We know that education, not just dance education, was supremely important to Isadora. She envisioned dance as a vehicle for revolutionizing general education and as the means for educating the whole person, from a developmental perspective. One aspect of the legacy of Duncan dance is the idea that every body has a right to experience the joy and freedom of expressive movement. Duncan envisioned the freedom to dance as a human right. Now that would be a pretty radical platform for a human rights organization!
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| Winter Workshop, Nia Moves, Houston |
When I was a grad student at the University of Texas at Austin, we read an excerpt from sociologist Barbara Ehrenreich’s Dancing in the Streets: a History of Collective Joy. Although critics of the book cite her lack of engagement with the work of contemporary dance history scholars and theorists, she does present a compelling portrait of the power and potential danger inherent in the unconstrained bodily movement of the masses. Most interesting is her observation that dance movement can be contagious and, in some cases, it can be hard to stop. Duncan certainly waxes eloquently about the element of Dionysian ecstasy she experienced through the dance, and her idea that dance movement can create an altered and uplifted state of consciousness pervades many contemporary ecstatic movement practices.
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| Student, Winter Workshop |
And yet, there is kind of an irony in Duncan dance—the work advocates for universal access to the tools of expressive movement, but the technique itself is quite specific and not necessarily easy to execute. That doesn’t mean it is inaccessible to a wide range of bodies, experience levels, and ages, but it does mean that there is a specific way Duncan coordinated movement in her dances and that daily practice, or training over time, is required to fully embody the movements in her choreographies.
It was this paradox of Duncan dance that I held in mind when my cousin Bill asked me whether I envisioned training a select, privileged few to dance the movement to perfection or whether I would rather share this dance work with the masses. Of course, he already had presumed a specific answer when he posed the question (after dubbing me an evangelist of Duncan dance, he was advocating for the teach-the-masses approach). Bear in mind, this was after I found out that we share an ancestor who died, as a public figure, in the midst of giving a speech about the importance of well-funded public education, so I suppose I might come by my bent towards educational evangelism honestly!
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| Winter Workshop, Nia Moves, Houston |
I do want to share this work with a broad swath of people, and I very much come from an egalitarian perspective when it comes to this work. Yet, I also have deep respect for the subtlety and integrity of Duncan’s dance technique. Having taught a smattering of guest artist residencies and one-time workshops, I realize that I need to cultivate a space to teach this work to an adult population on a more regular basis. There is just so much depth in this movement work, and to teach an introductory class barely scrapes the surface.
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| Student, Winter Workshop |
It was so gratifying to share this movement last weekend in Houston—and to have such a great workshop turnout and with so much interest expressed in experiencing more Duncan dance! I’ll be back in Houston for another performance event in the spring, so hopefully there will be opportunity for a spring workshop there in a few months. In the meantime, the spring semester has just begun for my youth modern classes at Tapestry Dance Academy, my Modern Dance I course at Austin Community College, and for my horde of K-2 Duncan dancers at The Girls’ School. Austinites, if you are interested in a weekly, adult Duncan class, let me know. I’m looking for space and hope to announce details soon!
