Isadora: A Sensational Life

Yes...save our souls. I realize that Morse Code is sadly no longer in use but for a perspective of women denied, degraded, diminished, deadened by cultures throughout history both metaphorically and literally insofar as their vast contribution to art, this book is simply divine! It is not only a page-turner, it is a classic and stellar contribution to understanding a complex soul, who sought dignity and got the back-of-the-hand from many in the world of her time. Her courage alone is worth reading about. I cannot judge her. I didn't know her! But this is a fine work and brings the reader into a realm of both this woman's glory and grief such that it really focuses the lense on how hard human beings can be with one another. Even with an "Isadora."

Isadora Duncan was a larger than life figure of the first part of the century. Both her work and her lifestyle guaranteed her the attention of the world. Mr. Kurth's biography brings the innovative dancer back to life clarifying many details at the same time. Ms. Duncan tended to either gloss over or sensationalize various aspects of her history and this book separates fact from fantasy. The photographs are very good, as is the narrative.

Here is an excellent biography of someone whose life combined artistic achievement with personal dysfunction. Arguably the creator of what we now refer to as "modern dance," Isadora Duncan certainly filled her "sensational" personal life with a series of adventures and misadventures while struggling to sustain a career during which so many of her knowledgeable contemporaries praised her artistic talents and achievements. Consider these comments:"I got an impression of enormous grace, and enormous power in her dancing -- she was very serious, and held the audience and held them completely." (Frederick Ashton)"She moved with those wonderful steps of hers with simplicity and detachment that could only come through the intuition of genius itself." (Tamara Karsavina)"She incarnated music in her dance." (Serge Kousevitsky)"The soul becomes drunk with this endless succession of beautiful lines and groupings [of movement]." (Ernest Newman)"The greatest woman I have ever known....Sometimes I think she is the greatest woman the world has ever known." (Rodin)Impressive accolades indeed which, for me, increase the poignancy (at times the tragedy) of her poor judgment and irresponsible behavior when not performing before an always adoring audience. Even for those who know little (if anything) about dance, Kurth has written an absorbing, at times compelling biography of a woman who (in the words of a contemporary, Janet Flanner) embodied "the grandeur of permanent ideals...[but was] too expansive for personal salvation." By the time I approached the final chapter of Kurth's biography, I had observed a number of similarities between Isadora's life and the lives of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sylvia Plath. For example, their original and substantial talent, their excessive self-indulgences, their passion for experiencing (both physically and emotionally) as much as possible each day, and their vulnerabilities which so many others exploited shamelessly. With Whitman in mind, Robert Gottlieb observes: "For Isadora there were no rules, there was only the Song of Herself; she lacked the discipline, the emotional and moral resources, to keep liberty from lapsing into license." Such is often the fate of a genius which, by most accounts, Isadora Duncan was. "Sensational" indeed.