The Global Search for Education: Dancing Through Time: Cherubim Reimagined
This month, you can screen Cherubim: Old and New, a beautifully layered short film directed by Lori Belilove and curated by Planet Classroom. The work honors a rare 1932 performance by the original Isadora Duncan Dancers at Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers, New York. Nearly 90 years later, Belilove’s company returned to the very same Walled Garden amphitheater in 2020 to perform the same piece — capturing a poetic fusion of past and present.
Using archival black-and-white footage alongside vibrant new recordings, the film bridges generations of Duncan dancers and celebrates the timeless power of her expressive, spiritually rich movement language. While it’s unclear whether Cherubim was the exact work performed in 1932, the piece stands as a moving testament to artistic continuity, legacy, and the enduring soul of modern dance.
The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome back Lori Belilove, Artistic Director of The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation & Company, to reflect on the creative vision and challenges behind this historic revival.
Lori, what inspired you to connect the 1932 performance with the 2020 revival at the same site?
It was so obvious — and so thrilling! To perform the same dance in the exact same space nearly 90 years later? How could we not do that? The archival footage of the 1932 performance was already beautiful as a standalone piece of dance history, but when we found a vibrant color recording of our 2020 performance, we realized we had something special. We could show the continuity of Duncan’s dance — 88 years later!
That kind of visual time-lapse really makes you reflect on the power of tradition. These are my teachers in the 1932 footage — Hortense Kooluris, Julia Levien, Sima Borisavanna Leake, and Ruth Fletcher. It was a profound moment to bring their energy into the present.
How do the dancers in the 2020 performance interpret or evolve Isadora Duncan’s style compared to the original cast?
If you watch closely, you’ll see today’s dancers jump a little higher, and you might notice a clearer demonstration of the choreography. But the original cast had that joyous, free bounce — that unmistakable lightness and inner lift that’s a trademark of Duncan’s technique.
What’s powerful is how both generations, despite the decades in between, move with the same expressive intent. That tells you everything about how deeply rooted this technique is. It lives and breathes through time.
What challenges came with weaving together archival and contemporary footage for this piece?
The biggest hurdle was syncing the music. The 1932 footage didn’t have any sound, so we were worried about how the tempos would line up with the music we use today. But somehow — miraculously — it worked. The dancers in the original footage were moving at the exact tempo we needed. It was almost eerie how well it matched.
That alignment became a kind of silent affirmation that Duncan’s rhythm lives on through the generations. It gave us chills.
In what ways does Cherubim: Old and New express the enduring legacy and relevance of Isadora Duncan’s vision today?
Well, it’s right there in the question — enduring legacy. Two completely different casts of dancers, born in different centuries, could essentially dance together. That’s the heart of it.
People often ask if art is still “relevant.” To me, if a piece of dance brings joy, delight, or even just curiosity, it is valid. And it is relevant. Every audience member determines what they feel — what they take away. That freedom to connect personally is the core of Duncan’s philosophy. That’s what Cherubim: Old and New celebrates.
Thank you, Lori!
C.M. Rubin and Lori Belilove
Don’t miss Cherubim: Old and New, now streaming on the Planet Classroom Network. This film is curated by Planet Classroom.