Schubert — Waltz, D. 365, No. 33 (Three Graces)
- Suite: Dances for Children
- Music:
Schubert — Waltz, D. 365, No. 33
- Original choreography by: Isadora Duncan
Reconstructed versions by Hortense Kooluris and Riva Hoffman.
Notes
Dicki Johnson Macy
The Three Graces are the three aspects of Aphrodite (1: JOY of the radiance that flows out to the world, 2: SPLENDOR, represents the energy returning to the deity, and 3: ABUNDANCE, unites the two.) and the rhythm of her energy going forth in the world, coming back, and then herself enclosing the two movements. The graces are her inflection as the moving powers of the energy of the world. The graces are naked because nakedness represents disengagement from the limitations of time and space.
Sylvia Gold
There is a mystery in the faces of these three dancers before they turn into their joyous circle and climax with a burst of energy. This is probably the most well known of the Schubert dances.
Andrea Mantell Seidel
Three Graces begins with a pictorial image evocative of the famous painting of The Three Graces with the trio of young girls facing front with their arms entwined around one another. The trio gently bourrée downstage on half toe with sweet smiles of innocence and chaste restraint. In contrast to the open, thrusting pelvis in Duncan's later Brahms Waltzes and the erotic sensuality of Botticelli's nymphs, the pelvis and hips in the Three Graces are constrained and centered over the arches of the feet, furthering the virginal countenance of Isadora's nymphs. Arriving at the foot of the stage, the trio separates, spins, and glides playfully before beckoning one another to run lightly upstage to reassemble again into the entwined configuration. For a moment they stand sweetly poised as if in a Renaissance painting, and then slowly and delicately repeat the small advancing steps.
The Three Graces in my opinion, is not a fully realized vision of Botticelli's painting and in that regard, not a fully realized piece of choreography. Isadora had not yet acquired the depth of musical or choreographic sophistication to capture the sensuality and profundity of Botticelli's vision. The dancing figures render Botticelli's images not as part Aphrodite but rather as part idealized, chaste young women and part adolescent, not quite ripened unto their power.
Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck
Reference: Nahumck, Nadia Chilkovsky. Isadora Duncan: The Dances. Washington DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994.
This is a widely known but little understood study in perspective. The form, emphasized by repetition, is a daring example of an abbreviated phrase repeated to complete a longer conceptual statement. It is of peripheral interest to note that inspiration for this piece was sparked by Duncan's appreciation of Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, or by images described in Richard Wagner's notes on Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf dem Wartburg. In her autobiography My Life, Duncan chronicles her response to Wagner's widow, Cosima, who had asked her to dance the Bacchanale for the opera Tannhäuser: "I will come, and I will try to give at least an indication of the lovely, soft, voluptuous movements which I already see for the Three Graces" (Duncan, My Life, p. 142.). Planning her performance, Isadora wrote, "Those are the Three Graces embodying the calm, the languor of satisfied amorous sensuality. In the dream of Tannhäuser they are interlaced and separated and, joining themselves together, become alternately unified and parted" (Duncan, My Life, p. 145).
The dance, a choreographic phenomenon of classic simplicity, combines interesting spatial constructs with hidden skills and intricate music/dance relatedness. In its entirety, the dance is an illusion of time and distance—a vision of enduring perfection of form.
Three dancers, side by side and in close contact, face the audience. They begin from upstage center to move imperceptibly toward the audience, as though coming out of a distant past. They advance in absolute unity as one body. The two outside figures incline their heads toward the central figure; they seem to be whispering profound secrets.
After the first sixteen measures, the three suddenly burst into a lively circle dance, whirling in unison upstage along the sagittal center of the stage. With equal suddenness, they separate, running in different directions, only to reunite for a restatement of the dance.
Videos
| Title | Date | Dancers | Full Dance? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dance Visions NY Youth Company: Children's Repertory | 2012 | Yes | Staged by Beth Jucovy | |
| Hortense Kooluris Memorial Tribute | 2007-08-01 | No | ||
| The Enduring Essence | 1990 | Gemze de Lappe, Sharon Arslanian, Anne Carey | Yes | |
| DDD at Golden Gate Bandshell | 1983 | Christina Fessenden, Melinda McGee, Maria Rosario Villasana | Yes | |
| DFI Cunningham | 1980 | Yes | ||
| Hortense Kooluris Collection | 1978 | Yes | ||
| Douglass College | 1978 | Sylvia Gold, Hortense Kooluris, Gemze de Lappe | Yes | |
| Hortense Kooluris Collection | 1978 | Yes | ||
| Tribute to Isadora Duncan, Hortense Kooluris and Dancers at the World Trade Center | 09/14/1987 | Jeanne Bresciani, Beth Jucovy, Adrienne Ramm | Yes | |
| Isadora Duncan Repertory Dance Company performs Three Graces | Yes | |||
| Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company performs Three Graces | Sylvia Gold, Hortense Kooluris, Gemze de Lappe | Yes |
Related items in the Archives
The San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design > Programs > Isadorables — Dec 28, 1919
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > Isadora Duncan Dancers in Minneapolis — 1930
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, Human Rights Day — — 1975
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers Centennial — 1977
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S. F. Duncan Dancers, 8th Annual Concert — 1980
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, "Portraits of an Era" — 1986
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Irma Duncan — Apr 23, 1937
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — Oct 23, 1977
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Homage to Isadora — Madeleine Lytton — 1984
The Collection of Janaea Rose Lyn (McAlee) > Programs > Irma Duncan — Isadora Duncan Dancers
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Artwork > Drawings of Duncan dance