creator of “a world that yearns to be born”, the author of radical architectural and urban planning ideas, he reached true heights of excellence in many areas of creative activity and created more than 400 projects
1343.		Creativity of Niko Pirosmani	32.05 KB
	In the seemingly ingenuous and simple existence of Pirosmanashvili there was too much that was inexplicable and incomprehensible, and his amazing art casts a bizarre light on him. Brief biographical information about Niko Pirosmani Niko Pirosmani, real name Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili, is a great Georgian artist of the 20th century. According to legend, Pirosmanashvili and Zaziashvili completed the first sign for free and did not receive any other orders. In the environment in which Pirosmanashvili found himself, he had a strong reputation for mental...
2570.		FATE AND CREATIVITY A.N. RADISCHEV	55.95 KB
	Everything is saved by the all-seeing eye of Pravdin, restoring justice, but how many Pravdins would be needed to correct the evil scattered throughout all corners of Russia in this way? The difference and merit of Radishchev is that he points not only to evil, but also to the means to destroy it. On July 15, the hearing of Radishchev's case began in court. Paul I canceled all orders of Catherine and returned Radishchev from Siberia, only not to the capital, but to live on his father’s Kaluga estate, the village of Nemtsovo, under the supervision of the police, where Bova’s poem was created...
2603.		CREATIVITY A.D. KANTEMIRA AND V.K. TREDIAKOVSKY	44.53 KB
	Half-Tatar-half-Greek by origin, Russian by upbringing and civic ideals, European by education and convictions, Kantemir was the first writer of the 18th century who combined in his work a sharp criticism of the patriarchal mores of contemporary Russian society with the propaganda in Europe of knowledge about achievements...
12885.		Sonata works of F.E. and I.K. Bach	606 KB
	Outline the general trends in the development of instrumental music of the 17th-18th centuries; Consider the emergence and development of the sonata genre in violin and keyboard music; Highlight the compositional and structural features of the ancient sonata form; Analyze the sonatas of F.E. and I.K. Bach;
4742.		Vasily Vladimirovich Bykov and his work	16.09 KB
	Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov was born on June 19, 1924 in the village of Bychki, Ushachi district, Vitebsk region, Belarusian writer and public figure, captain, participant of the Great Patriotic War. Starting with the story Until Dawn 1972, Bykov himself translates his works into Russian, but what is much more important is that they have become an organic and very significant part of Russian literature and the Russian literary process.
13408.		The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Dante's works	19.69 KB
	Dante's works. Biographical information of Dante. A striking example of the transition from medieval to Renaissance culture was the work of Dante. Dante's works combine the ideological foundations of the Middle Ages and new humanistic views.
10068.		The work of John Steinbeck after 1945	80.45 KB
	Interest in the work of J. Steinbeck, both in America and in our country, arose in the late 30s. In the USA, articles and essays by E. Richards, X. Mar, K. Jones, Van Doren, and E. Wilson were among the first to appear. In them, the writer appears as a realist, who in his works touches on many problems of American society: the economic crisis, the impoverishment of farmers, the loss of moral guidelines.
6738.		PEDAGOGICAL CREATIVITY AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE: THEORY, PRACTICE, TECHNOLOGY	10.68 KB
	In modern conditions, a creative teacher is, first of all, a researcher with the following personal qualities: scientific psychological and pedagogical thinking, a high level of pedagogical skill, a certain research courage, developed pedagogical intuition, critical analysis, the need for professional self-education and the reasonable use of advanced pedagogical experience. Shakirova understands a teacher’s readiness to organize creative activities as the formation of appropriate qualities and...
1909.		Creativity of S.P. Zalygin and the main types of female images in the story “On the Irtysh”	38.11 KB
	The creativity of Sergei Pavlovich Zalygin covers a wide range of problems such as the problem of humanity, the problem of man's relationship to nature, the problem of the peaceful existence of man on earth. Zalygin’s starting point in understanding the world.

Editor's Choice

Christmas fortune telling for children

Children for most of us are the most valuable thing in life. God sends large families to some, but for some reason God deprives others. IN...

Sergey Yesenin Yesenin's work more information

"Sergey Yesenin. Personality. Creation. Epoch" Sergei Yesenin was born on September 21 (October 3, new style) 1895 in the village...

Ancient Slavic calendar Daaryan circle number of the god Kolyada dar Slavic Vedic calendar

Ancient Slavic-Aryan Calendar - Kolyada Gift, i.e. a gift from God Kalada. Method of calculating days in a year. Another name is Krugolet...

Slavic fabric amulets dolls: their meaning and how to make them with your own hands When you need to say goodbye to a doll

Why do you think people live differently? - Veselina asked me as soon as she appeared on the threshold. And you don’t seem to know? -...

Festive cutting of dough

Open pies are an indispensable attribute of a hot summer. When the markets are filled with colorful berries and ripe fruits, you just want everything...

Festive cutting of dough

Homemade pies, like any baked goods, cooked with soul, with your own hands, are much tastier than store-bought ones. But a purchased product...

Portfolio of professional activities of a trainer-teacher at the BMU DoD "Dyussh" Portfolio - Document Pa

PORTFOLIO OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF A COACH-TEACHER BMOU DO "Youth" Portfolio (from the French porter - to set out, formulate,...

Oriental and African studies

The history of which begins back in 1918. Nowadays, the university is considered a leader both in the quality of education and in the number of students...

Yelets State University named after

Kristina Minaeva 06.27.2013 13:24 To be honest, when I entered the university, I didn’t have a very good opinion of it. I've heard a lot...

New

Popular