1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio, Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Holly Frying. 3 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,160 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy B. Wilson. This week we talked about Isadora Duncan. 4 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:25,040 Speaker 1: We sure did so. UM. I have a particular affinity 5 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:28,640 Speaker 1: for Isadore Duncan because, as you know, I studied dance 6 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,319 Speaker 1: as a kid all the way up through college. And 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: I remember, like, I went to a ballet school when 8 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: I was a kid that was a little bit serious, right, Like, 9 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: while my friends were having recitals that involved frilly costumes 10 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: and stuff, mine was pink tights, black leotard's it's about technique. 11 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: There was no like proof in our recitals. Um. We 12 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: eventually got to wear flowers in our hair, and that 13 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: was like big news, Um, simple two flowers. So I 14 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: remember as a kid who was um, I truly loved 15 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: ballet and I still do. But I also had that 16 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: part of me that was like, wouldn't it be cool 17 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: if we could wear not a black leotard and pink 18 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: tights every single time? And I remember having a History 19 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: of Dance book and seeing pictures of Isadore Duncan in 20 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: those chiffon robes that just draped and like her her 21 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: little leotard that matched the color of her skin underneath 22 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: and nothing else, and thinking like that looked amazing, And 23 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: she doesn't have shoes on. What is this? Um? So 24 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: I have like a weird My childhood romance with her 25 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: definitely informs my ongoing interest in her story. Yeah, even 26 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: though our website does not have a place to have 27 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: pictures anymore, I still get pictures for episodes as much 28 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: as possible. Um. And I was looking through all these 29 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: Isadora Duncan pictures and in a lot of them, I 30 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: was like, this too revealing. We actually put it anywhere 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 1: so you can imagine what was going on in Tino 32 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: six when she was dressing like that. Yeah, she also 33 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: is interesting. It's it's hard, right, this was a two 34 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:08,400 Speaker 1: part episode, and even so I had to cut out 35 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,359 Speaker 1: some stuff that I really found exciting and the thronging right, 36 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: Like she had clothes made for her by Paul poiret 37 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,160 Speaker 1: um because you can see where there is aesthetics completely 38 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:23,960 Speaker 1: overlapped um. And he also made a little dress for 39 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: her daughter dear drew at one point that like she 40 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: talks about like the embroidery on these little frills and 41 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: how dear Dred just felt like the fanciest kid in 42 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 1: the world when she wore them. And she also met 43 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: Alistair Crowley at one point. Crowley wrote about her when 44 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,079 Speaker 1: she was kind of getting into her mysticism phase. Is 45 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: all pretty interesting, um, And like I said, I really 46 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: really a dore. I love her memoir. It's so fascinating 47 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:53,359 Speaker 1: and fun to read. Some of it gets a little 48 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: confusing because, like I said, she never calls Paris Singer 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,959 Speaker 1: by his name. She always calls him long Green. It's 50 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: so initially the first time I read it, she was 51 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: just in a lot of places, she just does L 52 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: period And I'm like, who is this l person? Backtracking through? 53 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: And I'm like, is is that the same ber? Is 54 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: this the I'm cross referencing. The other thing is she 55 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: includes no dates. She is freewheeland and that that thing. 56 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: So you have to like look at another biography or 57 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,680 Speaker 1: other like newspaper accounts to be like, all right, in 58 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,959 Speaker 1: this year she was in this city. Now I see 59 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: what's going on here. The timeline is a little bit tricky. UM. 60 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: I have another quote from her from the book that 61 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: didn't really fit anywhere in the episode, but it is 62 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: about her relationships with her lovers and how she viewed them, 63 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: and I just loved it, she wrote as a parenthesis, 64 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: you may notice in this autobiography that I have always 65 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: been faithful to my loves, and in fact would probably 66 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: never have left any of them if they had been 67 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: faithful to me, for just as I love them, I 68 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: love them still and forever. If I have parted from 69 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:06,839 Speaker 1: so many, I can only blame the fickleness of men 70 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: and the cruelty of fate. I would say, sort of love. 71 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: I also feel like this is her, on a subconscious level, 72 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: rebelling against her mother, who you know, hated her father 73 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: after they broke up and said the horrible things, and 74 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: she's like, no, I love all of my exes. We 75 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: stay close forever. I don't live like my mom. I'm different. Mhmm. 76 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting. There. Seems like, uh, an interesting 77 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 1: family dynamic there that we didn't explore a ton of 78 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: an episode, but with her relationship with her mother and 79 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:48,919 Speaker 1: her relationships with her siblings, and yeah, yeah, they really 80 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: were like they kind of love their own little insular worlds. Dora. 81 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: I will say, I have only ever seen one photograph 82 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: of her, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. Um, you can 83 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,839 Speaker 1: see where is Dora. Duncan got her looks for my money. 