The search for Isadora : the legend & legacy of Isadora Duncan /

Obviously a work of love: Loewenthal has spent over 30 years tracing the art and legacy of Isadora Duncan. Although rather eccentric in format, this book does add to the many about Duncan because it follows her disciples, the "Isadorables," and shows how Duncan's work has been transmitted to the third- and fourth-generation dancers of today. The author also looks at the sources of Duncan's art--Greek sculpture and certain composers and painters--and clearly shows their application. By weaving throughout the book her own quest for the root of Isadora Duncan's artistry, Loewenthal gives an adventurous quality to what has obviously become a passion. Lavishly illustrated and with an extensive bibliography, this is a book that will greatly interest professional dancers or dance historians, but not necessarily the general public. J. L. Cohen; Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The myths of Isadora Duncan, some of which she helped to popularize, have survived the decades better than the pioneering dances she composed and performed. For, with few traces of her modernist work notated or preserved on film, Duncan, who freed dancing from balletic constraints, lives on largely in accounts of her dramatic bohemian life--artistically, politically, and sexually eventful. Here Loewenthal, having spent 30 years in pursuit of her erratic subject, calls upon various sources: witnesses of Duncan's work, followers of her creed in dance, archives and research conducted in France, where the American-born dancer found a more sympathetic climate than at home. In this book, her first, Loewenthal addresses Duncan's contributions to dance; discusses Duncan's use of music; her ideas about stagecraft, costume and dance education; her reception in the press and by colleagues; and the fulfillment of her work by dancers and students, who are presented in a series of profiles. The result is a useful chronicle offering the general reader a range of pertinent information on a 20th-century luminary. Loewenthal served as archivist for the Isadora Duncan Centennial in 1977. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved