{"id":1482,"date":"2009-01-30T11:08:21","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T16:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2009-01-30T11:08:21","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T16:08:21","slug":"isadora-duncan-dances-in-new-graphic-biography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2009\/01\/30\/isadora-duncan-dances-in-new-graphic-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Isadora Duncan Dances in New Graphic Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, another bookish post from the awesome Allison McCarthy!\u00c2\u00a0 Enjoy.\u00c2\u00a0 -Deborah<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMy knowledge of Isadora Duncan<\/a> was previously limited to what I had learned in college, which is to say that I recalled a few vague details delivered in a 200-level dance\/theater course.\u00c2\u00a0 Although there were no assigned textbooks in that class, I probably would have loved a class discussion on Sabrina Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/a>new graphic novel,\u00c2\u00a0Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography<\/a>\"\". <\/em> At the very least, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have paid more attention.<\/p>\n

Jones covers both the major milestones and the smaller details of Duncan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, career and love affairs.\u00c2\u00a0 From an early age, Duncan explicitly rejected traditional forms of dance like ballet in search of a looser, more natural technique based on, of all things, her study of how the ocean crests and waves.\u00c2\u00a0 Known by admirers as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the barefoot dancer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Duncan is famous for her groundbreaking performances and free-spirited approach to touring; she danced in Soviet Russia, as well as all over the U.S. and Europe, eventually founding multiple schools for young women to learn her methods.\u00c2\u00a0 Throughout the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 125 pages, Jones effectively captures Duncan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fanciful dance movements with precise, dazzling black-and-white illustrations.<\/p>\n

Although Duncan never explicitly identified as a feminist, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Jones views her as one: in the typical shorthand style of graphic artists, she recounts Duncan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s financial savvy, high level of education and her independence of thought, including her forays with the male intellectual elites of her time (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fran\u00c3\u00a7ois-Auguste-Ren\u00c3\u00a9 Rodin, and Abraham Walkowitz are among the most distinguished in her circle of friends).\u00c2\u00a0 Her detractors labeled her as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bolshevik hussy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yet Duncan never once censored her art, opting instead to find new venues and audiences who would embrace her challenging works.\u00c2\u00a0 Entangled in several passionate affairs, Duncan ignored the nay-saying of her family and actively pursued younger men, older men, and other heterosexual relationships that were often seen as controversial in the early twentieth century.\u00c2\u00a0 Equally unconcerned with her society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imposed duality of being a dancer and mother, Duncan was both, even in the face of enormous tragedy that includes the death of her two children in a tragic accident and the stillbirth of her third child.<\/p>\n

The reading level of the book says ages 9-12, so older readers may breeze through the bold illustrations more quickly than the intended audience will.\u00c2\u00a0 This may also explain the tepid nature of the novel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love scenes.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike 2007\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman<\/a>\"\" by Sharon Rudahl, Jones includes no nudity or adult language, which leaves some scenes with a softened, YA-romance feel rather than a mature rendering of Duncan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oft-discussed sexuality.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall, however, this book presents a fascinating account of Isadora Duncan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and earns a strong position in the growing canon of literary graphic novels.<\/p>\n

–Allison McCarthy<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, another bookish post from the awesome Allison McCarthy!\u00c2\u00a0 Enjoy.\u00c2\u00a0 -Deborah My knowledge of Isadora Duncan was previously limited to what I had learned in college, which is to say that I recalled a few vague details delivered in a 200-level dance\/theater course.\u00c2\u00a0 Although there were no assigned textbooks in that class, I probably would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1902,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39268,400],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-publishing","tag-book-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}