Scriabin — Etude, Op. 2, No. 1 (Mother)

Music: Scriabin — Etude, Op. 2, No. 1
Original choreography by: Isadora Duncan (1921)
Premiered: c. 1923
Categories: dramatic dances

“Mother” is part of a trilogy of dances that Duncan created around 1923 to the Etudes of Scriabin. It was revived by Irma Duncan in 1927, and restaged by Julia Levien in 1978.

Notes

Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck

Reference: Nahumck, Nadia Chilkovsky. Isadora Duncan: The Dances. Washington DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994.

It has been claimed that this work, which came to be known as Mother, is a dirge-like lament for Duncan's own children—or perhaps for her own weariness. The "mother" theme is a familiar one in Russian folklore, which abounds with references to feminine personifications, such as Mother Russia, Mother Volga and Baba Yaga.

The dance is a masterpiece of simplicity, reduced to a single descending line in which the dancer progresses diagonally across the stage. Sinking to the floor at last, she extends one arm in a final anguished appeal which calls to mind Duncan's forlorn note to Victor Seroff: "Think of me & play Scriabin—perhaps you will be nearer to my spirit when the body with all its material nuisance is not there. There are a few inspired moments in life & and the rest is Chipuka" (Seroff, The Real Isadora, p. 429).

Unlike Marche Slav, this dance is not hortatory in intent. It is a poetical statement of bleakness implying crushing images of human loss.

Catherine Gallant

The universal and personal images of hope, care and loss refer to both Duncan’s life and to the timeless relationship of parent and child. The movement itself pulls and heaves through the body, emphasizing the weighted approach that Duncan was taking in her choreography at the time. Like in many of Duncan’s works, the dancer represents both the mourner and mourned, the body and the spirit.

Videos

Title	Date	Dancers	Full Dance?
Common Shade	July 2015	Francesca Todesco	Yes
Dances by Isadora Boston: Mother	2014	Kelli Edwards	Yes
Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company 2013-2014 Season Highlights	2014	Lori Belilove	No
Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company Performance Highlights 2013	2013	Lori Belilove	No
Catherine Gallant performs three Scriabin Etudes	2009	Catherine Gallant	Yes
Hortense Kooluris Memorial	2007-10-01	Adrienne Ramm	Yes
Isadora and the American Jewish Intelligentsia	2000	Beth Jucovy	Yes
Dances by Isadora: Mother and Revolutionary	1997	Patricia Adams	Yes
Duncan Dance Continuum	1995		Yes
DDD Performance at Mountain View, CA	1994-03-25	Melinda McGee	Yes
Dionysian Duncan Dancers Julia Morgan	1993-09	Melinda McGee	Yes
Mother (Adrienne Ramm)	1992	Adrienne Ramm	Yes
The Mother	1992	Gemze de Lappe	Yes
Scriabin's 'Mother', Chopin Slow Mazurka, Gluck 'Gracieux' and Allegretto	1991-06-23	Ann Cogley	Yes
The Enduring Essence	1990	Gemze de Lappe	Yes
Isadora Duncan's 110th Birthday Celebration	1987	Julia Levien	Yes
DFI Cunningham	1980		Yes
One Foot on the Earth, One Eye on a Star	1978-9-14	Hortense Kooluris	Yes
Isadora Duncan Repertory Dance Company perform Mother			Yes