Customer Reviews

Isadora Duncan: Movement From The Soul

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I remember watching this DVD in college (I was a dance major). I absolutely love it! It was in excellent condition and played perfectly! It is a great movie to show the beginnings of modern dance... yes the earliest form! And you can tell! hehehe. A lot of dancers don't know how, when or where modern dance originated from and it was Isadora. This movie showed some of her works, not the original form, but re-staged by students of the Duncan technique. It was very interesting to see how the changes in her life effected her works. My husband found it extremely fascinating (although he is trying to learn as much as he can about dance). This DVD also talked about her professional life, personal life, as well as the happiness and the tragedy that followed. I recommend this to all dancers! You need to know about this woman! Even though her movements are simplistic, they are extremely powerful and she was brilliant!Isadora Duncan: Movement From The Soul

The movie shows excerpts of Isadora's dances, danced by Lori Bellilove, a wonderful dancer. This is what interested me most in that movie. It also is a good summary of the life and work of Isadora Duncan.The pictures are of good quality.

Largely forgotten now, Isadora Duncan was the pre-eminent free-form dancer of the first three decades of the 20th century. "Movement from the Soul" re-creates her iconoclastic choreography and dancing style, always set to selected classical music (Beethoven, J. Strauss, Sate and Scriabin are among the featured composers). Duncan's career is outlined by photos and newspaper clippings, but unfortunately there are no motion picture clips. She died at age 50 in 1927, strangled by her own scarf caught around the rear wheel of an open car. For the social and political issues that embroiled her in constant controversy see the movie "Isadora" (1968) with Vanessa Redgrave in the lead role. Duncan's autobiography is still in print. The movie and the book are available through Amazon.com

Great narrative and background about Isadora Duncan's life. Very lovely cheroegraphy of her works performed by contemporaray dancers. I highly recommend it for one's enjoyment as well as for a class on Modern Dance.