Chopin — Mazurka in B flat major, Op. 17, No. 1 (Sister Mazurka or Boy/Girl Mazurka)

Reconstructed by Julia Levien and Hortense Kooluris.

Notes

Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck

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

A vignette of two young women dancing, gossiping, parting and coming together.

Valerie Durham

This dance features a huge bounding skip forward with arms spreading open and then under curve skip back with arms gathering overhead, which the two dancers perform alternating - one going forward, the other going back. They sweep back with a jump together, turning and forming circles overhead, sharing a look. The dance repeats this skip and sweep phrase, and then changes to an almost gypsy-like standoff between the two dancers, who, with hands on hips, step closer to each other, and then away, falling into a chase and catch gesture, leading back to a repeat of the opening skip and sweep motif. In the final repeat, the skipping gesture can actually circle around each other, and in the final moment, the chase and catch motif appears, before the dancers run off, perhaps to play again in another field at another time. The playfulness, the glancing moments, the tiny tantrum in the middle of the dance, evoke impressions of childhood and sibling rivalry, of human relationships that are simple and child-like in their emotional expression, meaning and impact.

Videos

Title Date Dancers Full Dance? Notes
Dances by Isadora: Sister Mazurka 1995 Catherine Gallant, Loretta Thomas Yes
Chopin's Ballspiel and Sister Mazurka 1989-04-23 Ann Cogley, Mary Sano Yes
DFI Cunningham 1980 Yes
Douglass College 1978 Hortense Kooluris, Gemze de Lappe Yes
Dances by Isadora: Sister Mazurka Kelli Edwards, Sandra Zarotney-Keldsen Yes
Isadora Duncan Repertory Dance Company performs Sister Mazurka 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 > The Isadora Duncan Dance Memorial, 1952 — Dec 14, 1952

The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > Mignon Garland and Hortense Kooluris Performance — 1971

The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, The Heritage of Isadora — 1989

The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, Hotel Nikko — 1991

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Second American Tour — Irma Duncan — Moscow Duncan Dancers

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan Dancers — Nov 15, 1929

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Riverside Dance Festival — Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — May 26, 1977

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Duncan Dance Festival — Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — 1978

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > The Dance of Isadora Duncan — Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — Jun 10, 1978

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — Jun 24, 1978

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Riverside Dance Festival — Isadora Duncan Commemorative Dance Company — Jan 24, 1979

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan Commemorative Dance Company — Nov 16, 1979

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Homage to Isadora — Madeleine Lytton — 1984

The Collection of Janaea Rose Lyn (McAlee) > Programs > Isadora Duncan Dance Memorial — Ruth Fletcher, Mary Garland, Hortense Kooluris, Sima Leake, Julia Levien — Dec 14, 1952

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