Publisher's Synopsis
Isadora Duncan. Her name evokes images of beauty and grace, passion and defiance, courage and tragedy. The mother of Modern Dance and a pioneering feminist, Duncan was one of the first international superstars.
Life into Art chronicles the life of the woman and the work of the artist. Isadora Duncan, the independent mother, thinker and activist, changed the course of society, theatre, and dance. The editors of this volume, Doree Duncan, Carol Pratl, and Cynthia Splatt, have assembled a collection of over 250 photographs and works of art, many never seen before. These images allow the reader an intimate glimpse of the being behind the myth.
In a photograph of Isadora at age two, her serious little face resolutely gazes into the future. Raymond Duncan's photographs of his sister, reproduced from the glass plate negatives, give us the only visions of her dancing. The sketches by Valentine Lecomte and Abraham Walkowitz portray the variety of her movements and the changes in her dance over the years. Yurii Annenkov's constructivist portrait shows Isadora the revolutionary during her years in Russia.
The text draws on the memories of family and friends and Isadora's personal archives. In her foreword Agnes de Mille speaks, with her famous insight and wit, of Isadora's place in the history of dance.
