duncan dancing and babysitting

today was catherine gallant's annual isadora birthday celebration in central park at bethesda fountain. catherine is a nyc based dancer and choreographer whose company dances by isadora attempts to show modern audiences the style and abandon of isadora's dancing. catherine studied with julia levien  (ny times article can be found here) who was a student of anna duncan, one of isadora's six adopted daughters. it's a quiet celebration that happens every year (depending on the weather) at 4:30 in the afternoon.

today was particularly warm and hazy!

 chanda and ella danced prelude (chopin) with their teacher loretta.

dance of the blessed spirits with music by christoph gluck from his opera orfeo ed eurydice.

the isadora duncan archive has a list of her dances and the music she used. it's a wonderful resource.

 everyone doing classical duet together at the end.

i was really hoping to film a few dances, but i ended up babysitting chanda's ballet teacher's little girl. she was a little unhappy during the performance so i had to keep singing and rocking her a little distance away on the hill. though it was a nice vantage point from which to see the dancers, i wasn't able to take pictures and depended upon my friend's knowledge of my camera which didn't include the movie button. i am so grateful for her above photos of the dancing.

little allegra really took a liking to ella.

and chanda had a lot of fun with her.

 she's beginning to walk.

 finally time to leave . . chanda met her friend on 39th street to buy material for their section of the modern group dance they're doing. the dance is called swatch, and is based on different fabrics. they're working on a piece called silk. i took allegra back to her mom at the dance school (and then i went home and took a bath . . it went up to 88 today). (i finally put up a post about the ballet recital that happened last saturday and a post about our visit with my cousin and her family that happened on sunday, and morgana's birthday pics from cambodia).

celebrating isadora's birthday

chanda and her friend danced with catherine gallant today at bethesda fountain, celebrating isadora duncan's birthday (which was yesterday, may 27th - she was born in 1877 in san francisco).

sisters

three graces

rose petals (brahms, waltz in a major, opus 39, no. 15)

a duncan dance performance

chanda and i waited at columbus circle at 7 pm for greg to arrive with a print out of our tickets for tonight's performance.

she and morgana have several friends dancing in an isadora duncan birthday celebration this evening.

so . . you order your tickets online, and then you're supposed to print out the receipt to show the people at the door . . and then they give you the official tickets!! seems like a waste of paper to me. of course, we don't even have a printer that works to print them out on . . so greg does it at work . . 

tonight our friends tsamaret and moriah were dancing with the other little ones in the preshow performance. they were all very sweet.

after the show . . which was wonderful.

park gates and celebrating isadora

i walked morgana to 59th street. she was on her way to a concert she was dancing in this evening. she went a little earlier than chanda, as chanda had a dance class. we passed the artisan's gate and the merchant's gate . .


the park's entrances had been named in the middle 1800's when the park was being built. however, the names weren't actually chiseled onto the stone and unveiled until 1999.

the concert was in honor of isadora duncan's birthday. it was held in a studio at city center and was given by the isadora duncan dance foundation. it was lovely, and everyone danced beautifully. here, chanda is holding one of the little girls she babysits for after the performance.

and morgana with chanda and both twins . . (morgana was excited to dance a new piece in this concert . . scherzo . . )

after party fun for the younger dancers . .

mamas and papas waiting for the younger crowd to tire out (which, of course, didn't happen) . .

going home

an isadora birthday: city center

happy birthday, isadora! we continued the celebration at city center. lori created a beautiful and fun night of dancing and laughing. my friend cindi made the cake (which was a masterpiece) and numerous very busy, special and loyal people made it happen.

waiting to go on for the class/technique demonstration.

lori and cherlyn describe the class exercises.

the company and the beliloveables

the masterpiece!

after the class demonstration and the company performance, we ate cindi's incredibly delicious german chocolate cake. the girls danced while lori's childhood friend, peter mintun, played the piano, and sam surprised all of us by playing also! it was quite a night.

an isadora birthday: bethesda fountain

today we celebrated isadora duncan's birthday at bethesda fountain in central park. catherine gallant organizes the event which gathers teachers and students from the city and long island. it's the first time i've attended, and the first time the girls have danced for it. the children were all so sweet, and the last dance was my favorite. scattering rose petals is very peaceful, and soothing . .