Isadora Duncan message. Isadora Duncan: the disastrous scarlet scarf

Isadora Duncan, born Dora Angela Duncan. Born May 27, 1877 in San Francisco (USA) - died September 14, 1927 in Nice (France). American pioneering dancer and pioneer free dance.

She developed a dance system and movement, which she herself associated with ancient Greek dance. Wife in 1922-1924.

She was born on May 27, 1877 in San Francisco in the family of Joseph Duncan, who, soon going bankrupt, left his wife with four children.

Isadora, hiding her age, was sent to school at the age of 5. At the age of 13, Duncan left school, which she considered useless, and took up music and dancing seriously, continuing her self-education.

At age 18, Duncan moved to Chicago, where she began performing with dance numbers in nightclubs, where the dancer was presented as an exotic curiosity: she danced barefoot in a Greek chiton, which shocked the audience.

In 1903, Duncan and his family made an artistic pilgrimage to Greece. Here Duncan initiated the construction of a temple on Kopanos hill to hold dance classes(now the Isadora and Raymond Duncan Center for Dance Studies). Duncan's performances in the temple were accompanied by a choir of ten boy singers selected by her, with whom she gave concerts in Vienna, Munich, and Berlin from 1904.

In 1904, Duncan met the modernist theater director Edward Gordon Craig, became his mistress and had a daughter with him. At the end of 1904 - beginning of 1905, she gave several concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where, in particular, she met. In January 1913, Duncan again went on tour to Russia. Here she found many fans and followers who founded their own free or plastic dance studios.

In 1921, People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Lunacharsky officially proposed Duncan to open dance school in Moscow, promising financial support. She said: “As the ship sailed north, I looked back with contempt and pity at all the old institutions and customs of bourgeois Europe that I was leaving. From now on I will only be a comrade among comrades, I will develop an extensive plan of work for this generation of humanity. Farewell inequality, injustice and animal rudeness of the old world, which made my school unrealizable!

But she believed in the promises of the Bolsheviks, and when she stepped onto the Moscow platform, she realized that Soviet reality bore little resemblance to Eldorado. And, of course, the promises were not kept: Duncan had to raise most of the money for the school on her own. But again, like many intellectuals, she will consider this temporary difficulties, the price of entry into heaven.

In October 1921, Duncan met Sergei Yesenin. In 1922, they officially formalized the marriage, which was dissolved in 1924. Usually, when describing this union, authors note its love-scandal side, but these two artists were undoubtedly brought together by their creative relationship.

Duncan raised both her own children and those she adopted. Daughter Derdry (1906-1913) from director G. Craig and son Patrick (1910-1913) from businessman Paris Singer died in a car accident. In 1914 she gave birth to a boy, but he died a few hours after birth. Isadora adopted six of her students, among whom was Irma Erich-Grimm. The “Izadorabli” girls became continuers of the traditions of free dance and promoters of Duncan’s creativity.

Isadora Duncan died tragically in Nice, suffocated by her own scarf, which got caught in the wheel axle of the car in which she was taking a walk. It was alleged that she last words, said before getting into the car, was: “Farewell, friends! I am going to glory" (French: Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!); according to other sources, however, Duncan said “I’m going to love” (Je vais à l’amour), meaning a handsome driver, and the version with fame was invented out of modesty by Duncan’s friend Mary Desty, to whom these words were addressed. Her ashes rest in the columbarium at the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Since childhood, Isadora Duncan had the feeling that everything in her biography was destined. She had a presentiment of her world fame and knew: she would have to pay a terrible price for recognition and talent.

Fate seemed to punish her for success, selecting the most dear people. Isadora loved many times and was ready to give all of herself, but the chosen ones, as a rule, abandoned her. She had to go through the worst thing for any mother - the death of her own children. The last joke of fate was the absurd death of the dancer herself.

Isadora Duncan - Childhood: Daughter of Terpsichore

As a child, she loved to dance on the seashore; Isadora later said that unusual style the waves and the wind taught her. She danced barefoot - simply because the family did not have money for ballet shoes. This habit remained with her for the rest of her life, becoming one of the “highlights” of the image of her biography.

The youngest daughter of the Duncan family was considered by those around her to be a little strange, out of this world. Teachers often complained that the girl had her head in the clouds instead of thinking about her lessons. Her mother just shrugged it off: she was left alone with four children, she had no time for her daughter’s quirks. Well-fed, healthy - and good. At the age of 13, Isadora left school without regret and joined a touring troupe. She only wanted to do dancing, and no one could stop her.

