Diablo Dance Theater – Isadora Duncan Lives!

Bio

LOIS ANN FLOOD

Lois Ann Flood is an exemplary exponent of the Isadora Duncan School of Classical Dance. As one of the most renowned professional Duncan today, she has represented the timeless art of Isadora in Northern California for the last twenty-nine years, since founding Diablo Dance Theatre in 1987. She has performed and taught master classes in New York, Paris and San Francisco and specializes in performing and lecturing in museums and historical sites.

Lois studied Duncan Dance with Hortense Kooluris, Silvia Gold, Julia Levien and Mignon Garland. She has also performed in Lori Belilove's, Roario Ruiez's and Mignon Garland's Duncan Dance companies before launching her solo career. An early trip to Paris made a life-long artistic connection with English based Duncan scholar/ dancer/teacher Barbara Kane during a Duncan conference.

Cynthia Splatt a noted American Duncan scholar/author was also a foundation influence in Lois' early career. Her private coaching sessions with Hortense Kooluris back in New York, also made a deep impression on her and earned her the artistic support of Hortense, who was the greatest American Duncan Dancer of her own generation. Growing up in New York, her initial dance background was in Ballet. Later her artistic development and discipline incorporated concentrated studies with Ballet masters Ronn Guidi, Founder/Artistic Director of the Oakland Ballet Company and Alan Howard, a former soloist with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Lois opened her own ballet school Ballet Petite, which operated in Danville, for four years after moving to California.

Lois' strong technique discipline, hard work ethic and healthy living have allowed her to continue performing long after most professionals have retired. The simplicity and natural freedom of the Duncan technique is deceptive: it comes from years of refined and sublimated technique. Lois' considerable understanding of the science/mechanics of the body in movement have also gifted her to consult as a private dance coach and movement therapist, working especially with seniors and dancers in the Bay area.

Like Isadora, Lois incorporates live music, poetry, interactive presentations and audience outreach sessions that have opened an understanding to the seminal and timeless art of Duncan. In our own time Isadora has been reduced to a historical icon. For any art-form to remain relevant it must not only be transmitted powerfully to the next generation, it must be renewed, regenerated in each generation. Lois has choreographed her own works utilizing the Duncan technique, vocabulary and philosophy that reveal her own true lyric artistic voice that are worthy of the Duncan tradition and extant body of work.

Lois' passionate and intense commitment to the Duncan dances has endeared her to audiences, presenters, producers and critics alike. Her interpretations of Isadora's seminal Modern dance choreography are widely recognized for their dynamic, expressive and dramatic qualities. She is also acknowledged for her sensitive and profound musicality as she creates 'visual music' though movement. This aspect of musicality is one of the most important and indispensable quotients of the Duncan artistic heritage. One which Lois intuitively cherishes, which places her in the forefront of the Duncan dance world. Isadora was internationally recognized in her era by musicians themselves as a musical giant and artistic genius. Another ability which has earned Lois considerable media recognition, she lectures on the life, art, philosophy and importance of Isadora during her solo performances. This is a rare gift that few dancers exploit or are capable of doing successfully. Isadora Duncan is an international cultural icon of the 20th century, but her revolutionary artistic impact and influence on modern society, is not widely understood now. As a Duncan scholar in her own right, Lois has continued her research, collection of materials on Isadora and her seminal choreographies, for almost three decades.

A quote by Lois Ann Flood reveals the core of her artistic quest. “My mission is to bring truth and beauty to as many people as possible. Through the beauty of the Dance we can create positive change within us and the world. I love teaching Natural Aesthetic Dancing. Watching a person moving freely and expressing herself, fills me with joy and hope for a better world. My focus is to uplift the human spirit through the Beauty of the Dance.”

I am deeply honoured to have a small part in this important artistic project. The intense and vibratory colour of Bob Fischer's evocative photographs are mirrored in the passionate dance art and personality of Lois Ann Flood. The commitment, respect and collaborative dialogue between visionary artists is what Isadora Duncan's journey in art and life was all about!