On the occasion of the Grand Reunion I would like to offer a fragment of my interpretation of “Crossing” – one of Isadora Duncan’s latest choreographies. This short dance is part of the trilogy that Duncan created in 1923 for Scriabin’s etudes. Both “Crossing” and the other two parts – “Mother” and “The Revolutionary” – were the subject of my work in the process of creating the solo “Dance, Pilgrim, Dance”. My encounters with Duncan’s works, ghosts and thoughts largely took place in the space of Słodownia 3+ . “Crossing” was to be created “from memory” as an expression of Duncan’s reminiscence of her first trip to Russia in 1905. While still traveling through the Tsarist Empire by train at that time, she witnessed a man being shot while running through the field. As we can read in Isadora Duncan Archive :
In the choreography, this recollection of the impact, the suspended stillness, and the fall to the ground are repeated in a furious encounter with rebellion and destiny.
The first meeting with Russia left its mark on Duncan’s life and career so that she could return to (Soviet) Russia in the 1920s and open her last dance school in Moscow. From the perspective of a few years since the solo “Dance, Pilgrim, Dance” was created, I see that moment of work as a beginning, an opening on my artistic and life path. Therefore, this short video seemed to me to be an adequate gift for the Grand Reunion forum.