Narcisse
2015 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Duncan, Isadora (United States) Schwartz, Elisabeth (France)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Narcisse
2015 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Duncan, Isadora (United States) Schwartz, Elisabeth (France)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Narcisse
“Transmitting Isadora Duncan’s dances to a man is a way of questioning the specific part of what is female in Isadora Duncan’s dance. With Narcisse, this question is raised more intensely. Here again, through the transmission to François Chaignaud, I reassert the aesthetic principle that has always guided my interpretation work: simplicity. Emphasising style - motor construction, rhythms, phrasings in relation with space – more than form seems to me to be pertinent in this challenge.”
Elizabeth Schwartz
(source: programme of the CND)
Duncan, Isadora
Born Isadora Angela Duncan in San Francisco on May 26, 1877, Isadora discovered the joy of dance in nature, amidst the wind, sea and waves at the beach as a young child. Her home provided artistic and intellectual riches – even though her father left the family in financial straits soon after Isadora was born. Isadora’s mother, Mary Dora Gray, was a skilled pianist and teacher, who played Beethoven and Schubert for the children and read Shakespeare, Shelley and Browning to them. Isadora’s brother Raymond was a dramatist, Augustine an actor, and Elizabeth and Isadora danced and taught dance classes from early ages as the family scrambled financially.
Isadora left San Francisco for Chicago with her mother in 1895 where she danced at the Masonic Temple Roof Garden and auditioned for Augustin Daly’s theatre company. She joined Daly’s company, moving to New York with most of her family. She toured America and went to London with the Daly company. Displeased with what she considered a trivial role of dance in the theatre productions, she quit the company in 1898. Isadora danced in private salons, and first danced at the Music Room in Carnegie Hall, in collaboration with composer Ethelbert Nevin, in a program including Nevin’s Narcissus, Ophelia and Water Nymphs on March 24, 1898. She described her dance as “movement expressive of thought” in her early lectures.
In May 1899 Isadora and family traveled to London, in search of ways to deepen and broaden her art. Isadora studied the Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum. After meeting artist Charles Hallé, she performed for prominent Londoners at his New Gallery, dancing the legend of Orpheus, to music of Gluck. In “The Art of the Dance” Isadora described herself as neither the narrator nor the character of the myths she danced, but the “soul of the music”, a “role reserved by the Greeks for the Chorus.”
The following year Isadora followed her brother Raymond to Paris, where he sketched and she studied the Louvre’s Greece vase collection. After a tour with Loie Fuller’s company, Isadora was invited to perform her own programme in Budapest, Hungary (1902), where she danced to sold-out performances with full orchestra. Her famous encore was The Blue Danube. Performances followed in Berlin, Vienna and Munich. Many artists were to draw and photograph her including Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, Peter Berger, Robert Henri, August Rodin, Jose Clara, Jules Grandjouan, Valentine Lecomte and Abraham Walkowitz. Her European success allowed for a trip to Greece (1903), time to appreciate the art and ruins, to purchase land, and to perform in front of the Greek royal family, including King George.
In January 1905, Isadora accomplished a long-time goal, as she opened her first school for twenty children in Grunewald, Germany. In true visionary style, the children were given free room, board and instruction in dance, music and literature. They wore tunics and sandals and were surrounded by great artworks indoors and nature outdoors. Among these first students were the six who were adopted in order to enter the United States during World War 1 and would later be dubbed “the Isadorables” by the French press: Anna, Erika, Irma, Lisa, Margot and Marie-Theresa. She was able to establish a second school which she named Dionysian at a mansion in Bellevue, outside of Paris, in 1914, with financial help from Paris Singer. Bellevue was later given to the Red Cross as an army hospital at the start of World War I. Isadora and her students then met in America, where “the Isadorables” debuted at Carnegie Hall, in December 1914. Isadora regularly left her schools to tour and perform in order to sustain the school and to support members of her family, a recurrent theme throughout her life. While away, her sister Elizabeth often acted as school director and teacher.
