ISADORA DUNCAN

"You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you."

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Isadora hated school because of her constant urge to express herself by dancing. At only 6, she was already a dance teacher.

At the time, everyone thought ballet was the most graceful and beautiful, thus best for women, who were taught to be proper. However, she disliked the formal elegance of classical ballet, which she considered “ugly and against nature”. She wanted to “dance like a wave on the ocean or a tree in the breeze. Natural and free.” At 18, she used her last few dollars to buy a ticket on a cattle boat from America to Europe. She travelled to Paris, Berlin, Vienna and London. Here, she performed on stage and set up groundbreaking dance schools. She didn’t want to teach the children to imitate her movements, but to make their own.

While dancing, Isadora wore loose white dresses and long trailing scarves; she wanted the cloth to echo and enhance her flowing movements. People called her indecent, saying, “Women should not be so wild and free”. In an age where women wore tight corsets for decency, Isadora broke social norms. Thus, she declared herself a “dancer of the future… the highest intelligence in the freest body.”