EMPOWERING ARTS IN COMMERCE IN A HISTORICAL ARTIST COMMUNITY
ISADORA DUNCAN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE
THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE:
Representing Isadora Duncan’s Living Legacy for Over 45 years
The Isadora Duncan International Institute, Inc., is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit educational organization founded in 1977 by dancer Maria-Theresa Duncan, Isadora Duncan’s adopted daughter and student, and Kay Bardsley, noted dance historian and scholar. The IDII is a global dance organization on five continents whose mission is to preserve of the choreographic and philosophical legacy of Isadora Duncan, to enhance education through classical studies in art and movement, and to maintain the archive of materials from founder, Maria-Theresa Duncan.
THE COMPANY:
Isadora Duncan International Institute Dancers, founded in 1987, is dedicated to the Duncan ideals of ‘beauty, strength and freedom’ in both the original canon of Isadora Duncan as well as internationally acclaimed new choreographies in the legacy of their foundress, Maria-Theresa Duncan, “the last dancing Isadorable.” The company has performed at The American Ballet Theater’s Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, The Kosciuszko Foundation, Palazzo Pisani Moretta (Venice), Villa di Maser (Maser), Chopin Museum (Poland) The Delphi Archaeological Museum (Greece), and recently, for Save Venice at Beverly Hills’ Dawnridge as well as numerous stages, museums and archaeological sites throughout Italy, Sicily, Greece, France, South America, Japan, Taiwan and Russia. IDII’s recently innovative dance-theater production on the life of Eleonora Duse and Isadora Duncan was uniquely commissioned for the monumental centenary festival Eleonora Duse 1924–2024: The Memory of Asolo held over 16 months between 2023 – 2025 and premiered as the finale of the festival on May 26th, 2024 at the historic Teatro Duse in Asolo, Italy.
Tempio di danza
Tempio di danza is the home of the Isadora Duncan International Institute in New York’s Hudson Valley. The studio is air-conditioned and contains a sprung floor. Workshops are held year round at the Tempio di danza on the technique and choreography of Isadora Duncan, Myth & Movement.
Sessions often culminate in festival showing of movement for the public and include movement experiences in nature and at cultural and historic sites.
Please view Programs to learn more about courses, and be sure to visit the Events page to mark your calendars for upcoming performances.
Participants in any of the Isadora Duncan International Institute programs held at the Tempio di danza may choose to say at a variety of accommodations in the area. View
20 Clovewood Road High Falls, New York 12440 845 687 4183
The Isadora Duncan International Institute (IDII) is proud to announce the premiere of Isadora Duncan in the Theater of Love and War, an original dance-theater production debuting Saturday, September 6, 2025, at 7:00 PM at the legendary Woodstock Playhouse. Written and directed by Jeanne Bresciani, Artistic Director of IDII, the production reawakens a forgotten chapter in American Modernism: the presence of Isadora Duncan and her adopted daughters—the Isadorables—in the historic artists’ colony of Woodstock, where spirit, landscape, and artistic lineage converged. It was here, far from the collapsing stages of Europe, that Duncan turned toward the elemental: forest, body, and irreducible truths of beauty, strength and freedom.
Fleeing the devastation of war-torn Europe, Duncan sought refuge in the ‘transcendental’ beauty of the Hudson Valley, from the utopian Byrdcliffe to the mansion houses of the Hudson, she continued her groundbreaking work in dance while caring for her adopted daughters and other displaced children from her European school. Set against this backdrop, the performance reflects themes of exile, resilience, and coming of age through the transformative power of art. It features a rare reconstruction of Duncan’s choreography to Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Allegretto, alongside original choreographies and reconstructions by Bresciani, accompanied by music from Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and contemporary composers.
The production will also feature immersive, projected scenography, enveloping the audience in historical imagery and painterly abstractions that evoke Duncan’s emotional landscape.
