Many have heard the name Isadora Duncan. And most often it is associated either with the name of the famous poet Sergei Yesenin, or with the tragic death during a trip by car. However, this extraordinary woman with a difficult fate was a legendary dancer who won love and respect in Europe and America, and the founder of a new direction in the art of dancing.
Childhood
Dora Angela Duncan was born in 1877 in San Francisco, USA. Her father was a banker, but immediately after Dora was born, he went bankrupt, and the family became impoverished. The Duncan children had to grow up early and start working. From the age of ten, dropping out of school, Dora taught the neighbour's children dance, and as a teenager, the thirst for travel led her first to Chicago and then to New York. There she performed in various nightclubs, soon disillusioned with classical ballet.
Europe
Feeling unrecognized in America, young Dora went to London in 1898, where she danced in the drawing rooms of the local aristocrats. Then, by the will of fate, she ended up in Greece and became interested in ancient art. Her dance numbers, performed barefoot and in a Greek chiton, fascinated the audience, and in subsequent years she toured almost all of Europe with performances. Isadora Duncan toured Russia several times, where she gained a huge number of admirers and students and won the heart of Stanislavsky himself.
Gordon Craig
Isadora Duncan's first serious romance happened when she was 27 years old. The famous theater director Edward Gordon Craig became her chosen one. At first, the couple was very happy and they had a daughter. However, over time, Craig increasingly began to express dissatisfaction with Isadora's dance career, inviting her to leave the stage and become an ordinary housewife. Perhaps the reason for this was that his beloved was doing much better than Craig himself. At that time, the name of Isadora Duncan was already on the lips of the whole of Europe, she was called nothing less than "a brilliant sandal", and her sincere manner of expressing her momentary feelings and desires in dance became for many of her followers a new landmark in the art of dancing. Of course, the freedom-loving and artistic Duncan had completely different plans, and the union fell apart.
Singer
To forget the insults caused to her by her former lover, Dora was helped by a new love relationship with a man far from the world of art.
The son of the famous inventor of sewing machines Paris Eugene Singer and the famous artist met in Paris, where they later lived together. The offspring of one of the richest families in Europe surrounded his beloved woman with luxury, but was extremely jealous. They had a son, and Singer invited Isadora to marry. However, she chose a career and freedom, and once one of the constant quarrels about frank dancing and flirting with other men ended for the couple in parting.
Then Isadora left with performances in Russia, and the children stayed in Paris. But these tours did not bring joy to the dancer, she had nightmares all the time, and the feeling of imminent loss did not leave. Exhausted from the worries, Duncan arrived in Paris, where the family was reunited. Warmth and mutual affection reappeared in the relationship. However, the idyll was soon broken, and the very nightmarish visions that haunted the actress in Russia came true. Once, returning from a walk, the children of Isadora died tragically. She fell into apathy and even planned to commit suicide.
Yesenin, Moscow
The work helped Isadora to return to normal life. 1921, at the suggestion and with the support of the leadership of the RSFSR, she opened her own children's dance school in Moscow. Active and determined, Duncan was inspired and made ambitious plans for the future.
Soon, fate brought her to Sergei Yesenin, and a short, but very difficult relationship between the 43-year-old artist and the 28-year-old poet began. Surprisingly quickly, the couple began to live together, and when Isadora decided to go on tour with Yesenin in 1922, they got married. Their performances in European countries and the USA were not crowned with great success. The audience greeted Duncan coldly, and Yesenin was everywhere perceived as the husband of a famous wife. The couple often quarreled, and upon returning to Russia, Isadora went on tour again, and Yesenin remained in Moscow. Soon he sent her a telegram that he fell in love with another and was insanely happy. Then Duncan finally left Russia and moved to Paris.
Death, Paris
There she met her last love, the young pianist Viktor Serov, who emigrated from the USSR, who was almost half her age. Having experienced many losses and disappointments, already elderly and tired Isadora Duncan felt the approach of old age, tormented her young lover with jealousy and suffered from melancholy and depression. She could no longer dance, the former grace disappeared, and the dance schools that she opened did not exist for long and were closed due to lack of funds. She even once again decided to voluntarily leave this life, but fate decreed in its own way. On September 14, 1927, the great dancer went for a walk in an open car with a casual acquaintance. Around her neck, she tied her favorite scarlet scarf, which, wrapped around the wheel, and strangled Isadora Duncan. Unfortunately, it was not possible to help her, she died instantly.
The biography of this famous woman was full of ups and downs, her dancing style gave impetus to the development of modern dance, her personal life is associated with the names of famous men of her time, and her death caused a lot of speculation and speculation.
