Book reviews: Isadora Duncan in the 21st Century – Capturing the Art and Spirit of the Dancer’s Legacy, Andrea Mantell Seidel (2016)

Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) was an American pioneer of dance who revolutionized the art form. Andrea Mantell Seidel’s Isadora Duncan in the 21st Century – Capturing the Art and Spirit of the Dancer’s Legacy, written in the style of a personal memoir, intimately shares the author’s and the Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble’s personal lives in relation to learning and performing Duncan’s works. The inclusion of personal anecdotes and Duncan’s philosophical and theoretical writings pulls the reader in. As the author states, the book is in no way intended to portray an exact vision of Duncan’s work onstage and her life offstage nor to present definitive interpretations. Rather the book is a form of somatic reflection focusing on the author’s and her troupe’s feelings and thoughts in relation to the Self and to Duncan’s works.