Description

First edition, second printing, only one month after the first. illustrated with 24 photographs, including a portrait frontispiece by Arnold Genthe. 8vo, publisher's original blue cloth, the upper cover lettered in gilt and featuring a gilt dancing nude silhouette on a stylized geometric stage printed in black, the spine lettered and decorated in the same motif. [v], 359pp. A very good copy, the text-block and illustrations are fine and fresh, the cloth is just lightly mellowed and has a few indications of age.

Edizione: the autobiography of one of the most famous dancers of all time. american-born, duncan pioneered modern dance and performed to great acclaim throughout europe and the united states.<br> the manuscript for this work was completed only a few months before ms. duncan's tragic death in italy by an automobile accident. when she died the manuscript was not in type, she had no opportunity to proof it or make any corrections, it is presented here essentially how she wrote it. the work ends with her departure for russia in 1921. she had planned a second volume. when my life was published in 1927 shortly after her death. the australian composer percy grainger called it a "life-enriching masterpiece."<br> in his book isadora, an intimate portrait, sewell stokes, who met duncan in the last years of her life, described her extravagant waywardness. in a reminiscent sketch, zelda fitzgerald wrote how she and her husband, author f. scott fitzgerald, sat in a paris cafe watching a somewhat drunken duncan. he would speak of how memorable it was, but all that zelda recalled was that while all eyes were watching duncan, she was able to steal the salt and pepper shakers from the table.<br> breaking with convention, duncan imagined she had traced dance to its roots as a sacred art. she developed from this notion a style of free and natural movements. duncan wrote of american dancing: "let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance." her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique.<br> duncan also cited the sea as an early inspiration for her movement, and she believed movement originated from the solar plexus. duncan placed an emphasis on "evolutionary" dance motion, insisting that each movement was born from the one that preceded it, that each movement gave rise to the next, and so on in organic succession. it is this philosophy and new dance technique that garnered duncan the title of the creator of modern dance.<br> she said that in order to restore dance to a high art form instead of merely entertainment, she strove to connect emotions and movement: "i spent long days and nights in the studio seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement." she believed dance was meant to encircle all that life had to offer—joy and sadness. duncan took inspiration from ancient greece and combined it with a passion for freedom of movement. this is exemplified in her revolutionary costume of a white greek tunic and bare feet. inspired by greek forms, her tunics also allowed a freedom of movement that corseted ballet costumes and pointe shoes did not. costumes were not the only inspiration duncan took from greece: she was also inspired by ancient greek art, and utilized some of its forms in her movement.