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Isadora DuncanAmerican dancer, wife of Sergei Yesenin
Date of Birth: 27.05.1878
Country:  USA |
Content:
A Biography of Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan, an American dancer and the wife of Sergei Yesenin, led an extraordinary life from the very beginning. In her autobiography, she spoke about her birth: "A child's character is determined even in the mother's womb. Before my birth, my mother experienced a tragedy. She could only eat oysters, which she washed down with icy champagne. If I am asked when I started dancing, I answer - in my mother's womb. Perhaps it was because of the oysters and champagne."
In her childhood, Isadora was unhappy - her father, Joseph Duncan, went bankrupt and ran away even before she was born, leaving her mother with four children to support. Isadora, who was sent to school at the age of 5, felt like an outsider among her privileged classmates. This feeling, common to all the Duncan children, brought them together around their mother, forming the "Duncan clan" that defied the world.
At the age of 13, Isadora dropped out of school, which she considered completely useless, and pursued music and dance seriously, continuing her self-education. At 18, the young Duncan came to conquer Chicago and almost married one of her admirers. He was a red-haired, bearded 45-year-old Pole named Ivan Miroski. The problem was that he was also poor. And, as it turned out later, he was also married. This failed romance marked the beginning of a series of failures in Isadora's personal life that haunted her throughout her life. Isadora was never completely, unconditionally happy.
Isadora insisted that dance should be a natural extension of human movement, reflecting the emotions and character of the performer, with the impulse for the emergence of dance coming from the language of the soul. All these ideas, innovative in their nature, naturally contradicted ballet school at that time. However, despite her severe criticism of ballet, Duncan admired the grace and artistry of two Russian ballerinas - Kshesinskaya and Pavlova. Moreover, she later became good friends with Pavlova, sincerely appreciating each other's talent.
Isadora's performances began at social gatherings, where she was presented as a provocative addition, an exotic curiosity: Isadora danced barefoot, which was new and quite shocking to the audience. The tours significantly improved Duncan's financial situation, and in 1903, she and her family made a pilgrimage to Greece. Dressed in tunics and sandals, the eccentric foreigners caused a real stir on the streets of modern Athens. The travelers not only explored the culture of their beloved country but also built a temple on the Kapanos Hill. In addition, Isadora selected 10 boys for the choir that accompanied her performances.
Following her failed relationship with Mirovsky, another man, who remained in her memory and autobiography as Romeo, appeared. It was spring in Budapest, and there he was - Oscar Berezi, a talented actor and passionate lover. Their engagement and introduction to his family seemed like a fairy tale. And as we know, fairy tales have a tendency to end - Berezi chose his career over Isadora. The engagement was broken off.
Henrik Tod, an educator and writer, became the next interim character in her life. Their relationship had a purely platonic nature, and this romance was not destined to become something more. Because then Craig appeared. Gordon Craig, a talented theater director, whom Isadora called Teddy, occupied a significant place in her life. And, as always, happiness was not unconditional. From the very beginning, they referred to their love as "not real," emphasizing its temporariness. Craig was torn between various lovers, struggled with Isadora's complicated financial affairs, and had less and less time for his own creativity. However, they were madly in love and overwhelmed each other with mountains of letters and tender notes when they were apart.
Then Didra, the daughter Isadora had dreamed of, came into the picture. Isadora was 29 years old. This was followed by Craig's marriage to Elena, his longtime lover with whom he had made commitments. Isadora was deeply jealous and ashamed of her jealousy. From an early age, she realized, through her father's example, that love cannot be eternal. An evidence of this was the breakup with Craig. In late 1907, Duncan gave several concerts in St. Petersburg. During this time, she became friends with Stanislavsky. Seeing how fascinated he was with her, Isadora couldn't help but try to turn it into something more. She described this episode in her autobiography: when she once kissed him on the lips, "he looked terribly surprised... looking at me, he exclaimed in horror, 'But what will we do about the child?' 'What child?' I asked. 'Ours, of course.' I burst out laughing, and he looked at me sadly and left." Nevertheless, this incident did not ruin their friendship. Isadora remained alone.
