Isadora Duncan

1. Isadora Duncan 1877-1927

2. Isadora Duncan began teaching dance with her sister at the age of 9

3. 1902- Isadora Duncan’s debut performance in Budapest, Hungary. The show was a huge success and ran sold out for 30 days.

4. 1905 Isadora opened a school in Germany. Her students were later dubbed “The Isadorables”

5. 1908 Duncan returned to the U.S. and began a series of tours. She was not well received.

6. 1913 Isadora Duncan’s image was sculpted by Antoine Bourdelle for the facades and murals in the auditorium of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris

7. Isadora Duncan’s children drown with their nanny in an automobile accident. She creates Mother and Marche Funebreto express her heartbreak. -1913 Isadora dies tragically when her scarf is caught in the wheel of a convertible-1927

8. Ted Shawn

9. 1910 Ted Shawn suffers from diphtheria and is left partially paralyzed. He takes up dancing to help him recover

10. 1914 Ted Shawn meets Ruth St. Denis. They are married the same year and start the Denishawn School of dance

11. 1915-1930 The Denishawn School shapes the early careers of Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, and Jack Cole.

12. 1930 Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis separate and the Denishawn School closes. Ted Shawn purchases Jacob’s Pillow and begins to work with a company of all male dancers.

13. 1933 Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers give their first performance in Boston.

14. 1933-1940 Ted Shawn’s company performs for over a million people in the US, Canada, Cuba, and England

15. 1940-1972 Ted Shawn runs the school and theatre at Jacob’s Pillow. Committed to promoting the importance and universality of dance, he introduces foreign companies to perform at Jacob’s Pillow and provides opportunities for young artists to train in a variety of styles.

19. Doris Humphrey

20. 1913 • Doris Humphrey opened a dance school in Oak Park Illinois at the age of 18

21. 1917 • Doris Humphrey attends a summer intensive at Denishawn

22. 1928 • Doris Humphrey and her partner Charles Weidman break away from the Denishawn school. Humphrey begins to create her own technique of Fall and Recovery

23. 1930-1945 • The Humphrey-Weidman company continues to tour and create dances.

24. 1958 • Doris Humphrey publishes “The Art of Making Dances”

25. “The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing … there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer’s justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art.”
~Doris Humphrey, 1937