University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-11-14
ISIDORA DUNCAN

| to dance here for the first time
since she came into measurable
international celebrity, next Wednesday
and Thursday evenings at Jordan Hail.
is one of the prophetesses that practice
what they preach. She not only dances
Greek, but, according to a reporter OF
| the Sun who had a conversation with
her in New York the other day, she
looks Greek, in private life. Even the
cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Plaza
hotel does not reduce her to the level
of the women who sit about and travel
up and down in the lift with this slight
figure in the flowing Hellenic draperies.
In the seclusiOn of her own salon Miss
Duncan wore white sandals and a loose
white gown not unlike a coat that did
not fit the figure and barely touched
the floor, opening over a pale blue smock
that hung straight to the floor in front.
The long coat of course covered 1t IN
the back. Then over her head, tied so
high under her chin that it hid the
lower part of the face, was pale rose
tinted veil, knotted several times before
its two ends fell to the floor. Far down
over the back of her hands fell the loose
sleeves of the white overgarment, which,
like the other half of the costume, was
made of crepe with figure of the same
color as the material. 1t is certain that
Miss Duncan wore sandals. The report
er saw them. Then he saw something
that looked like stockings but were diff
ferent. They were in the place where
stockings usually go, but they were very
loose and full. They answered the same
purpose, although one could not sup
press the fearful thought that they
must wrinkle terribly under the sole.
Are you one of the people who want
to know what 1 think of my imitators ,"
Miss Duncan asked the reporter. "Then
/ will tell you what l say to all that
want to know. Those that initiate me
may take off their stockings and other
parts of dress and they may then do
rather stupid and perhaps vulgar
things; but they are proof in their lit
tie way of what the movement that l
began here ten years ago has accom-
plished. There is at least a charm in
dancing without shoes and stockings and
stays that every public can appreciate.
So these numerous women that initiate
ME are really bearing evidence to the
fact that the standards of beauty in the
dance l first struggled to make known
are recognized everywhere. Don't think
I have imitators only in America. They
follow me wherever 1 60. They sprang
up even in the Caucasus when I went
there, and Germany is full of them"
Miss Duncan is not in the least an
aggressive person. She speaks in a very
low voice, but her enunciatiOn is very
distinct. There is little popularity of
accent in her speech, which is musically
Londonese if it is anything. "Then
there are SO many of the opera houses
in Europe that have already put my
ideas of dancing into more or less COM
plete operation" she went on. In st.
Petersburg, where l have had some of
my greatest success, there is a tablet
over the entrance to the training room
of the dancers of the Imperial Russian
Opera House reading that it is the pur
pose of the school to copy the principles
of IsadOra Duncan's art. They are car
ried out in certain sort of way, surely
as well as might be expected, although
wished they had not referred to the
principles as mine. 1 am only trying |
to put into the dance what everybody |
who loved it and realized what it meant, |
from Socrates and Plato down to the
present day, has said and thought. |
Music from its seven tones and their |
half tones may in the hands of a mas
Ter produce a symphony. The human
body has certain rhythms which if they
De trained, could accomplish perhaps al
most as much in the expression of
beauty. All that 1 am trying to do is
20 restore the knowledge of people as
% what the power of the dance for
beauty is. Naturally for the most per-
ect means of expressing the beauty pos
'ible to the body in the dance l have
zone back to the Greek models. 1t was
Imong them more than among any other
lation that the dance was brought to its
highest power as a means of expressing
IN art"
Animals Memory.