As the denizens of La Serenissima part the transformative waves of the Canale in candlelight to honor the miracle of the Divinely Feminine presence, Santa Maria Della Salute, we wish to acknowledge the conjoined contributions of Dante Alighieri and Isadora Duncan.

We are called by these iconic figures, emanating from vastly different epochs, to evoke through movement and language the formative, creative impetus of Dantesque ‘love and light’ and Duncan beauty, strength, and freedom.

In seeking embodiment and resonance from the deep reservoir of these exemplars of the Western Imagination, we possess a tripartite purpose.

As Venetians walk the ‘living water’, we aim to manifest in the same manner a ‘living dance’ and a ‘living poetry’ by means of lecture, performance, and workshop format.

Therein, we scale the heights and depths of Dante’s ‘corso della vita‘ and Isadora’s ‘movement of the soul’ as depicted through the merging of the arts of poetry, music and dance.

To do so, we desire to bring forth, physically and imaginally, the stages of life on the human plane as occur in youth, maturity and old age; the realms of existence on the sacred plane as in images of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise; and the progress of the soul on the mystical plane as in states of devolution, ensoulment, and bliss.

As Dante crafted a life and a language which bespoke a Renaissance for humankind and a culture of enduring munificence, Duncan created a universal ideal for the body, mind, heart, and spirit, in her ‘movement of the soul’.

In these events that we reverently prepare for La Festa della Salute, the bifold genius of Dante and Isadora will encapsulate a semblance of the great poet’s ‘word made flesh’ that has added to the divine continuity of being of the Western inheritance.