Varshavianka (1924)

Loyola University Chicago Department of Fine and Performing Arts Presents Classical (R)evolution Loyola’s Annual Dance Concert FEB 11-14, 2016 Varshavianka (1924) Choreography: Isadora Duncan Staged and Coached by Jennifer Sprowl Composer Jozef Plawinski Costumes: Alex Wren Meadows Reference: Nahumck, Nadia Chilkovsky. Isadora Duncan: The Dances. Washington DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994. The music is said to have originated during an 1831 uprising of Polish prisoners in Tsarist Russia. The words used by Duncan were popular in Russia during its revolutionary days. The dance portrays a shock-troop brigade, whose members rescue the flag (imaginary in the original dance) from fallen standard bearers and bring the battle to a victorious conclusion. Isadora Duncan is reported to have arrived on the scene of the 1905 St. Petersburg massacre—“Bloody Sunday“—just days after it occurred. She dedicated the dance to the massacr