5 Quotes & Sayings By Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was one of the most influential figures in the history of modern dance. Born in San Francisco, she developed her art through her diverse experiences, including dancing professionally in the U.S., Europe, and Russia. Her later life was marked by tragedy: her mother died while she was traveling abroad; then her younger brother was killed in an auto accident. Duncan's personal tragedies were offset by the public recognition of her work which included presenting the first modern dance performance in America on Broadway in 1924 Read more

She died at age fifty-five on February 3, 1927 after a recurrence of tuberculosis.

1
It has taken me years of struggle, hard work, and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence. Isadora Duncan
2
Oh Woman, come before us, before our eyes longing for beauty, and tired of the ugliness of civilization, come in simple tunics, letting us see the line and harmony of the body beneath, and dance for us. Dance us the sweetness of life. Give us again the sweetness and the beauty of the true dance, give us again the joy of seeing the simple unconscious pure body of a woman. Like a great call it has come, and women must hear it and answer it. . Isadora Duncan
3
Now I am going to reveal to you something which is very pure, a totally white thought. It is always in my heart; it blooms at each of my steps... The Dance is love, it is only love, it alone, and that is enough... I, then, it is amorously that I dance: to poems, to music but now I would like to no longer dance to anything but the rhythm of my soul. Isadora Duncan
4
Many women to whom I have preached the doctrine of freedom have weakly replied, 'But who is to support the children?' It seems to me that if the marriage ceremony is needed as a protection to insure the enforced support of children, then you are marrying a man who, you suspect, would under certain conditions, refuse to support his children, and it is a pretty low-down proposition. For you are marrying a man whom you already suspect of being a villain. But I have not so poor an opinion of men that I believe the greater percentage of them to be such low specimens of humanity. Isadora Duncan