Ancient Dance through the camera. Fin de Siècle between academic research and choreographic practice

Abstract

The dancers Isadora Duncan and Loïe Fuller and the composer and academic Maurice Emmanuel are some of the figures who, at the end of the 19th century, decided to turn their gaze towards Greek dance, either as an object of research or as inspiration for their choreographies. Using the movement captured in vascular images, bas-reliefs or the veils of Tanagra sculptures, they tried to put these figures back into action, seeking - or refusing - to reconstruct what the dance would have been like. These three cases also share a fundamental aspect, the links they establish with the ancient world are mediated through the new image techniques of modernity: chronophotography, photography and cinema. In this context, the confluence between the camera and dance generates specific uses of the image, as well as representing a major change for the dance medium, as it allows movement and choreography to be fixed in time. These uses respond to reflections on movement and hieratism, but also to questions of race and the construction of counter-hegemonic female models. In short, this work seeks to scrutinise the mentioned themes, trying to understand in what way and with what objectives the new image technologies are used in this process of approaching the Greek past and its dance.