Dressing the Part

Last fall, designer Batsheva Hay started her New York Fashion Week runway show with an unconventional opener. Lori Belilove, the artistic director of Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company, performed Isadora Duncan’s solo “The Revolutionary.” A video of the event shows Belilove in a loose black velvet tunic with rhinestones on the chest, dancing Duncan’s powerful steps with remarkable gusto, her cropped hair billowing behind her. Belilove’s performance set the stage for the Batsheva show, which exclusively featured models over the age of 40—Belilove among them.

Performance

The Isadora Duncan Dance Company: “Isadora Goes Chelsea! Pop-Up Performances”

Place

New York, NY, February 13, 2025

Words

Chava Pearl Lansky

Brandy Brown and Hayley Rose Brasher in “Isadora Goes to Chelsea!” Photograph by Robert D. Mantz, courtesy Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company

Now, Hay and Belilove have teamed up again. From February 13–16, the Duncan Company presented a show titled “Isadora Goes Chelsea! Pop-Up Performances” in a gallery space in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood (the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation offices are housed in the same building). The program, which sold out, is now scheduled to return in March.

As I entered the gallery on a rainy, freezing-cold Sunday evening, it seemed clear that it was Hay who’d drawn the crowd. Dressed in matching pants and a top of her own design, she magnanimously greeted her guests, many of whom showed up in their own Batsheva creations.

Hay founded her eponymous womenswear brand in 2016. Her clothes pair bright colors and loud fabrics with old-fashioned designs. Common themes include high necklines, puff sleeves, and frills. Pulling from her fascination with Victorian fashions and dresses worn by ultra-Orthodox Jewish and Amish women, Hay’s styles are decidedly modest—Vogue once included them in a round-up of “least sexy trends.” Yet her dresses have gained favor among celebrities and the fashion-forward, presumably for how little they seem to care about fitting in. (Full disclaimer: I own two.)

It's for this reason that Hay feels a kinship with Duncan. She’s said in interviews that she connects to Duncan’s outsider status. Like Duncan’s, Hay’s work is also based in an expression of femininity that is grounded and unrestricted (Hay often pairs her frocks with comfortable sneakers or clogs).

I was excited when I heard about this crossover. Especially because of Hay’s choice to work with a small troupe like the Duncan Company—which doesn’t always get a lot of air time in the New York dance ecosystem—as opposed to New York City Ballet or another organization with a longer-established relationship to the fashion world. But so far, it seems like this collaboration is facing the same pitfalls as City Ballet’s annual fashion gala: Rather than the designs truly influencing the choreography in the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal of the Ballets Russes, “Isadora Goes Chelsea!” feels like a Duncan performance that just happens to be performed in couture costumes.

Brandy Brown, Diana Uribe, and Sarah Krsnak in Batsheva designs for “Isadora Goes to Chelsea!” Photograph by Robert D. Mantz, courtesy Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company

“Isadora Goes Chelsea!” is self-described as an immersive show, which primarily means that the audience members, who remain standing throughout, can move around, and are occasionally asked to join in. The gallery has a homey feel. Select photographs and paintings from the Duncan Company’s archives line the walls, pink and purple ribbons hang from the entryway, and along one wall, a small shrine to Duncan sits in a cubby hole.

The first half of the show, which runs like a regular Duncan performance, opens with Belilove, dressed in a white Grecian tunic and sandals. She moves through the narrow gallery, lifting her arms in a welcoming motion. She’s soon joined by eight members of her company, similarly dressed in colored tunics and sandals, their hair half down. Belilove quickly leaves the stage to the younger performers.

Watching Duncan dances can feel a touch soporific at first; they’re all softness. But as you adjust to the nuances of the vocabulary, you start to notice the so-called mother of modern dance’s ingenuity. The dancers keep a bend in their knees that gives a floating feeling to their steps and skips. Their gaze is always considered: it often surveys the space before falling over one shoulder. Their arms are weightless. During a duet, the rest of the company stands upstage. They remain gently in motion, rolling their wrists and beatifically looking around like a bevy of maidens in a Greek myth. Duncan’s style looks particularly natural on Hayley Rose Brasher and Emily D’Angelo, both of who’ve been with the company for a long time. With her delicate footwork and studied gestures, apprentice Brandy Brown also stands out.

Brandy Brown, Diana Uribe, Sarah Krsnak, Kristina Hay, and Kirsten Keane in “Isadora Goes to Chelsea!” Photograph by Robert D. Mantz, courtesy Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company

Midway through the hour-long program, the dancers exit one at a time and informally strip down to skin-colored leotards, pulling outfits off a wheelable garment rack. They reenter in Batsheva designs, briefly crossing paths with the dancers still in their diaphanous tunics. Still in their sandals, the dancers are now outfitted in a pink-and-black polka-dot sack dress; a black sheer lace dress with a flowered peplum; a black gown with a bow and cape; and a sparkly top with velvet pants, to name a few. Duncan’s choreography immediately looks less antiquated. But there’s no connection between the costumes and the movement.

This section also seems less organized. The dancers each change outfits two or three times, leading to prolonged transitions. Eventually, Belilove invites the audience to join in. A handful of people wave around the sheer scarves they’ve been handed, but for the most part they merge into small groups and start chatting as the performance peters out.

The Duncan Company billed these performances as an experiment. I enthusiastically applaud the company’s efforts to try something new and to make Duncan’s work more relevant—especially as it embarks on a two-year celebration of the choreographer’s 150th birthday. But at present, the costume and dance elements feel disjointed. Duncan and Hay’s work may be born of a similar ethos. But in order to say something by coming together, this collaboration needs more. If not, I fear the Duncan dancers risk becoming overqualified models. If this historical company is going to gain a high-fashion following, I want audiences walking away wowed by more than the clothes.

Chava Pearl Lansky

Chava Pearl Lansky is a Brooklyn-based writer completing an MA in Biography and Memoir at the CUNY Graduate Center. Formerly an associate editor at Pointe, she is currently a contributing writer at Dance Magazine. Chava has also written on dance for publications including Tablet, Playbill, Musical America, Dance Teacher, and Dance Spirit. Originally from Amherst, MA, she holds a BA in Dance and English from Barnard College.

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