Isadora Duncan

Celebrated choreographer Jérôme Bel pays tribute to the mother of modern dance in his newest performance, “Isadora Duncan”. So, he continues his dancers’* series of portraits, which he started back in 2004. In contrast to his previous works, in which the portrayed dancers* themselves stood on the stage, he will now draw upon the image of a dancer and choreographer who is already deceased, and he uses her autobiographical book “My Life” for this undertaking.
Isadora Duncan is viewed as a pioneer and trailblazer of modern dance; furthermore, she, as a woman who first lived in the USA and later on in Europe at the onset of the 20^th century, was renowned for her feminist engagement as well as for her support of the younger dance generation. French choreographer Jérôme Bel discovers a visionary choreographer alongside the romantic figure, a choreographer who created the foundations for modern dance with great freedom of expression, a penchant for spontaneity and naturalness. In turn, modern dance is seen as the origin of contemporary dance, the genre wherein Jérôme Bel creates. In discursive and sensitive forms, spoken scenes and danced solos and through the intertwining of choreography knowledge with theatrical experience, the play resurrects the memory of a biography.

“How the daughter of a poor music teacher arrived at renouncing ballet so early, when she was still a child, while she later accused this disciplinary institution of stunting the body, this remains the wonder of her biography.” Katrin Bettina Müller, August 23^rd, 2019

Duration: 60 Min. / in English