Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan transformed dance into a creative art in which women could become their own choreographers. Her approach to dance was part of a larger mission to promote the bodily autonomy of women, including through sexual liberation and childbearing outside of marriage.

Duncan grew up in an impoverished, single-parent household and essentially taught herself to dance. In her view, the regimented positions and restrictive clothing of ballet reduced the body to a
“deformed skeleton.” In Paris, she performed barefoot in loose drapery modeled on ancient Greek apparel.

The freedom of Duncan’s self-expression influenced many modern artists, including Abraham Walkowitz, a fellow American in Paris. “She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to the rules,” he would later say. “Her body was music. It was a body electric.” This drawing is one of more than five thousand in which Walkowitz captured an impression of Duncan’s body in motion.