84 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: At least in that picture, Dora is even even more 85 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: striking than her daughter. It is interesting that her mom 86 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:13,359 Speaker 1: kind of raised her to be this freewheeling spirit, but 87 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:18,320 Speaker 1: then like still had those those limitations in her own 88 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: cultural morains, that she was like, no, no, no, no, 89 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: not not that free spirited, backing up a little bit 90 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 1: to free spirited to free spirited. It is really interesting 91 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,200 Speaker 1: to me that her I mean, her mother clearly had 92 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: her own baggage. Everyone does that. When Augustine met a 93 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,279 Speaker 1: young woman and got married and essentially broke up their 94 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: magical family circle, her mom was really angry about the 95 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: whole thing. Like she describes her as being very betrayed 96 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 1: and feeling like, you know, Augustine had turned his back 97 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 1: on them, even though he was still very much in 98 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: their lives, which is just a um. As you said, 99 00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:01,480 Speaker 1: there's a lot of family dynamic to unpluck. I think 100 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 1: you know, some therapy for everyone, all of them, could, 101 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we we we were not in 102 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,359 Speaker 1: a time when that would have been readily available for 103 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,720 Speaker 1: everyone or even viewed in an appropriate manner. Um. It is. 104 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: There are moments reading her her books she says on 105 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: occasion some very strange racist things about dance and dance 106 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: from Africa, which I did not get into because that 107 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,719 Speaker 1: is like a whole other weird raft. Um. I feel 108 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: like her entire life is kind of dictated by the 109 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: fact that she was incredibly confident, but clearly, to my 110 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: mind anyway, was also driven by this constant need for validation. 111 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: As much as she was like, I don't care about 112 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: anyone else's rules, Like, she clearly wanted people to like 113 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: her and her art, and I am forever fascinated by 114 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:07,479 Speaker 1: the psychology of that and how it drives people to 115 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: behave Uh. Yeah. Her writing about her kids is very moving. 116 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: Pictures of her with her children, I mean, she obviously 117 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: was a very devoted, dedicated mother. You know, she was 118 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: at that point in a position where Singer was paying 119 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:25,880 Speaker 1: for her to have things like Nanny's, but she was 120 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: still very hands on with her kids. She talked about 121 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: how you know, she did what anybody who loses someone 122 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: tragically does, where you backtrack and go if I had 123 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: made this decision differently, if I had made this decision 124 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: differently like one of her I don't know if it 125 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: was the same nanny or or someone else that worked 126 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: in their household had said early in the day, Oh, 127 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 1: like the weather isn't great, do you think the kids 128 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: should go out? She was like, oh, of course, they 129 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 1: should go have lunch with Patrick's father, and and she 130 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: blamed herself forever for that. She talks about it over 131 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: and over in her book after that tragedy that she 132 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: thinks about that conversation again, um, which is I can't 133 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 1: imagine carrying that around. She never really recovered from that. 134 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: I don't know how anyone would be expected to. But no, uh, yeah, 135 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:15,400 Speaker 1: that is the sad, beautiful, enthralling, strange story of his 136 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: Doory Duncan, who I loved as a child, did. I 137 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:22,360 Speaker 1: never got into modern dance until I was in college, 138 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: which is kind of interesting, and then I loved it. Um, 139 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: but yeah, I was a bun head up until that point, 140 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: and so it was very free and lovely. And I 141 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: do encourage you go look at videos of that have 142 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: been recorded of of the people who have passed down 143 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: her choreography and danced it today and then think about 144 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,200 Speaker 1: how that would have looked to people in the early 145 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: nine hundreds who were really pretty much like exposed to 146 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: ballet as a form of professional dance, and they'll be like, whoa, 147 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,560 Speaker 1: because even by today's standards, there are people who are like, 148 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: I don't I don't get this, this isn't for me. Um. 149 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,680 Speaker 1: And then to consider how completely dramatically different it was 150 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: from everything that had gone before, you realize how she 151 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: changed the the entire landscape of dance as a profession. 152 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,199 Speaker 1: I'm gonna end this one by just thinking about all 153 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: of the fun stories of her as a kid, being 154 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: very very precocious and knocking on doors, knocking on right, 155 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,440 Speaker 1: yelling to other kids that the things they believed in 156 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: were not real, and um lying to people that she 157 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: was a teenager when she was not so that she 158 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:38,120 Speaker 1: could charge them more money as a professional teacher. I 159 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: love all of this. Uh So that that is our 160 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:47,160 Speaker 1: little discourse on Isadora Duncan. And I hope that people 161 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,200 Speaker 1: now understand that she was a lot more than that 162 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: one horrible day in September of h I hope everyone 163 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:57,679 Speaker 1: has a wonderful weekend. If you get some time off, 164 00:09:57,720 --> 00:09:59,839 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy it and get some rest and 165 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:02,880 Speaker 1: take care of yourself and stay safe. We will be 166 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: right back here next week to talk about more stuff. Uh, 167 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:08,840 Speaker 1: and we hope you are too. If you'd like to 168 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: subscribe in the meantime, do that on the I heart 169 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: Radio app, at Apple podcast or wherever it is you listen. 170 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of 171 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 172 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,200 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 173 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.