Gluck — Iphigenie en Aulide, Moderato-Allegro (The maidens of Chalkis play at ball and knucklebones)

Reconstructed by Hortense Kooluris.

Notes

Barbara Kane

Known now as jacks – this dance/game is a joyful sharing of playful competition and beautiful sculptural floor work images/movements.

Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck

Reference: Nahumck, Nadia Chilkovsky. Isadora Duncan: The Dances. Washington DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994.

A game based on ancient graphic and literary references, in which Greek goddesses play with five little stones or the knuckle bones of sheep, tossing them into the air and catching them in various hand positions. A similar game is played by children today using jacks, dice or little stones.

Critics who saw Isadora Duncan perform this solo dance in 1905 were amazed by her ability to enact the parts of several players. Irma Duncan restaged the dance in 1923 with a group of dancers.

Videos

Title Date Dancers Full Dance? Notes
Isadora Duncan Dance Group: Knucklebones 2003 Akari and Mina Kozue Yes As learned by Barbara Kane from Madeleine Lytton

Related items in the Archives

The San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design > Programs > Lisa Duncan

The San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design > Programs > Isadora Duncan — Nov 25, 1917

The San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design > Programs > Isadorables — Dec 28, 1919

The Collection of Christy Cornell-Pape > Programs > Dances and Choruses from Iphigenie in Aulide — Isadora Duncan — Jul 06, 1908

The Collection of Christy Cornell-Pape > Programs > A Revival of the Greek Art of Two Thousand Years Ago — Isadora Duncan and Walter Damrosch — Nov 08, 1908

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Odile Pyros — Odile Pyros School — Jun 17, 1991

The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Starry Night — Barbara Kane — Dec 20, 1991

The Collection of Janaea Rose Lyn (McAlee) > Artwork > Knucklebones

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