Showing posts with label 1910s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1910s. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 February 2017

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, 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, 11 August 2015

Isadora Duncan's students selecting russian children for school in France

Lisa,Irma,Anna,unknown girl,Theresa
In April 1914 Isadora Duncan's elder students Irma.Anna,Lisa and Teresa,accompanied by Isadora's brother Augustine, came to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to select 10 children of both gender for her new school in France. They remained there for 2 months,giving few performances and choosing the most gifted candidats among the russian kids. On April 20 they began the selection, for 7 days teaching the candidats such basic elements as running,walking,leaping.

Monday, 12 January 2015

Isadora Duncan Signed Photograph Dated 1914.

photo by Studio Bonaventura. Courtesy of
Christian Sturgis www.sturgisantiques.com

Marguerite Namara was Isadora Duncan's close friend.She was a singer and actress.Her husband Fred Toye was Isadora's manager during her American tour in 1916.

Thursday, 1 January 2015

Isadora Duncan's perfomances at the Solodovnik Theatre. Iskry magazine,1913.

The dances of Isadora Duncan
Isadora dancing with  her underage pets
Source:www.odin-fakt.ru

According to "Moscowskie starosty" Isadora Duncan's perfomance at the Solodovnik Theatre greatly disappointed the audience and,supposably, Duncan herself. The journalists called her dancing as "monotonous and viscous",also noting her plump figure and excessive nudity.

Friday, 21 November 2014

Isadorables dancing "Under the scarf".

At l'Hotel des Artistes. Apeda Studio
         
photo by Arnold Genthe

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Isadora Duncan and Paris Singer,1914.

photo by Arnold Genthe
                                                                                Smithsonian Institution

Monday, 20 October 2014

Announce of performance of the pupils of Isadora Duncan. January.28, 1918.

photo by Arnold Genthe, Mary Fanton Roberts collection.



                                                                  Smithsonian Archive of American Art