A few years later, an unusual dancer appeared in Chicago, who became the main sensation of the season. She performed in a short tunic, worn almost naked, without the gymnastic tights that were common in those days. Her dancing style was unique and unlike anything else. The “sandalfoot” herself called herself the heiress of ancient Greek traditions.

A terrible prophecy

The eroticism of her dances ignited men's hearts, and Isadora gained crowds of ardent fans. Nevertheless, until the age of 25, she remained a virgin: she believed that a true servant of the muses should remain chaste and not waste herself on carnal pleasures. True, her heart did not always obey her mind: back in Chicago, Isadora first fell in love with the 45-year-old artist of Polish origin, Ivan Mirotsky. He looked after her touchingly and offered his hand and heart. And then the girl found out that he still had a legal wife in Poland...

Isadora went to Europe to heal her emotional wounds, where her performances created a real sensation. In Paris, the city of love, she met someone who awakened her sensuality. Oscar Berezhi, whom Isadora met on tour in Budapest, was a stranger to no one. famous actor, but Duncan saw in him a noble knight, an unrecognized genius. However, Oscar, who quickly got tired of being the shadow of the “divine Isadora,” left her.

Soon the dancer met new love-directed by Gordon Craig. They not only met, but lived together. A year later, Isadora gave birth to a daughter. Motherhood transformed her so much that she was ready to leave her career for the sake of her family. But the happiness did not last long. Craig, who never officially became Isadora's husband, returned to his former mistress.

Isadora, plunged into the abyss of darkness and depression, went to the famous soothsayer. What she learned did not at all ease her condition. The palmist said that worldwide fame and success awaited her, but she would lose two of her most beloved people.

The prediction comes true

Solace could only be found in work, and Isadora again plunged into the world of dance. She constantly came up with something new and invariably delighted the most sophisticated audience. Millionaire Paris Eugene Singer, heir to a huge sewing machine empire, had to spend a lot of effort to win her heart. He gave Isadora furs and diamonds, and sent luxurious bouquets every day. He was ready to throw the whole world at her feet.

Singer and Duncan lived together for several years, they had a son, a charming boy in whom both doted. But family life again did not work out. Singer was tormented by jealousy: he wanted to lock Isadora at home so that she would belong to him alone, and Duncan could not live without a stage. And although the feelings had not yet cooled, the couple broke up.

Isadora went on tour to Russia. All the way she was tormented by the darkest forebodings; she constantly recalled the palmist’s prediction. One day, on the way from another concert, she had a vision: two children’s coffins in the snow. A chilling horror gripped my heart. She hurried to Paris, where the children remained and Singer lived. Isadora decided to make peace with him in the hope that they would have a full-fledged family. But all her hopes collapsed in an instant.

Having sent the children with the nanny for a car ride, Isadora waited for her lover for a serious conversation. He ran into the room with terrible news: the car in which the children were traveling had fallen from the bridge into the Seine. The doors jammed in the water and no one managed to get out.

Isadora Duncan's fatal scarf

Isadora fell ill with a fever. She did not want to live, her strength gradually left her. Doctors sent the inconsolable mother to a resort and prescribed complete rest.

She was indifferent to everything, mourning the dead babies from morning to evening. One day she was walking along the beach and saw two children’s figures not far away. It was them, her children! They walked among the waves, and Isadora rushed towards them. The distraught woman would probably have drowned if a young Italian officer passing by had not pulled her out. “Save me, save my sanity, give me a child!” - Isadora whispered... He became her lover, and the dancer became pregnant again. But a new tragedy followed: the boy died just a few hours after birth.

After this, Isadora realized that she was not destined to be happy, that her lot was loneliness. From now on, work is the only thing that keeps her in this life. IN stage image The dancer had a new detail - a long red scarf that stood out against the background of the white tunic, like a bloody wound. It symbolized an unhealed wound - in her heart.

Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesenin

Isadora Duncan experienced another vivid romance - with a Russian poet. He was 18 years younger, they spoke different languages, but she could not resist his pressure and charm. She was indifferent to the opinions of those around her: in love, like a girl, Isadora blossomed, she wanted to live again... But Yesenin did not fit into European society. While they lived in Russia, the relationship developed well, but abroad he was unable to write, began to drink, and what annoyed him most was that no one here knew the poet Yesenin. He was called "Isadora's husband"! Yesenin abandoned everything and left for his homeland. And two years later the news came of his suicide.

Isadora Duncan died 90 years ago on the Promenade des Anglais.

The name of this dancer is known to almost every Russian-speaking person who is at least a little familiar with the work of Sergei Yesenin. And, of course, everyone knows the story of Isadora’s tragic death in a car. Today, September 14, marks 90 years since she got into the ill-fated convertible and drove onto the Promenade.

