Nature, Improvisation, and Organic Process in Dance Education: Isadora Redux

Abstract

In the early twentieth century crucible of Teachers College, Columbia University, Isadora Duncan's vision of free and natural expression coalesced with the progressive education movement of Dewey and James and with Asian-influenced theories of art education to create a tenet still dominant in dance education. As the twentieth century progressed, modern dancers' increased acquaintance with an Asian worldview continued to complement Isadora's legacy of dance as a natural, organic form. Teachers College, as the premier purveyor of an enlightened East meets West Zeitgeist, provided the theoretical framework within which women physical educators brought dance to America's colleges and universities and by which Duncan's intuitive, liberating urge came to survive as an academic discipline.