Isadora Duncan was thus a pioneer of modern dance, definitively laying the foundations of contemporary dance. Barefoot and in light tunics, she was a radical innovator, permanently freeing dance from the conventional shackles of Romantic ballet. But she also participated in the social emancipation of the female body, favouring a liberated relationship with interiority and nature. Her atypical choreographies and her adventurous and heterodox life made her one of the most intriguing and exciting figures of the early 20^th century.

Jérôme Bel created this piece for Elisabeth Schwartz, a dancer and specialist of Isadora Duncan's work. It is part of the series of portraits he has devoted to dancers since 2004, while being the first dedicated to a deceased artist.

It draws on Duncan's autobiography, Ma Vie, and the magnetic and eloquent dance of Elisabeth Schwartz to revive the memory of free dance and the topicality of its critical potential. Combining choreographic knowledge and movements, spoken moments and danced solos, the piece elegantly highlights the common ground between the French choreographer's critique of the spectacular and Isadora Duncan’s powerful intuitions: dance is a tool for emancipation.