BIG NEWS + Other Updates

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Photo of Lincoln Center by Matthew Bisanz

Isadora at Lincoln Center

We are thrilled to announce that Artistic Director Lori Belilove has been invited by Paul Taylor to set Dances of Isadora at The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center! The dates: March 18, 21, 22, and 24, 2018 as part of Paul Taylor American Modern Dance's ICONS Series. The dancer: Sara Mearns, Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet.

Off the heels of Lori and Sara's collaboration with The Company's performance at The Joyce Theater in June 2017, Lori will continue creating with Sara, with an expanded 25-minute solo.

Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times wrote that Ms. Mearn's "collaboration with Ms. Belilove is the most important occassion to date of a ballet star working directly with the Duncan legacy."

The project issuing commissioned and produced by Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

You can purchase tickets here. For March 24 Benefit tickets, including orchestra seating and champagne toast in private patron lounge, call the IDDF at 212-691-5040.

Photo of Lori Belilove and Sara Mearns by Rose Eichenbaum

Notes from Lori:

Highlights this year were certainly our return to China in April, numerous college and university residencies stateside, the celebration of Isadora's birthday at The Joyce Theater in NYC, glorious out-of-door performances, and the well-attended summer workshops in New York City and San Francisco Bay Area's Mills College. Read on below!

Photo of Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company by Mark Liflander

Franklin & Marshall College Residency

This fall Lori Belilove is again in residence at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. She is setting a reimagined Dance of the Furies, expanding it to include the character Pandora (and her box of evils!) The piece will be performed by the F&M Dance Company as part of their Fall Concert on November 30th and December 1st. The Concert coincides with a day-long event on December 2nd celebrating the retirement of Lynn M. Brooks, Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Humanities and Dance. Belilove will make a guest appearance on December 2nd honoring Lynn's support of Belilove's passion for Duncan's work through numerous residencies starting in 1995.

For a sneak preview of Belilove's piece, join the F&M Dance Company at Common Hour on November 2nd. Click here for more information about all activities.

IDDF Summer Workshops in New York and California

This summer we welcomed students from across the U.S. (including Hawaii!), Norway, and Brazil, to New York and California.

In addition to Isadora Duncan technique and repertory classes, tunic making, book discussion, and video screening, workshop students had the opportunity to explore The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Temple of Wings in the Berkeley Hills in California. All enjoyed networking with Duncan dance enthusiasts and making new friends ("barefoot sisters"!) Select students in New York joined The Company's performance at Alice Austen House on July 29th. Faculty for the summer workshops include Lori Belilove, Emily D'Angelo, Beth Disharoon, and guest teacher Adrienne Ramm.

Mark your calendars for summer 2018 with intensive workshops and teacher training in Athens, Greece in June; New York in July; and San Francisco in August.

While I did not attend this year I understand the Isadora Duncan International Symposium organized by former Belilove & Company members at one time or another (Meg Brooker, Jennifer Sprowl, Julia Pond, and Valerie Durham), went very well. The Symposium was held in San Francisco this year, where many Duncan practitioners gathered and shared their passion for all things Duncan, was inspiring by all reports! London anyone in 2019? www.duncansymposium.com

Outdoor Performances

This summer we returned to our favorite outdoor venues, including Old Westbury Gardens (Westbury, NY), Alice Austen House (Staten Island, NY), Fort Tryon Park (Inwood, NY), and Untermyer Park (Yonkers, NY). We hope to see you next summer!


Photo of Lori Belilove with children by Rose Eichenbaum

Beijing Residency

with support from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Artistic Director Lori Belilove, accompanied by Company dancers Emily D'Angelo and Nikki Poulos, enjoyed an 11-day (April 18-28, 2017) teaching and performing residency at Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing Normal University, and local high schools and children's programs. Invited by Ms. Xin Huang, Founder of Dance to Educate, our cultural exchange furthered IDDF's mission to maintain and share the legacy of Isadora Duncan and to support dance educators in Beijing in their effort to broaden the local dance curriculum with modern dance and Western cultural influences. The visit was very well received (with returning invitations), and we reached over 1,400 participants in Beijing.

Photo (top left): Local students dressed in tunics

Photo (top right): Sample class with Lori for local students

Photo (center): Emily and Nikki with students at Beijing Normal University

Photo (bottom): Mayana with students at Duncan Dance Academy

In preparing to expand our class and workshop offerings globally, we are beginning to use the online curriculum I created for the Duncan Dance Academy in China. New candidates for the Basic teacher training program: Lucia Travaglino, Linda Donnell, and Victoria Moorhouse. A year into the program: Jenna Jones, Andrea Clinton, and Becky Allen are making great progress. Emily D'Angelo is putting the finishing touches on her final project and Mayana Magalhaes, from Brazil, is now teaching full time at the Duncan Dance Academy. Exciting!

Randolph College Residency

In February, as a Randolph College guest artist, Lori Belilove set her own Ave, inspired by Isadora Duncan's Ave Maria, to the music of Ennio Morricone, with two casts.

Created as a contemporary response to Duncan's Ave Maria (Franz Schubert), Belilove's Ave engages a protagonist with a chorus of supportive women who console and identify with her life struggles. It is both a lament and a prayer. The movement vocabulary is drawn from Duncan, Humphrey, and Graham, yet strongly rooted in Belilove's singular voice.

Photo of Randolph College dance students by Andrew Wilds

Ongoing classes and workshops

We are enjoying a full schedule of children's classes, adult open beginner, and company advanced classes all at the McBurney YMCA where we are in residence. For the third year in a row The Ailey School students are experiencing Duncan for the first time. They are amazed by how hard it is, yet they love dancing in tunics! Becky Allen (IDDF Certification candidate) and Caroline Yamada are my energetic assistants.

PUBLICATIONS

Nude Vibrations:

Isadora Duncan's Creatural Aesthetic

by Carrie Rohman

Modernism/Modernity

The Revolutionary:

On Isadora Duncan and Edward Gordon Craig

by Jennifer A. Buckley

Mime Journal