Home of legendary Athenian dancer Isadora Duncan to be renovated

Isadora Duncan’s historic home in the Vilonas suburb of Athens has been renovated to leave a mark of time on the home where the legendary American dancer spent several years.

A historic house on Byrona’s Kopanas Hill has been rebuilt by local authorities so that it can continue to live for centuries while continuing to host a unique center of Greek arts and culture.

the house was the residence of Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) and his brother Raymond for several years.

Designed according to ancient Greek standards, the building was built in 1903 on a site chosen to allow the great American dancers of the time to view the Acropolis and the Saronic Sea in the distance.

She was a lover of ancient Greek culture.

One of the few spaces built specifically for dance, it still showcases the same art 120 years later. The house was also the haunt of great figures of art and literature, including Aggelos Sikelianos (whose sister Penelope was married to Raymond his Duncan), Constantinos Christomanos.

Today, it houses the Isidore and Raymond Duncan Dance Study Center, founded in 1980, a dynamic center for study and research in the arts of dance. It also maintains a school and is a meeting point for practice, theory and research in programs that explore the educational and philosophical underpinnings of dance, hosts dance groups and experimental research programs, and provides a support space for young artists. increase. We have an international network.

In 2006, he became a founding member of the European Dance Houses Network EDN (European Dance Houses Network). For five years from 2010 to 2014 she has participated in the European Program MODULDANCE, the largest cultural dance program subsidized by the European Union, to support the high quality mobility of young European artists. did.

In the 1980s, the City of Byron, wanting to honor Isidora Duncan’s achievements and contributions, began rebuilding the building, which was completed in 1992.

However, time passed again and new major damage occurred, and now the city authorities decided that a new reconstruction work was needed, the study of which was carried out by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The purpose of this particular study is not only the renovation of the building, but also the regeneration of the surrounding area.

“Cultural heritage is a priority for us,” Mayor Byron Grigoris Katupodis told APE-MPE, continuing: Last century. After that, it was left unused for many years, but it was layered and renovated, and now a dance study center and school are in operation.

*Thumbnail image: Duncan on the Acropolis, photographed by Edward Steichen in 1921