Historical Transition of Duncan Dance
Andrey Panow
Historical Transition of Duncan Dance
This Page Last Modified on Jan. 9, 2007
First-Generation
Isadora Duncan (Angela Isadora Duncan)
b. San Francisco, USA on May 26, 1877 / d. Nice, France on Sept. 14, 1927
Elizabeth Duncan (Mary Elizabeth Bioren)
b. San Francisco, USA on Nov. 8, 1871 / d. Tubingen, Germany in 1948.
Second-Generation
Pupils of Forest School in Grunewald, Germany, called " Duncaninchen (Little
Duncans) "
Isadorables / Isadora Duncan Dancers
Original pupils joined Forest School in 1905. They were adopted by Isadora in
1917.
The group name was christened by the poet and critic Fernand Divoire.
Anna Duncan (Anna Denzler)
b. Zurich, Switzerland on Dec. 21, 1894 / d. Yonkers, NY, USA on Mar. 7, 1980
Erica Duncan (Erica Lohman)
b. Hamburg, Germany in Mar. 1901 / d. in 1984
Erica left the Isadorables to practice painting in around 1921.
Irma Duncan (Irma Dorette Ehrich-Grimme)
b. Schleswig-Holstein Germany on Feb. 26, 1897 d. Santa Barbara, CA, USA on
Sept. 20, 1977
Isadora allowed Irma to teach children dance when she was 15 years old. Only
Irma went to Russia to support Isadora and teach there. After Isadora's death,
she came to USA to teach and perform Isadora's legacy. She gave her last public
performance on Jan 25, 1934 at Madison Square Garden, NY.
Irma published " Isadora Duncan's Russian Days and Her Last Years in France
(1929), " " The Technique of Isadora Duncan (1937), " " Isadora Duncan, Pioneer
in the Art of Dance (1958), " and her autobiography " Duncan Dancer/Follow me
(1965.) "
Lisa Duncan (Elizabeth (Lisa) Milker)
b. Dresden, Germany on Dec. 27, 1898 / d. Dresden, Germany on Jan. 24, 1976
Margot Duncan (Margot (Gretel) Jehle)
b. Berlin in June, 1900 / d. Paris? in 1925
In 1921, Margot stopped dancing due to her medical problem. She died while
Isadora was in Paris.
Maria-Theresa Duncan (Maria-Theresa Kruger)
b. Dresden, Germany on April 16, 1895 / d. NY, USA on Dec. 14, 1987
Maria-Theresa Kruger was born of a German father and a Polish mother.
Maria-Theresa did not go to Russia with Isadora and Irma in 1921 because she
was about to marry Stephen Bourgeuois and wanted to dance and teach in USA.
The First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the wife of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1845), invited Maria-Theresa to have a dance
concert at the White House on May 2, 1933.
Maria-Theresa established Isadora Duncan Dance International Institute with her
pupil Kay Bardsley in 1977. Maria-Theresa kept dancing and teaching not only
Isadora's original dances, but also her own dances in NYC until she was 90. She
always said, " Don't do Isadora Duncan dances. She did not want people to; she
said those were the creations of her own soul (Fina, 2003, p12). "
Other Pupils
Isabelle Branche, Temple Duncan, Gerda, Stephanie Dumbrovska, Jacoba Van der
Pas, Frya, Suzanna, Elsa, Mathilde, Marie, Emma, Marta, etc.
Pupils of Dionysion in Bellevue, France
Valia Petrishcheva, who went to Russia to teach from 1922 to 1923.
Pupils in NY
Pupils in Geneva, Switzerland.
Pupils of Isadora Duncan State School (Isadora Duncan Moscow School) in Russia,
opened on Dec. 3, 1921 and closed in 1949.
