South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-04-27
By Betty Van Benthuvsen

Dan art flourish in the atmosphere Of formal
government
Is It necessary to be free from the re-
straint OF such laws as are made with the primary
purpose Of protecting property in order to attain
the ultimate In graceful Interpretation?
Two great artists of the dancing world have
Just raised the issue, and with it comes the most
peculiar angle on the Russian revolution that has
ever been brought to the public. And it Is
brought by an American woman. She it is who
hnds that formal government, such and
women Of substance desire for property protec-
ton, spells death to art. In far-of Russia this
American, for many years acknowledged as a
world leader of Greek dancing. is teaching her
classes, and from that land she sends the mes
sage that the real triumph Of such work hers
can only be reached under an ideal government
such a one as she says she finds with the
Bolshevid
And on the other hand
Mile Desiree Lubovska, as famous in Russia
Miss Isadora Duncan Is in America, comes to
this country convinced that the highest achieve
ment in dancing is to be reached in & well-gov
erned land It Is Miss Duncan who makes the
plea for the Bolshevik and she it is who turns
the spotlight upon a new and remarkable phase
Of the Russian revolution. or evolution just as
one peases 70 view the existing situation IN the
great Empire that
In order to get a complete idea Of the new
tidings from Duncan in all of their striking
interest il Is necessary 10 remember that she
was born in California; that she made her sue
cess in the most luxurious setting of metropolitan
life; that the richest element of society paid the
bills, and that when not in this country she has
passed most Of her time in the midst of the same
character Of surroundings in Paris
The Greatest Human Miracle
Tirine Of Paris, she went to Moscow, which
was in a state so far as those Of on the out
side knew Of near famine, poverty and unrest.
Sometime in the atmosphere impressed her at
once. anu. without seeming to know why she said,
soon after her arrival there:
Il do not know anything about politics, but in
Russia the greatest human miracle IS happening.
Future generations will regard the goat forward
stride being made by Russia as martyrdorn for
the sake Of the future"
Now after having passed many months in
the land of Lenin and Trotzky, she has inter
preted her own intutive estimate and boldly an
nounced that there is hope for bourgeois
countries to compete with an ideal government in
the development of any kind Of art, and especial
~ that of dancing.
Comrade Duncan has become part and parce.
Of the revolution. Under the protection of the
Soviet Minister Of Fine Arts she las taken over
the National School Of Dancing and has $50 girls
in her class. And in the culture Of the common
people" abbreviated by the Russians to "Prolet-
luir~ she is finding a field so different from any
thing that any artist ever undertook before that
it is az once novel and compelling in interest.
Irma too. her 20-year-old adopted daughter, is
enthusiastic and has become betrothed to nlyis
ulyitch Sneider, tailor's son.
AS the Soviet threw the regime Of the Car
into the governmental discard, 80 Comrade Dun
can has overthrown the accepted ideas of the
Imperial ballet and there is, naturally, war 10
the death between the opponents Of the ballet and
the invader Where the Imperial ballet saw the
highest art in the patronage Of the powerful
Duncan asserts 1t in the association and apprecia
ton Of the commune.
Lunarcharsky, Minister Of Fine Arts. is her