Of late years Isadora has danced (in the conventional meaning of the
word) less and less. Since her performance at Carnegie Hall several
years ago of the _Liebestod_ from _Tristan_, which Walter Damrosch
hailed as an extremely interesting experiment, she has attempted to
express something more than the joy of melody and rhythm. Indeed on at
least three occasions she has danced a Requiem at the Metropolitan
Opera House.... If the new art at its best is not dancing, neither is
it wholly allied to the art of pantomime. It would seem, indeed, that
Isadora is attempting to express something of the spirit of sculpture,
perhaps what Vachell Lindsay describes as "moving sculpture." Her
medium, of necessity, is still rhythmic gesture, but its development
seems almost dream-like. More than the dance this new art partakes of
the fluid and unending quality of music. Like any other new art it is
not to be understood at first and I confess in the beginning it said
nothing to me but eventually I began to take pleasure in watching it.
Now Isadora's poetic and imaginative interpretation of the symphonic
interlude from Cesar Franck's _Redemption_ is full of beauty and
meaning to me and during the whole course of its performance the
interpreter scarcely rises from her knees. The neck, the throat, the
shoulders, the head and arms are her means of expression. I thought of
Barbey d'Aurevilly's phrase, "_Elle avait l'air de monter vers Dieu
les mains toutes pleines de bonnes oeuvres._"
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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