Successful in career and unhappy in personal life

Isadora was born in San Francisco in 1878. At the age of 13, she dropped out of school and focused exclusively on music and dancing. Five years later, the girl surprised Chicago viewers. She moved barefoot and in a Greek chiton, which shocked the conservative public. But later her dance revolutionized the world of choreography, and Isadora herself became an outstanding artist of that era.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Duncan moved to Europe, where she performed very successfully. In 1904, she gave birth to a daughter with her lover, the modernist theater director Edward Gordon Craig. Life with him did not work out for the dancer. And soon she met Paris Eugene Singer. The couple lived in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Paris. In 1910, Isadora gave Singer a son. But, unfortunately, this union also fell apart.

Three years after the birth of his son, tragedy struck in Paris. The brakes of the car, in which Isadora's two children and a nanny were located, failed. The car fell into the Seine, and the passengers were unable to get out. Only the driver survived. After the grief that befell her, Isadora devoted herself completely to work. She toured all over the world and taught.

"He is red! And me too!"

In 1921, Duncan was invited to Soviet Union to create your own dance school. Fascinated by the October Revolution, Isadora, without hesitation, went to Russia, where she met Sergei Yesenin. Their romance flared up from the first meeting, despite the 18-year age difference. Within six months they lived together, and in 1922 they got married. A little later, the dancer went on tour to the USA, and Yesenin went with her. In America, Duncan constantly wore a red scarf, chanting: “It's red! And me too!".

This trip was the beginning of the end of a beautiful romance. Quarrels, drunkenness, assault filled their relationship, leaving crazy passion and love in the past. Duncan forgave Sergei all his antics, but his feelings cooled irrevocably. No longer embarrassed, he said in front of everyone: “Here you are!” Sticks like molasses!”

In 1923, the couple returned to Moscow, and a month later Duncan left the Soviet Union forever and alone. She arrived in Nice, where a telegram immediately arrived: “I love someone else. Married. Happy. Yesenin."

In the heart of the Cote d'Azur, she began to rebuild her life. Duncan opened a dance school on California Avenue, where she successfully taught. As local newspapers write, it was quite difficult to get into her class; there was no end to those interested. Duncan herself settled in a villa not far from the school. Like any woman, Isadora loved beautiful things. So, the dancer was partial to expensive outfits, jewelry and cars. In Nice, she became a client of Benoît Falchetto, who not only serviced her transport, but also sold interesting cars.

Death at Prom

September 14, 1927 was a warm, sunny day in Nice. Isadora went out into the yard to inspect the Amilcar, a small convertible that mechanic Benoît Falchetto had driven to her house. Her eyes lit up, she definitely wanted to ride him. Dressed in light dress and tied with a long white scarf, the 50-year-old dancer sat in the passenger seat. The driver drove to the Promenade des Anglais, where Isadora saw her friends. She waved her scarf at them and shouted, “I’m flying off to glory!” Then something terrible happened. Not having traveled even twenty meters, Isadora found herself strangled by this very scarf. Its edges hit the spokes of the wheel. The doctors called to the scene could only confirm death.

Nice, like the entire Cote d'Azur, keeps many stories in its streets, houses and squares. Often walking along them, we do not notice or hear the echo of the distant past. But if we look closely, we will see that on some buildings there are plaques in memory of the people who made the history of our city. For example, if you stop at house number 239 on the Promenade des Anglais, you will remember that it was here that Isadora “flew to fame,” and a little further there will be a street named after the famous dancer.

If you like Kotazur news and want to keep up to date with events on the Côte d'Azur, subscribe to our page on

And Isadora Duncan in her work neglected established rules and canons and created own style and plastic. Her “barefoot dancing” became the basis modernist direction in dance art.

Dancing Beethoven and Horace

Angela Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco in 1877 in the family of banker Joseph Duncan. The father soon left the family, and the mother, Mary Isadora Gray, had to work hard to support four children. However, she often said: “You can do without bread, but you can’t do without art.” There was always music playing in their house, the family read a lot, played games ancient tragedies. Little Isadora began dancing at the age of two. And at the age of six, she opened the first “dance school” for neighboring children: she taught them movements that she invented herself. At the age of 12, giving lessons, young dancer I could already work part-time. A year later she left school and devoted all her time to dancing, studying music, literature and philosophy.

In 1895 the family moved to Chicago. Duncan worked in the theater and performed in nightclubs. Her vision of dance was different from classical performances. Ballet, according to the dancer, was only a complex of mechanical body movements that did not convey emotional experiences. In her dance, the body was supposed to become a conductor of sensations.