Pupils who went on the US and Canadian tour with Irma Duncan from December 10,
1928 to Jan. 24, 1930:
Alexandra (Shura) Aksenova (1911-1958), Elena (lyola) Terentieva (1913),
Elizaveta (Liza) Belova (1910), Lily Dikovskaya (1913), Maria (Mussia)
Mysovskaya (1913), Maria Toropchenova (1911-1943), Tamara Lobanovskaya, Tamara
Semenova (1913), Valentina Boye (1912), Vera Golovina (1912)
Maria (Marussia) Borisove (1910) came back to Russia in 1929
Other pupils:
Doda Ozhegova (1910-1948), Elena Fedorovskaya (1913), Evgenia Ovsiannikova,
Kyra Khachaturova, Lidochka Lozovaya, Linda Lozovaya, Lucy Flaxman, Marianna
Yaroslavskaya, Moura Babad, Natasha Nekrasova, Yulia Vashentseva (1911), etc.
The school was established in Prechistenka 20, Moscow where Isadora and Irma
lived, on Dec. 3, 1921. While Isadora left Russia and after she died, Irma kept
teaching pupils. After Irma left for USA, Ilya Ilyich Schneider (1891-1980)
organized the school; Tamara Lobanovskaya was the artistic director from 1930
to 1939, and Elena Terentieva was the artistic director until the school closed
in 1949.
The school gave the last concert at Tchaikovsky Hall on April 7, 1949.
Pupils of Elizabeth Duncan Schule (School) in Darmstadt, Germany, opend on Dec.
17, 1911
Anita Zahn
b. Baden-Baden, Germany in 1903 / d. Grants Pass, Oregon, on Nov. 3, 1994
Zahn was one of the nine Elizabeth Duncan School pupils who were brought to USA
at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. She left USA for Switzerland in 1920
and returned to USA in 1922. She started teaching Duncan Dance in 1924 and
became the director of the Elizabeth Duncan School in NY in the late 1920s; she
later established Anita Zahn School of Ducnan Dancing. She taught many Duncan
Dancers including Hortense Kooluris, Jeanne Bresciani and Sylvia Gold, etc. in
NY and arranged Duncan Dance performances until mid 1960s. She moved to Oregon
from NY in 1986 and died in Grants Pass in 1994.
Erna Lane
b. Munich, Germany / d. West Stockbridge, Mass. on Jun. 28, 1996
Riva Hoffman
References
Bardsley, Kay. " Isadora Duncan's First School: The First Generation Founders
of the Tradition " Dance Research Collage A Variety of Subjects Embracing The
Abstract and the Practical, Congress on Research in Dance Inc. 1979.
Blair, Fredrika. Isadora Portrait of the Artist as a Woman, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, NY, 1986.
Deutsches Tanzarchiv Koln. Isadora and Elizabeth Duncan in Germany, Wienand,
Koln, 2000.
Duncan, Irma. And Macdougall, Allan Ross. Isadora Duncan's Russian Days and Her
Last Years in France, CoviciFriede, NY, 1929.
Duncan, Isadora. My Life, Boni and Liveright, NY, 1927.
Fina, Pamela De. Maria Theresa Divine Being Guided by a Higher Order The
Adopted Daughter of Isadora Duncan, Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc., PA, 2003.
Gold, Sylvia. " Isadora Duncan Heritage, " A Selection of Isadora Duncan
Dances, The Sutton Movement Writing Press / The Center for Sutton Movement
Writing, Inc., CA, 1984. P10.
Isadora Duncan International Institute. http: // www.isadoraduncan.net, NY
Nahumck, Nadia Chilokovsky and Nicholas. " A Brief Who's Who of Duncan Dance in
America " and " Transmission of the Duncan Repertory in America, " Isadora
Duncan The Dances, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D. C.
1994. Pp. 520-523.
New York Public Library Digital Library Collections. Biographical History Zahn
(Anita) professional and personal papers, c. 1920-1991. NY
New York Times. " Anita Zahn, 91 Teacher of Dance. " NY. December 19, 1994.
Roslavleva, Natalia. Prechistenka 20: The Isadora Duncan School in Moscow
(Dance Perspectives 64), Marcel Dekker, Inc., NY, 1975 <New>
http://www11.plala.or.jp/i-duncanslinks/transition.html
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