Isadora’s legacy as the “Mother of Modern Dance” is seen in the progression of her repertory, from the lyrical dances to classical composers like Chopin, Brahms, Strauss and Schubert (a radical use of classic music at the time), to the dances of Greek myths, archetypes, human emotions and later in her heroic dances of nationalism (La Marseillaise, Rakoczy March). Isadora and Irma traveled to Russia in 1921, at the invitation of the Russian government, where they formed a third school for children. Isadora danced the Revolutionary, and dedicated songs and dances to the Russian workers and for the Russian children. What had started as lyrical, free spirited, barefoot dance, a rejection of the stilted ballet world of her time, deepened with her life experiences, travel, and with the influence of a wide range of artists, poets, composers and intelligentsia in her circle. Although Isadora was drawn to Greek myths and philosophy, she recreated, rather than copied, ancient themes. She defined the solar plexus as the “central spring of all movement” (Duncan, “My Life”). As a performer, she continued to move audiences deeply throughout her career, as evidenced by reviews and personal accounts.
A revolutionary thinker in women’s issues, espousing freedom for body and spirit, Isadora vowed never to marry. From her first long-term relationship with famous British set designer, Edward Gordon Craig, her daughter Deidre was born (September 24, 1906). With Paris Singer, she bore her son Patrick Augustus Duncan (born May 1, 1910). Both children died in a tragic accident on April 19, 1913. Isadora’s devastation is later reflected in her choreography Mother.
Although Isadora’s success blossomed in Europe and led to travel to Egypt, South America and Russia, she returned to tour America several times. Many of her Isadora’s programs are shared in Private Collections. Isadora was generally well received in America, until her visit in 1922 with Soviet poet and husband Sergei Esenin, (married to allow him a travel visa), when anti-Soviet feelings ran high in the United States.
In 1927, Isadora agreed to publish her memoirs “My Life” and finished writing and dictating them to her secretary. Her last performance was at the Mogador Theatre in Paris on July 8. Isadora was accidentally killed in an automobile, near her studio in Nice, on September 14, 1927, at age 50. Her enduring legacy continues to inspire new generations of dancers.
Source : Isadora Duncan’s Archives website
More information :
Schwartz, Elisabeth
Elisabeth Schwartz - dancer, choreographer, historian, trained in New York studying ballet with Margaret Craske, modern technique with Merce Cunningham, and Viola Farber. During this time quite by accident she began studying the dance of Isadora Duncan with Julia Levien, world renowned specialist in the repertory of Isadora Duncan. Since her return to Paris is 1984 she has presented solo and group works of Isadora Duncan with her company L’Onde at Festival de Monpellier, Chateauvallon, Biennale de Lyon…and in Prague, Geneva, Budapest and Berlin. In 1996, she became certified as a CMA and began teaching Effort Shape at the Université Paris VIII Saint Denis. Ms. Schwartz has done extensive research on “free dance” and has collected film archives of dancers from the beginning of the century. This montage has been presented at Cinémathique Francaise in Paris and throughout France. She has also written many articles on dance specifically analyzing the styles and techniques of Rudolf Laban, Ted Shawn, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan, Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, and Velska Gert.
In addition to La Danse Libre, Ms. Schwartz has been part of a number of film projects in France including Jaillissements (1990 DIRECTOR: Raoul SANGLA) a film which evokes the artistic proximity of Auguste RODIN and Isadora DUNCAN through the communal movements of sculpture and dance. This contemporary interpretation of Isadora DUNCAN's dance reveals its innate modernism. Recently she appeared in interviews and danced in the Elizabeth Kapnist film, Je n'ai fait que danser ma vie.
Elisabeth holds a PhD in Arts and Performance (with a focus on Isadora Duncan) from the Université Charles De Gaulle, Lille 3, France, under the direction of professor Claude Jamain.
Elisabeth Schwartz is a nationally known and respected dancer and teacher throughout France and is now the Inspectrice de la danse for Les ecoles des arts de la Ville de Paris. She has made innovations in dance offerings and implementations for teachers and students. Ms. Schwartz is also a certified Labanotation reconstructor and has used her expertise to set historic works on professionals as well as students. In one recent project she set Ted Shawn’s Polonaise on the French Hip Hop group Acsendance. Ms. Schwartz recently directed dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet in two Duncan solos,performed as part of the special event, 20 dancers for the 20th century. Her openness to mix historic and contemporary forms has brought divergent audiences together to celebrate the past, present and future of dance as an evolving art form.
Source : Website of Isadora Duncan’s archives
More information :
Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).