“There is no pose, no movement or gesture that is beautiful in itself. Any movement will be beautiful only when it truthfully and sincerely expresses feelings and thoughts.”

Isadora Duncan

Isadora was inspired by antiquity. Her ideal was the dancing Hetaera, depicted on a Greek vase. Duncan borrowed her image: she performed barefoot, in a translucent tunic, with her hair down. Then it was new and unusual, many admired both the dancer’s style and the originality of her movements. Duncan's movements were quite simple. But she strived to dance everything - music, paintings and poems.

“Isadora dances everything that others say, sing, write, play and draw, she dances Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and “ Moonlight Sonata", she dances "Primavera" by Botticelli and the poems of Horace."

Maximilian Voloshin

Dance of the future

At the beginning of the 20th century, the family moved first to London, then to Paris. In 1902, actress and dancer Loie Fuller invited Isadora to go on a tour of Europe. Together they created new compositions: “Serpentine Dance”, “Fire Dance”. “The Divine Sandal” - Duncan became very famous in the European cultural environment.

Isadora Duncan. Photo: biography-life.ru

Isadora Duncan. Photo: aif.ru

Isadora Duncan. Photo: litmir.net

In 1903, she traveled to Greece, where she studied ancient Greek plastic art, and then moved to live in Germany. In Grunewald, Duncan bought a villa and recruited students, whom she taught to dance and actually supported. This school operated until the First World War.

“I'm not going to teach you how to dance. I just want to teach you to fly like birds, bend like young trees in the wind, rejoice like a butterfly rejoices on a May morning, breathe freely like clouds, jump easily and silently like a gray cat.”

Isadora Duncan

Duncan developed her own philosophical views. She believed that everyone should learn to dance so that it becomes a “natural state” for people. Influenced by Nietzsche's philosophy, Duncan wrote the book The Dance of the Future.

In 1907, Isadora performed in St. Petersburg. Her concerts were attended by members of the imperial family, Mikhail Fokin, Sergei Diaghilev, Alexander Benois, Lev Bakst, ballet dancers, and writers. At the same time, the dancer met Konstantin Stanislavsky. Later in his book, he recalled her words: “Before going on stage, I must put some kind of motor in my soul; he will begin to work inside, and then the legs, and arms, and body themselves, against my will, will move.”

Isadora Duncan. Photo: livejournal.com

Isadora Duncan. Photo: lichnosti.net

Isadora Duncan. Photo: diletant.media

Isadora Duncan inspired many of her contemporaries: artists Antoine Bourdelle, Auguste Rodin, Arnold Ronnebeck. She posed for Eadweard Muybridge, who took a series of dynamic photographs of Duncan dancing. Famous ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya said that this dancer would not have followers, but her dance would become part of modern ballet. In a relationship classical dances she was right: hand movements in ballet soon became freer under the influence of “Duncanism.”

Duncan-Yesenins

Remembering the failed family life parents, Duncan did not want to get married. The dancer had a short affair with director Gordon Craig, who became the father of her daughter Deirdre. Then she gave birth to a son, Patrick, with Paris Eugene Singer (heir to Isaac Singer, a manufacturer of sewing machines). In early 1913, the young Duncan children died tragically. The dancer was kept from committing suicide by the students of her school in Germany: “Isadora, live for us. Are we not your children?

In 1921, Isadora Duncan was invited to Moscow, where she organized a dance school for children from proletarian families. At the same time, the dancer first met Sergei Yesenin. “He read his poems to me,” Isadora later said. “I didn’t understand anything, but I hear that this is music and that these poems were written by a genius!” At first they communicated through translators: she did not know Russian, he did not speak English. The romance that broke out developed rapidly. They called each other “Isadora” and “Ezenin”.

Irma Duncan ( stepdaughter dancers), Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesenin. Photo: aif.ru

Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesenin. Photo: aif.ru

Soon Yesenin moved to the Duncan house on Prechistenka. Their relationship was stormy: the hot-tempered Yesenin was jealous of Isadora, could insult her or hit her, left, but then returned - he repented and swore his love. Duncan's friends were outraged that she allowed herself to be humiliated. And the dancer believed that Yesenin had a temporary nervous disorder and the situation would improve sooner or later.

“Yesenin subsequently became her master, her master. She, like a dog, kissed the hand that he raised to strike, and the eyes in which, more often than love, hatred for her burned. And yet he was only a partner, he was like a piece of pink matter - weak-willed and tragic. She danced. She led the dance."

