Product Description

A breathtakingly illustrated biography of the first modern dancer. When Isadora Duncan was a young child, her mother brought her for ballet lessons. Isadora thought standing on her toes was ugly. I dreamed of a different dance she said. Soon Isadora's mother found her teaching half a dozen babies to wave their arms in the air. By the time of her death, Isadora had a following of personally trained students and was revered as a performer throughout the Western world. Caldecott Honor-winner Rachel Isadora's expressive illustrations are the perfect complement for the life of an artist who was a true original, and her text makes accessible to young readers the work of a woman who forever changed the course of dance. A handsome introduction.--Booklist for Young Mozart

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1256396 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4?Isadora Duncan was famous both for an unconventional, even rebellious, life and for a highly innovative dance career. Her departures from a conventional lifestyle are only hinted at here, but the author offers a few examples of how her subject's young life influenced her approach to dance and contributed to her unwillingness to conform to the ideas of the world in which she lived (1877-1927). The picture-book format is unlikely to appeal to children old enough to appreciate and understand the subject. The realistic illustrations are mainly done in watercolor, with a few black-line drawings that show Duncan's flowing dance style. Some of the watercolors overuse light and shadow, giving the figures an unusual look. The final picture of Duncan is stiff, as is the one on the cover where she is unattractively shown squinting into the sun. The performer's life and contributions to modern dance deserve a fuller treatment for an older audience. Young children may be disturbed by the accounts of the accidental death of Duncan's two children and of her own tragic demise.?Virginia Golodetz, Children's Literature New England, Burlington, VT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 5^-8. The watercolor paintings are filled with grace and easy movement in this picture-book biography of the famous ballerina Isadora Duncan, but the text is disjointed and reads like a series of theatrical set pieces. What was so special about her kind of dance? How did she suddenly get to Germany? Children into dance may be able to make some connections, but others will need more explanation than what the pictures show. More than in Isadora's book about Young Mozart (1997), the pieces seem random and elliptical. It's the pictures that will hold dance lovers, who will feel the excitement and joyful freedom of Duncan's expressive style. Hazel Rochman

From Kirkus Reviews
Objecting to standing on her toes as a child at dance lessons, and organizing a ``school of dance'' with paying pupils before she was ten, Isadora Duncan (18771927) will enchant readers even before they learn how she changed dance forever. Finding the strictures of ballet technique and pointe shoes ugly, Isadora invented her own style, hoping to ``express the feelings and emotions of humanity.'' The author of Young Mozart (1997) describes not only the effects the ``exotic dancer'' had on her audiences--some responded with shock, others with adulation--but how some of her innovations became, over time, a part of dance convention. The flowing line and watercolor illustrations suit the subject well; Isadora and her troupe, the ``Isadorables,'' swirl across the pages in their signature tunics, while a warm portrait of her with her children gains poignance next to text about their drowning. A succinct, compelling glimpse of a dancer and dreamer who substantially altered the prevailing restrictions of her time, simply by following her heart. (Picture book/biography. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Great Dancer
I am a dancer and dance with a company that follows the teachings of Isadora Duncan. I and my fellow dancers are always thrilled when a book about this great legend comes out- and we are especially happy when it is such a beautiful and accurate one. It is a book that children as well as adults can enjoy, because the illustrations are wonderful and the events are historical. I just wonder, if Rachel Isadora was named after Isadora Duncan- I highly recommend this stunning book!

Good Book.
Isadora Duncan is credited with being the mother of modern dance. When Isadora was young, her mother bought her her first ballet lessons. However, Isadora thought that dancing on her toes was ugly. "I dreamed of a different dance," she said. Isadora soon began teaching dance to neighborhood children. That was the beginning of her new style of dance. Isadora went on to found a dance school and company and become one of the most famous modern dancers in the world. The watercolored illustrations in this book nicely depicts Isadora's free flowing style. However, the somewhat bland text does little justice to her highly innovative dance. Overall this book does a good job of showing that in order to be a good dancer you don't have to conform, but can dance from the heart.