CARMEN HAWK

billyjane:

“Movements are as eloquent as words”

Isadora Duncan at the Parthenon, Athens, 1921 by Edward Steichen 

[see also & also]

In 1921, standing in the portico of the Parthenon in Athens, the famed dancer Isadora Duncan produced a poetic gesture mimicking the classical architecture surrounding her for the camera of Edward Steichen. Duncan was a spiritual and artistic presence, considered to be an embodiment of pure beauty and magic. She inspired artists and writers throughout Europe and America, and in the Parthenon she inspired Steichen to forever fix the poetry of her pose on photographic film.

After running into each other in Venice, Duncan convinced Steichen to accompany her to Athens, promising to let him make a film of her. Once there, Duncan refused to cooperate. Steichen’s wife, Joanna, recalled of the incident:

“[Isadora’s] style in movement and costume was based on classical Greek imagery and, faced with the real thing, she was overwhelmed. Steichen settled for borrowing a Kodak camera from the headwaiter at his hotel. Standing among the ancient, sacred stones of the Acropolis, Isadora felt she was too much of an intruder to move, but finally she managed to produce the two appropriate gestures that Steichen recorded.”

via  Toledo Blade

from Toledo Museum of Art

(via emotionalorphan)