Item #71 Der Tanz der Zukunft. (The Dance of the Future.) Eine Vorlesung. Übersetzt und eingeleitet von Karl Federn. Isadora – Federn Duncan, Karl.
Der Tanz der Zukunft. (The Dance of the Future.) Eine Vorlesung. Übersetzt und eingeleitet von Karl Federn.
Isadora Duncan's First Book

Der Tanz der Zukunft. (The Dance of the Future.) Eine Vorlesung. Übersetzt und eingeleitet von Karl Federn.

Leipzig: Eugen Diederichs (Breitkopf & Härtel), 1903. First edition of Duncan’s first book. Text in German and English. In original, illustrated hard paper. 46, (2) p.; portrait frontispiece and a single double-sided plate. In fine condition.

A printed version of Isadora Duncan’s first public lecture that became the manifesto of modern dance. A progressive, feminist text, with arguments against the nineteenth-century women’s fashion, ideals of beauty, the notions of artistic form and classic ballet, and a praise of harmony and the idea that became Duncan’s trademark “natural”.

“It is not only a question of true art, it is a question of race, of the development of the female sex to beauty and health, of the return to the original strength and to natural movements of woman's body. […] The dancing school of the future is to develop and to show the ideal form of women” (pp. 22–23.). “The dancer will not belong to a nation but to all humanity. She will dance not in the form of nymph, nor fairy, nor coquette but in the form of woman in its greatest and purest expression. She will realize the mission of woman's body and the holiness of all its parts. She will dance the changing life of nature, showing how each part is transformed into the other. From all parts of her body shall shine radiant intelligence, bringing to the world the message of the thoughts and aspirations of thousands of women. She shall dance the freedom of women.” (p. 25.).

An extremely scarce book on the market, despite the relative high number of copies in institutional holding.

[Ragona, Melissa: Ecstasy, Primitivism, Modernity: Isadora Duncan and Mary Wigman. In: American Studies, Spring 1994. Volume 35, Number 1.]

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Price: €3,000.00