Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

736 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
seemed to me to be in harmony with the rhythms of the feet and Dionysiac set of the
head, and the tossing of the thyrsis. We also spent hours every day in the British
Museum Library. . . . 32
Charles Halle, director of the New Gallery, which had a central court and
fountain surrounded by plants, flowers, and banks of palms, had the idea that
Isadora should give three performances there, which included a dance to music
from Gluck's Orfeo and illustrations in dance of passages chosen from the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Idylls of Theocritus, read by the Greek
scholar and mythographer Jane Harrison and accompanied by a small orchestra.
Also on the programs were discussions by the artist Sir William Richmond
on dancing in its relation to painting, by the classical scholar Andrew
Lang on dancing in its relation to the Greek myth, and by the composer Hubert
Parry on dancing in its relation to music. A contemporary magazine article
commented that from her time spent in the British Museum, Duncan analyzed
and memorized "the steps and attitudes of the classic nymphs of
antique art. Her work is thus the result of the application of poetic intelligence
to the art of dancing, and her aim is to study nature and the classics
and abjure the conventional." 32
Thus from the beginning, Duncan's attitudes and methods were established.
She studied art in the museums of the world; became an ardent admirer
and friend of the sculptor Rodin, as he was of her; and never lost her
fervor for the Greek ideal. Her visit to Greece (1903-1904) was particularly
ecstatic and she presented there (with ten Greek boys) a singing and acting
rendition of Aeschylus' Suppliants; her art was religious, not a copy of but inspired
by the art of ancient Greece. "Out of that has come my dancing, neither
Greek nor antique but the spontaneous expression of my soul lifted up
by beauty"; her purpose was not to imitate but to re-create the Greek ideal in
herself "with personal inspiration: to start from its beauty and then go toward
the future." 34 She toured Europe extensively but returned only once to the
United States; she became closely associated with France and with Russia (she
opened schools in Paris and in Moscow). Both her personal life and public career
were turbulent and iconoclastic, and her triumphs were tempered by
tragedy.
Duncan's legacy embraced her liberating influence from tradition; her creation
of plotless or "pure" dances; her use of great music, especially symphonic
music; her invention of expressive movements, as in her portrayal of the damned
in The Dance of the Furies; and her employment of political, social, and moral
themes, along with Greek mythology. 35 It is true that modern dance in the United
States stems most directly from Duncan's pioneering contemporaries, Ted Shawn
and Ruth St. Denis and their pupils, for example, Martha Graham. Yet these
dancers and others were deeply influenced by Duncan. Revivals and re-creations
of Duncan dances (for example, the Three Graces and Cassandra) have become
popular. 36