Once, while sitting in the theater dressing room, a man with curly blond hair and a beard entered. He was tall and confident. "Paris Eugene Singer," he introduced himself. "Here he is, my millionaire," crossed Isadora's mind. The extravagant and eccentric dancer was always thrown off balance by unpaid bills. And there were many bills. Isadora, who had longed for security in her childhood, loved living luxuriously. And a wealthy admirer came in handy. Loengrin, as Duncan called him, was the son of one of the inventors of the sewing machine and had inherited a considerable fortune. Isadora became attached to him, they traveled together a lot, he gave her expensive gifts, and surrounded her with tender care. She had a son, Patrick, with Loengrin, and she felt almost happy. But Loengrin was very jealous, and Isadora was not willing to give up her hard-earned independence entirely and stop flirting with other men. Moreover, she always emphasized that she couldn't be bought. One day, they had a serious argument, and as always, when her love relationships were strained, she threw herself into work completely.
In January 1913, Duncan went on tour to Russia. It was during this time that she began having visions - hearing a funeral march, having a premonition of death. The last straw was the hallucination of two children's coffins between the snowdrifts. She was slightly relieved only when she met her children and took them to Paris. Singer was happy to see his son and Didra.
On the way, the car stalled, and the chauffeur got out to check it. Suddenly, the engine started again, and the car rolled into the Seine. The children could not be saved.
Isadora did not cry; she tried to ease the sorrow of those around her. Relatives, who were initially surprised by her composure, began to fear for her sanity. Duncan fell seriously ill. She never recovered from this loss.
One day, while walking along the shore, she saw her children - they held hands and slowly walked into the water and disappeared. Isadora fell to the ground and wept. A young man bent over her. "Save me... Save my sanity. Give me a child," whispered Duncan. The young Italian was engaged, and their relationship was short-lived. The child born after this affair survived only a few days. In 1921, Lunacharsky officially proposed that the dancer open a school in Moscow, promising financial support. However, the promises of the Soviet government did not last long, and Duncan was faced with a choice - to leave the school and go to Europe or earn money by going on tour. And at that time, she had another reason to stay in Russia - Sergei Yesenin. She was 43, a plump woman with short, dyed hair. He was 27, a golden-haired poet with an athletic build. A few days after their meeting, he moved in with her on Prechistenka Street, 20.
Surprisingly, despite her strong desire to love and be loved, Isadora only got married once. And it seems that it was for convenience - Yesenin could not leave Russia without her. This marriage was strange for everyone around them, not least because the spouses communicated through an interpreter, not understanding each other's language. It is difficult to judge the true relationship between this couple. Yesenin had frequent mood swings, sometimes becoming aggressive towards Isadora, insulting her with harsh words, and occasionally physically abusing her, but at other times, he would become tender and attentive. Abroad, Yesenin could not accept being seen as the young husband of the great Isadora, which also led to constant quarrels. Such a situation could not last long. "I had a passion, a great passion. It lasted for a whole year... My God, how blind I was!... Now I feel nothing for Duncan," Yesenin wrote in a telegram. They divorced, which was easy to do in Russia at that time.
The last lover in her life was a young Russian pianist named Viktor Serov. Apart from their shared love for music, they bonded over the fact that he was one of the few attractive people she could talk to about her life in Russia. She was over 40, and he was 25. Uncertainty about his feelings towards her and jealousy eventually drove Duncan to attempt suicide. Although unsuccessful, it was an unusual incident. The extraordinary life of the great dancer was coming to an end. Just a few days later, Duncan, wearing her red scarf, went for a drive; refusing the offered coat, she said that the scarf was warm enough. The car started, then suddenly stopped, and onlookers saw Isadora's head sharply fall onto the edge of the door. The scarf got caught in the wheel and, tightening, broke her neck.
