Bresciani: Keeping the Duncan flame bright

The Isadora Duncan International Institute Dancers premiered reconstructed Duncan works at the Woodstock Playhouse on Saturday.

There is no more authentic vessel for Isadora Duncan’s aesthetic than Jeanne Bresciani. The international artist, who over decades has graced the Hudson Valley and Capital District with her artistry and tutelage, is one of the world’s most precious dance resources.
 
That is because Bresciani carries the torch for Duncan who is the mother of all modern dance. Without Bresciana, Isadora Duncan, who cast off the restrictive costumes, shoes and theatrical trappings of ballet, may have been lost to the ages. Instead, with Bresciani’s devotion, one can see how Duncan freely and joyously embodied humanity in the loftiest way, in the form of dance and music in nature.
 
Most recently, Bresciani and her Isadora Duncan International Institute Dancers, have spent years in Europe – recreating pieces and dancing them in the same ancient and bucolic sites that Duncan did. Yet Bresciani and dancers, along with Canadian dancer Kathleen Hiley, came back to the area on Saturday night for “Isadora Duncan in the Theater of Love and War.” Premiering at the Woodstock Playhouse, the showcase offered up 19 dances that reflected Duncan’s output during World War I. During that difficult time, she and her six adopted daughters, known as the Isadorables, fled European carnage, and found refuge in Woodstock’s own Brydcliffe, now an artist’s colony.
 
Saturday’s production recreated Duncan’s output with her dancers there. And though the program wasn’t staged outdoors, the video backdrops of Grecian columns, Italian sculpture, seashores and riverbanks suggested it. But more importantly, the program demonstrated how Duncan, in her trademark silk tunic, embodied full authority in pronouncements about love, war, youth and aging.
 
Bresciani started the night off. In shadow with her silks billowing, this graceful and ethereal dancer summons her followers. A total of 14 dancers, two men among them, swirled across the stage. It set up the evening of frolicking, formidable nymphs who became the through line of the program.
 
There were many fascinating dances that have laid hidden for decades. Among them was “Allegretto” to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, as danced by Bresciani was divine and a find for Duncan devotees.
 
Rosemary Cooper, a long-time student of Bresciani, was the central figure in much of the production, appearing in several works. Tall and powerful, she commanded in “La Marseillaise,” and “Marche Heroique” to Tchaikovsky. Draped in red, her potency was unflagging. Eyes couldn’t be drawn away from her.
 
Other memorable pieces included “The Crossing,” to Vangelis, that recreated the trip from one’s wrecked European home to New York’s Harbor during the Great War, as well as “Streams of Life” to Rosetti that illustrated the passages of life one which all humanity flows. The duet, “Not Path to Love Everlasting” to Chopin was also touching, for its depiction of the often fleeting nature of romantic love.
 
Most moving to me was Bresciani in “Touchstones.” Set to Ravel, it expressed Duncan’s deep affection for her Isadorables. It was particularly moving as one those Isadorables, Maria-Theresa Duncan, is the artist who shared her knowledge with Bresciani – and thus is responsible for Duncan’s art living on.
 
Needless to say, the art world is forever grateful to both.