Isadora Duncan Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Melissa Ragona

Critical Essay by Melissa Ragona

SOURCE: "Ecstasy, Primitivism, Modernity: Isadora Duncan and Mary Wigman," in American Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring, 1994, pp. 47-64.

In the following essay, Ragona explains Duncan's and Wigman's use of Nietzche's "Dionysian ecstasy" in their dance theories.

Ecstatic movement is of a dichotomous nature: it can originate as an inner impulse directed outward, or exist as an outer force directed inward.

It can inspire a seemingly purposeless losing of the self or a surrendering that is determined by a distinct Other. In other words, such movement materializes as self-motivated rhythm or rhythm dependent on a preexisting polarity. In many cases, however, these two forms intersect with one another and appear as one.

Tanzkunst, Fritz Böhme (1926)

Ecstasy: Kandinsky called it "the inner sound"; Kirchner, "an inner vision"; Nolde, "a spiritual state"; and Beckman, "the profound secret." In the early dance theory of Isadora...
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