Anatoly Mariengof

In 1922, Duncan and Yesenin got married so that they could travel abroad together. They both started wearing double surname: Duncan-Yesenins. After spending some time in Europe, the couple went to America, where Isadora took up Yesenin’s poetic career: she organized the translation and publication of his poems, and organized poetry readings. But in America, Yesenin suffered from depression, increasingly causing scandals, ending up on the front pages of newspapers. The couple returned to the USSR, and soon Isadora left for Paris. There she received a telegram: “I love another woman, married, happy.”

Two years later, the poet’s life ended tragically at the Angleterre Hotel. Another year and a half later, Isadora Duncan died in Nice: she was strangled by her own scarf, which got caught in a car wheel. The ashes of Isadora Duncan were buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

She died tragically on September 14, 1927 famous dancer and Sergei Yesenin’s beloved woman Isadora Duncan. She lived a short life, but bright life, filled with a series of whirlwind romances with men. We reminisce about Duncan's personal life.

The great dancer who introduced the world to the very first erotic dances was born in San Francisco on May 27, 1877. A woman with one of the most tragic destinies - this is how historians will later talk about Isadora. Life gave her fame and recognition, but took away her children and beloved men. The death of the dancer was an absurd accident or a sign, no one can say anymore. Duncan rode in her car with a driver, her long transparent scarf fluttering in the wind. Duncan didn’t even have time to notice how it hit the rear wheel axle. Death was instant - the scarf tightened around the dancer's neck with such force that it simply broke it. Isadora hardly remembered her childhood or did not want to remember it. Her father went broke and left her mother with four children. Already at the age of thirteen, Duncan dropped out of school and took up dancing. Her career developed rapidly, and along with her first successes on stage, Isadora gained her first fans. We decided to talk about the most striking novels in the life of Isadora Duncan.

Ivan Mirotsky. When Isadora turned eighteen and was performing on the stages of Chicago theaters, forty-five-year-old Pole Ivan Mirotsky, who was an artist, fell madly in love with her. It is known that Ivan was a completely ugly man - he wore a beard, his hair was bright red, but Duncan was imbued with great sympathy for him. Perhaps she saw protection and support in him. Mirotsky proposed to the girl, and a little later admitted that he was married. Duncan's heart was broken, and the girl decided to leave as far as possible. She soon settled in London, where her rapid career began.

Oscar Take care. Magyar by nationality, Oscar was a failed actor. By the time she met him, Duncan had already had several unsuccessful short-lived romances, so when Bereji proposed to her, Isadora accepted him without hesitation. Oscar was her first man, and this is very strange, since at that time Duncan was 25 years old, and she moved in a bohemian environment. However, Oscar never married the dancer. He was offered a lucrative contract, and after breaking off the engagement, he left for Spain.

Gordon Craig. Duncan met him four years after breaking up with Berezhi. He was a theater director. Isadora soon gave birth to a daughter from him and demanded that Gordon marry her. However, Craig immediately left Duncan and soon married his old girlfriend. Isadora was chronically depressed and believed that all men were traitors.

Photo: Isadora Duncan and Gordon Craig

Paris Eugene Singer. Shortly after breaking up with his daughter's father, a man came into Isadora's dressing room to meet her. Paris was the heir to the famous Singer dynasty, which invented sewing machines of the same name. Duncan also did not marry Singer, although she gave birth to a son from him. Paris was jealous and literally controlled every step of the dancer, not allowing her to be creative in peace. Despite the separation, Isadora continued to communicate with Singer, and once came to him in Paris so that the man could see the child. Then Duncan was regularly tortured scary dreams and visions that, unfortunately, came true. Daughter and son Duncan and their nanny were riding in a car, the driver lost control and the car fell into the Seine. The children could not be saved. This terrible news was brought to her by Singer.
Sergey Yesenin. After the death of her children, Duncan found solace in the arms of a young Italian and even gave birth to a child with him, but the boy lived only a few days. The acquaintance with the Russian poet took place soon after the tragedy, in 1921. It was the most great love in the life of an American dancer. Yesenin became her first and only husband. The wedding took place in 1922. Their romance began the day they met. Yesenin's friends said that the dancer and the poet fell in love with each other at first sight. However, despite strong feelings, there was no understanding in their relationship. At one time, Sergei lived with Duncan in America, where no one knew him and perceived him only as the husband of the great Duncan. In addition, Yesenin did not know English, and Duncan did not know Russian. Isadora was eighteen years older than Yesenin. The poet often got drunk and invited friends to his house, and the drinking sessions continued for several days. All these problems could not but affect the happiness of Isadora and Sergei. Two years after the wedding, Yesenin returned to Russia, and then sent Duncan a telegram in which he wrote that he had fallen in love with another woman. Yesenin died at the end of 1925. The official version of death is suicide. Duncan outlived her beloved man by only a year and a half and died in September 1927.