Arts & Entertainment

Sharing the World of Isadora Duncan

Lois Ann Flood, founder of Danville's Diablo Dance Theater, danced in Kensington last week, sharing the artistry of Isadora Duncan.

Lois Ann Flood, founder of Danville's Diablo Dance Theater, performed a free, hour-long series of Duncan dances for an audience of about 20 people in Kensington last week.

Isadora Duncan, who grew up in the Bay Area, achieved world renown for her radical reinvention of modern dance.

Bookcases served as the wings of the impromptu stage, and a small CD player mostly cooperated in providing music.

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Duncan — born in San Francisco in 1877 or 1878 and raised in poverty in Oakland — rejected the emphasis on ballet of her time.

"Being a California girl, she said, 'Nope, I do not like the ballet slippers and tutu,' " Flood told the audience. "So she took them off."

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Influenced by the nature around her and the reverence for Greek art and culture popular at the time, Duncan developed her own expressive style performed barefoot in a Greek tunic.

"Isadora was world-famous," said Flood, who has been performing Duncan dance for more than 20 years, "and one of the reasons I do these programs is not to promote myself as a great dancer. I'm just opening a little window for you to see what she sort of left us."

Duncan "changed the way the world viewed women and art, dance, fashion," Flood said. "She was a feminist. She was a political activist. She was many, many things. But the biggest thing she was famous for was creating this style of dance."

Flood said she sees a surprising lack of awareness about Duncan.

"For a lot of Californians — I go to colleges and museums and many libraries and small theaters — you'd be surprised how many people do not know anything about Isadora," continued Flood, who also teaches Duncan dance. "And it's a shame, because if she were a man, there'd be a national holiday named after her."

As part of the program, Karen Elise of Benicia read selections by and about Duncan. One of the passages by Duncan said:

"I am inspired by the movement of the trees, the waves, the snows, by the connection between passion and the storm, between the breeze and gentleness, and so on. And I always put into my movements a little of that Divine continuity which gives to all of Nature its beauty and life."


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