This Girl is on Fire
Woman as Goddess
Curated by Emma Krasnopoler

Abraham Walkowitz, Isadora Duncan, 1910

The face of change in the world of dance, Isadora Duncan faced her fair share of hatred for doing things her own way. While ballet was popular, Duncan felt it was too rigid and constricting. She preferred to move freely and naturally, without the restrictions of rules or form. She was untamed, primitive, a force of nature. She chose to dance barefoot and wore silk that flowed with the movements of her body. Her dancing was beautiful, but it was also savage and shocking. A Duncan dance was far different than the fixed and composed exercises of ballet dancing. She was an accidental innovator, creating modern dance only by following her instincts and discovering her purpose.

Abraham Walkowitz painted thousands of times throughout the early 20th century. Drawing Duncan was an experience in itself, freezing thousands of moments in time throughout the course of a dance. Each drawing flows and leaps and bounds and twirls. Duncan's face is always left blank, for the expression of her body is more than enough to compensate. Each drawing is beautiful and unique, capturing a different movement each time. The drawings convey the freedom of modern dance that Duncan practiced and taught. No dance, nor drawing, is the same.