Abstract

This study explores the art and lives of dancers Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky in relationship to the era in which they lived in order to consider how dance manifests and influences the cultural construction and individual experience of the body. ;Dance is the art of the body; its form and function are largely culturally determined. Since the body is fundamental to human existence, changes in bodily experience affect a culture at its deepest levels. When the dance of a culture changes, it may indicate that the culture is changing also. Understanding the individual's role in creating dance in conjunction with the cultural contexting of dance as a force in shaping and exemplifying the intrinsic experience of the body is an ideal means for considering transformations in the cultural construction of body and its impact on cultural and personal identity. ;Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky were chosen for this study because they were recognized revolutionaries in the early twentieth century, an era of radical cultural transformation. They affected not only the style and content of Western concert dance, but its function and status in Western culture. They were part of a revitalization in the art of Western dance that occurred in the early twentieth century. This resurgence is significant in the study of the role of the body in culture because, while dance is ubiquitous in human society, it has traditionally occupied an equivocal position in Western culture. ;Duncan and Nijinsky were revolutionaries in their lives as well as their art. Their fame transcended class and country. Because they were stars, their bodies and bodily activities were public domain. The two artists are thus exemplary subjects for the exploration of the nature and ramifications of this shift in the art of dance in relationship to the interaction between the body as cultural construct and the individual experience and perception of the body