I am back in US. Must admit, I am sad and tired. I miss the smells of hot
chilies, the beauty of Balinese hips proudly prancing the streets, the laughter shaking unashamed from potbellies full of rice. Of course, it is always an adjustment and I am without words at the moment to describe all the differences in thoughts and emotions that I feel. What sticks out most to me at the moment is the strikingly different perspectives the Balinese and Americans have about beauty. I have been reading bits and pieces of a biography about Isadora Duncan and I believe she sums it up best:
"One might be lead to believe that woman are incapable of knowing beauty as an Idea,
but I think this only seems so, not because women are incapable of perceiving beauty
but only because they are at present blind to the chief means in their power of understanding True Beauty.
Through the eyes beauty most readily finds a way to the soul, but there is another way for woman -perhaps an easier way - and that is through the knowledge of their bodies...
Not by thought or contemplation of beauty only, but by the living of it, will woman learn. And as form and movement are inseparable, I might say that she will learn by that movement which is in accordance with the beautiful form...Woman is to learn beauty of form and movement through dance.
I believe there is a wonderful undiscovered inheritance for coming womanhood, the old dance which is to become new. She shall be sculpture not in clay or marble but in her own body which she shall endeavor to bring to the highest state of plastic beauty; she shall be a partner, but as part of a great picture, she shall mingle in many groups of new changing light and color. With the movement of her body, she shall find the secret of perfect proportion of line and curve. The art of the dance she will hold as a great well-spring of new life for sculpture, painting and architecture..."
-Isadora Duncan, love letter to Gordan Craig Love and beauty to you all. -a
I am back in US. Must admit, I am sad and tired. I miss the smells of hot chilies, the beauty of Balinese hips proudly prancing the streets, the laughter shaking unashamed from potbellies full of rice. Of course, it is always an adjustment and I am without words at the moment to describe all the differences in thoughts and emotions that I feel. What sticks out most to me at the moment is the strikingly different perspectives the Balinese and Americans have about beauty. I have been reading bits and pieces of a biography about Isadora Duncan and I believe she sums it up best: 
"One might be lead to believe that woman are incapable of knowing beauty as an Idea, 
but I think this only seems so, not because women are incapable of perceiving beauty 
but only because they are at present blind to the chief means in their power of understanding True Beauty. 
I believe there is a wonderful undiscovered inheritance for coming womanhood, the old dance which is to become new. She shall be sculpture not in clay or marble but in her own body which she shall endeavor to bring to the highest state of plastic beauty; she shall be a partner, but as part of a great picture, she shall mingle in many groups of new changing light and color. With the movement of her body, she shall find the secret of perfect proportion of line and curve. The art of the dance she will hold as a great well-spring of new life for sculpture, painting and architecture..." 
-Isadora Duncan, love letter to Gordan Craig Love and beauty to you all. -a
