Isadora Duncan: Expressing the Soul’s Luminosity Through Dance, Part 1 of 2

Isadora Duncan was an American pioneer of modern contemporary dance who helped reshape the cultural restrictions of her day, giving rise to a freer movement style. She believed, “The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul,” and her avant-garde dance form sought to illuminate our innermost being and our connection with nature. She explained: “Listen to the music with your soul. Now, while listening, do you not feel an inner self awakening deep within you – that it is by its strength that your head is lifted, that your arms are raised, that you are walking slowly toward the light?”

“This stiff and commonplace gymnastics which he called dancing only disturbed my dream. I dreamed of a different dance. I did not know just what it would be, but I was feeling out towards an invisible world into which I divined I might enter if I found the key.”