![]() ![]() Veronika Part, a former ABT principal and Kirov ballet dancer, is featured as “the ballerina,” embodying in her controlled movements all that Duncan is rebelling against. Vladimir Dorokhin plays Yesenin, and he is a marvel to watch, his supple body telegraphing emotion with each flutter of his arm. She is surrounded by great dancers, all selected internationally by Varnava. In Isadora, Osipova is able to stretch her own dance vocabulary and theatrical performance abilities. This level of soul-searching and emotion strikes this Westerner as very Russian. He was of a generation who were much more interested in conveying emotion in dance, in more soulful performances, in revealing themselves more in what they did, and focusing less on technical perfection. Russian dance, for too long, Varnava said, was characterized by technical brilliance. In a brief conversation during rehearsal a few days before the premiere, Varnava described himself as belonging to a new generation of Russian dancers. Yet in Varnava’s final scene, Isadora seems to ascend to a paradise, or apotheosis of free movement, where she and her followers dance on and forever. Duncan leaves Russia and returns to Paris where she meets her untimely end. Isadora falls for the dashing poet Yesenin but is ultimately betrayed by Yesenin’s philandering and drunkenness. Lenin himself is portrayed as a charismatic, even seductive, larger-than-life figure, who dances Isadora to a life in the new Republic. Varnava uses the second act to focus on Isadora’s time in Russia. That is essentially the first act of Varnava’s ballet. In Varnava’s ballet, Isadora does not have cruel step-sisters, but fate does deal with her cruelly, losing her father, rebelling against classical ballet, and achieving some success, only to have tragedy strike again with the death of her two children. After their breakup, Duncan remained a Russian citizen but returned to Paris where she met an untimely death, in a horrific car accident in which her scarf became caught in the wheel-housing causing her to be strangled and flung from the car. ![]() Seeking a refuge, a new beginning and inspired by the promise of a revolutionary new society, Duncan traveled to Russia in the early 1920s, where she opened a dance school, performed, and married the much younger Russian poet Sergei Yesenin. Tragically, the children were in a car with their nanny when the driver lost control and plunged the car into the Seine drowning them. Among the admirers was the sewing machine heir Paul Singer, with whom she had two children out of wedlock. By the time she was 20 she had traveled to Europe been acclaimed and inspired followers and admirers. ![]() Duncan was unconventional in dance and in her personal life. She danced barefoot and searched in her movement to create a modern dance idiom from more natural movement. Personal expression and personal freedom was central to Duncan. Duncan found expression in classical Greek poses, adopting the flowing robes of the ancients instead of the corsets and tutus of ballet. Isadora, already rebelling against the strictures of classical ballet supported the family by offering dance classes. Her father lost all the family’s wealth and then left the family itself. Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was born in California. Osipova is right to recognize in Duncan’s life a maverick independence as well as great tragedy. Osipova has said that Cinderella, the theme of transformation is “not unlike that of Duncan and magic she performed on the world of dance” and that they are both stories about “a young woman who searches for beauty and sense of individuality amid tremendous tragedy.” ![]()
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