Reforming Early-Twentieth-Century DANCE Theatre: Mikhail Fokin and Isadora Duncan

The innovative choreographer Mikhail Fokin (Michel Fokine, 1880-1942) is often credited with reforming early-twentieth-century ballet theatre. In the first decade of the twentieth century he vehemently criticized traditional ballet for mechanistic virtuosity and lack of emotion. The reform he suggested was to introduce a new genre of one-act abstract ballet set to classical or romantic, non-dancing music, as well as a new emotional regime in ballet theatre. In his early statement of his purposes, he recognized that one of the strongest inspirations came from his contemporary, Isadora Duncan. Dance historians have also commented that the direction in which Fokin took ballet was suggested to him by the American dancer. Yet with the advance of modern dance in the 1930s, Fokin started distancing himself from Duncan. While admitting that his “Greek” ballets such as Eunice and Daphnis and Chloe (both 1907) stemmed from Duncan dance, he categorically denied any influence of hers on his main chefs-d’oeuvre, The Swan (The Dying Swan, 1907) and Chopiniana / Les Sylphides (1907-1909). Believing Fokin’s words, Russian dance historians have seriously belittled Duncan’s contribution to the reform of twentieth-century ballet. The article restates Duncan’s impact on Fokin by demonstrating that Chopiniana borrowed from Duncan’s Chopin-Abend (1904), and that the genre of the one-act “abstract” ballet is indebted to her dance.