Dancing Over Time

Does style mean everything? The older we get, the more we think it does. In Beyond Isadora, writer and longtime dancer Joanna G. Harris explores Isadora Duncan’s less-famous contemporaries, and makes the point that (as always) the famous person stood on the shoulders of other artists in the same scene. So in our unfair interpretation, Duncan bit Loïe Fuller and Ruth St. Denis’ style, and it meant everything. Luckily, Harris is here with chronologies, biographies, and more about the women — almost all of the hardworking dance innovators around here were women — who made that scene, and more about their nature-inspired, awe-demanding, beaded-headdress–loving style. The history’s subtitle is Bay Area Dancing: The Early Years, 1915-1965, meaning it covers the time before showing the audience a tightly leotarded vagina became the point of all modern and classical dance. We say bring back the drapey chiffon, healthful movements, and reasonable body shapes. We like that style.
Mon., July 20, 7:30 p.m., 2009