The Art of Isadora Duncan at MMC

Lori Belilove, in red tunic at center, shows examples of ancient Greek sculptures, which inspired Isadora Duncan.

On Monday, April 27, students in the Advanced Interdisciplinary Perspectives (AIP) course “The Body in American Culture,” taught by Associate Professor of Art History Adrienne Bell, participated in a demonstration of the art of the great American modernist dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). Lori Belilove, Artistic Director of Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company, taught the class in a large dance studio at 316 East 63rd Street. A third-generation Duncan dancer who was trained by first- and second-generation Duncan dancers, Ms. Belilove is, according to Professor of Dance Katie Langan, “the reincarnation of Isadora Duncan.” Belilove and her company perform over 80 original Isadora Duncan dances both nationally and internationally.

All students in Prof. Bell’s course eagerly learned the fundamentals of Duncan’s technique, which begins with breathing and stretching from the solar plexus.  Ms. Belilove expertly discussed the origins of Duncan dance by showing images of ancient Greek statues, specifically Tanagra figurines (produced during the fourth and third centuries BCE), and the inspiration that Duncan took from the expressive freedom of these figures and from Greek folk dances.  Sociology major Jaz Valentino, ’16, who has studied dance, described Duncan’s style as “spiritual liberation” and Ms. Belilove gave the students many examples of how Duncan manifested this idea in her work. Students learned how Duncan extricated dance from the rigidity of the corset and the pointe shoe; her dancers wore colorful, loose-fitting tunics and scarves, and danced barefoot. Students in the class also learned how Duncan was inspired by the natural rhythms of the sea and the wind, and they sought to capture these rhythms in their lissome movements. Working with Ms. Belilove was Dance major Nikki Poulos, ’13, who joined the company soon after her graduation from MMC. At the end of the class, Ms. Belilove herself performed an intensely emotional dance that Duncan choreographed after the tragic, accidental deaths of her two children; it conveyed both the depth of her sorrow and resilience of her spirit. 

Grounded in American Studies and supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, “The Body in American Culture” explores some of the many ways in which the body functioned as a political, social, and spiritual force in American culture from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century.  Students learned about Aboriginal conceptions of healing and medicine in pre-Colonial America, the Puritan view of witchcraft and the sinful body, Spiritualism and mediumship, Walt Whitman’s “body electric,” Sojourner Truth and the enslaved body, the Civil War and “The Good Death,” college women and body image during the Victorian era, and the idealized body as represented in John Singer Sargent’s Mme X (1883-84).   The class on Isadora Duncan extended this analysis by introducing the concept of the liberated woman’s body during the early modern period and by manifesting it through the class with Ms. Belilove.  

Members of the MMC community who wish to see Lori Belilove and her company can attend upcoming summer performances and workshops. For more information, visit www.isadoraduncan.orgor call 212-691-5040.

Published: May 01, 2015