Narcisse
Choreography : Isadora Duncan - Reprise et transmission sous la direction d’Elisabeth Schwartz
Interpretation : François Chaignaud
Other collaborations : Enregistré le 8 novembre 2015 au CND dans le cadre de Scènes du geste
QUDUS ONIKEKU : Se réapproprier une mémoire oubliée
Exposition virtuelle
QUDUS ONIKEKU : Se réapproprier une mémoire oubliée
Exposition virtuelle
Découvrez le travail du chorégraphe Qudus Onikeku à travers cette exposition, réalisée par un groupe d'étudiants de l'Université de Lyon 2 issus du Master Arts de la scène et du spectacle vivant (théâtre et danse), en collaboration avec la Biennale de la danse - édition 2021 et Numeridanse.
The committed artist
Parcours
The committed artist
Parcours
In all the arts and here especially in dance, the artist sometimes creates to defend a cause, to denounce a fact, to disturb, to shock. Here is a panorama of some "committed" choreographic creations.
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Exposition virtuelle
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Exposition virtuelle
Une traversée de l’histoire des Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, depuis le Concours de Bagnolet jusqu’aujourd’hui.
40 ans de rock et danse
Exposition virtuelle
40 ans de rock et danse
Exposition virtuelle
Chic planète, dansons dessus, oh oh oh
Chic planète, dansons dessus, oh oh oh
Chic planète, dansons dessus...
Et mettons-nous tous nus
> Chanson de l’Affaire Louis Trio (1987)
Indian dances
Parcours
Indian dances
Parcours
Discover Indian dance through choreographic creations which unveil it, evoke it, revisit it or transform it!
Body and conflicts
Parcours
Body and conflicts
Parcours
A look on the bonds which appear to emerge between the dancing body and the world considered as a living organism.
Danse et arts numériques
Exposition virtuelle
Danse et arts numériques
Exposition virtuelle
Créations de spectacles, performances participatives et installations mêlant danse contemporaine et arts numériques interactifs. Une constante dialectique entre le corps vivant (vécu) et le corps visuel (donné à voir ou virtuel). Une exposition proposée par Jean-Marc Matos, chorégraphe de la compagnie K. Danse.
La compagnie Dyptik
Exposition virtuelle
La compagnie Dyptik
Exposition virtuelle
Découvrez la compagnie Dyptik, leur travail et leur lieu de création dans cette exposition virtuelle.
Genesis of work
Parcours
Genesis of work
Parcours
A dance show is created in multiples steps between the enunciation of an initial desire which launch the project and the first representation. This parcours presents diff
Artistic Collaborations
Parcours
Artistic Collaborations
Parcours
Panorama of different artistic collaborations, from « couples » of choreographers to creations involving musicians or plasticians
Dance and performance
Parcours
Dance and performance
Parcours
Here is a sample of extracts illustrating burlesque figures in Performances.
Butoh
Parcours
Butoh
Parcours
On 24th May 1959, Tatsumi Hijikata portrayed the character of the "Man" in the first presentation of a play called Kinjiki (Forbidden Colours).
The Ankoku Butoh was born,
Do you mean Folklores?
Parcours
Do you mean Folklores?
Parcours
Presentation of how choreographers are revisiting Folklore in contemporary creations.
Ballet pushed to the edge
Parcours
Ballet pushed to the edge
Parcours
Ballet’s evolution from its romantic form until néo-classicism.
Dance in Quebec: Untamed Bodies
Parcours
Dance in Quebec: Untamed Bodies
Parcours
First part of the Parcours about dance in Quebec, these extracts present how bodies are being used in a very physical way.
La Maison de la Danse de Lyon
Exposition virtuelle
La Maison de la Danse de Lyon
Exposition virtuelle
Créée à Lyon en 1980, la Maison de la Danse fut le premier théâtre en Europe dédié exclusivement la danse. Avec plus de 150 000 spectateurs par saison et près de 200 levers de rideaux, la Maison de la Danse rassemble aujourd’hui un large public de spectacles très fédérateurs mais aussi d’œuvres innovantes et de recherche. Théâtre de diffusion mais aussi pôle européen de création et d’innovations numériques, la Maison de la Danse vous ouvre ses portes et vous dévoile ses projets.
Female / male
Parcours
Female / male
Parcours
A walk between different conceptions and receptions of genres in different styles and eras of dance.
Dance and music
Parcours
Dance and music
Parcours
The relationship between music and choreographic works varies throught dance history.
Dance and visual arts
Parcours
Dance and visual arts
Parcours
Dance and visual arts have often been inspiring for each other and have influenced each other. This Parcours can not address all the forms of their relations; he only tries to show the importance of plastic creation in some choreographies.