Wednesday 9 November 2016

Anna Duncan portrait.Arnold Genthe,1915.

Photography Prints

Isadora Duncan during her time in Holland,Noordwijk.

Isadora Duncan,pregnant with Deidre, in Villa Maria.Noordwijk,1906.
In 1906 Isadora was expecting her first child. To prepare herself for childbirthing and to hide from people's curiosity, she decided to rent for a summer  a house in Holland,Noordwijk. During that period she was spending her time by having a walk on the beach,writing  in her diary about teaching of her art and observing her niece Temple,who came from Grundewald school for a short time, dancing on the sea coast.The other children wasn't with her to prevent reporters or anyone else from finding out Isadora's hiding. Also, they played with Gordon's Craig dog Black, which he left to the care temporary. Watching Temple's dances, she was inspired to write an essay "A Child Dancing"  

Friday 25 March 2016

The recollection about Isadora Duncan of ballerina Tamara Karsavina from her autobiography "Theatre Street. The Reminiscences Of Tamara Karsavina".

Tamara Karsavina,1920. Bassano Ltd.
 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
  Tamara Karsavina was one of famous Russian ballerinas,the member of Sergei Diaghilev troupe and participant of "Ballets Russes", the teacher of dancer Margo Fonteyn. In 1918, after marrying the british diplomat, she emigrated to Europe. She tried herself in a movie actress, one of her films is " Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur". In 1930 she published her book of memoirs "Theatre Street" in London, in which she shares her impression and thoughts about Isadora Duncan :
 The great sensation caused in the artistic world by the first appearance of Isadora Duncan was still fresh when, in the spring of 1907, Fokine produced his Eunice this time for inclusion in the repertoire.
 Isadora had rapidly conquered the Petersburg theatrical world. There were, of course, always the reactionary balletomanes, to whom the idea of a barefoot dancer seemed to deny the first principles of what they held to be sacred in art. This, however, was far from being the general opinion, and a desire for novelty was in the air.
  I remember that the first time I saw her dance I fell completely under her sway. It never occurred to me that there was the slightest hostility between her art and ours. There seemed room for both, and each had much that it could learn to advantage from the other. 

Saturday 19 March 2016

Photo with signature of Isadora Duncan at Palm Beach, Florida, 1917. Date of autograph unknown.

Image Courtesy of Skinner, Inc.
The inscription says:  To Percy McKay, " Poor me at Palm Beach".
Percy McKay was American poet, playwright and Isadora's friend. One of his known works is "The Scarecrow: Or, The Glass of Truth; a Tragedy of the Ludicrous".
Photo like this, but with another inscription you can watch here

Thursday 17 March 2016

Isadora Duncan's series of photos in Greek dress. Berlin c.1903

Universitätsbibliothek JCS Frankfurt am Main
Universitätsbibliothek JCS Frankfurt am Main
                                                     Another photo you can see  here.                                                                                                   

Monday 7 March 2016

"Isadora Duncan's Russian days and her last years in France" by Irma Duncan, Allan Ross McDougall. Victor Gollancz LTD,London,1929.

This is so good when information about Isadora Duncan become available to public time after time. I hope you would find this link usefull.

Thursday 3 March 2016

Isadora Duncan dancing. Approximately the begining of 1900s.Elvira studio of Munich.

Library of Congress. Elvira studio of Munich
It's a good thing when such photos become available in good quality.

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Friday 26 February 2016

The three of Isadorables. Margo,Lisa,Anna, c.1920


Library of Congress. Bain News Service 
  Library of Congress. Bain News Division.
Library of Congress. Bain News Service


Library of Congress. Bain News Service

Thursday 11 February 2016

Isadora Duncan's second school in France.

In 1914 Isadora Duncan, with the help of Paris Singer, founded the school in Paris. It was her second try to teach children her art and to make them harmonious developed people. Her previous school was in German,Grunewald,which she headed with her sister Elizabeth. But,mostly,due to financial problems and Elizabeth's plan of opening her own school , it was closed. Isadora hoped to spend the rest of her days at Bellevue and to leave as a legacy the result of her work. With the help of her senior students, brother and some friends, she selected 20- 30 children from different countries.
In biography she didn't write in details about school regime and teaching. So, to understand better what the school represented, the best illustation would give the memoir of actrees Elsa Lanchester,who was Duncan's student for a short time, "Elsa Lanchester herself'":
 
  When I was about eleven, Raymond Duncan told Biddy that his sister, Isadora Duncan, was opening a school for talented children in Paris - “ To Teach the World to Dance." All expenses would be paid. I was a chosen child, one of about twenty in the world-lsadora's world.
The school building at Bellevue had been given to Isadora Duncan by a very wealthy gentleman called Paris Singer, of the Singer Sewing Machine family. Bellevue had been a large hotel with 150 bedrooms. It was still furnished in the manner of the nineteenth century,with brass bedsteads glittering with knobs that we would all screw on and off during idle hours and on wet days. We each had our individual grand suite with vast black-and-white tiled bathrooms with bidets. After getting over the shock of what a bidet was for, we children had a lot of fun with our miniature Versailles.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Anna Duncan's episodic part in "Dinner at Eight"

                       
Except dancing and teaching career, Anna Duncan also acted in theater and took part in 3 movies (Dinner at Eight, The Black Cat,  The Scarlet Empress, in all of them appeared as a maid). Her movie roles was mostly short and with no replicas.