Stella Bloch’s Drawings on the Border Between Dance and Writing

Abstract

The essay examines the artistic adventure of Stella Bloch, an American dancer active in the 1920s,
author of drawings and theoretical contributions on dance. In her experience the practice is
intertwined with the visual translation of the movement and with the development of a thought on
dance, suggested by three revelations. Isadora Duncan, which constitutes the first impulse to dance.
Bloch will study with her pupils and collaborate with their company. The East culture, that she
knows thanks to her mentor and husband Ananda Coomaraswamy, who introduces her to the
knowledge of Asian art. African American culture, which revives the link between dance and
community that the West had lost. Through drawing, Stella Bloch will deeply knows these dances
by creating a border area between body techniques and writing processes.