Wild Grace

The Untamed Women of Modern Dance

Sara Veale

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571368587
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Dance

'Refreshing.' NEW STATESMAN
'Compelling.' HARPER'S BAZAAR
'Passionate.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

The untold history of the extraordinary women who drove the modern dance movement and changed cultural narratives about sex, power and women's rights.

'Don't let them tame you!' ISADORA DUNCAN

The story of modern dance is a story of subversion - of forms challenged and hierarchies toppled in the pursuit of blazing artistic integrity. In Wild Grace, Sara Veale profiles nine of the pioneering women at the heart of this movement, from Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller's fearless rejection of nineteenth-century paternalism to Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus's battles to recentre marginalised histories in the wake of the Second World War.

Each of these dancers redefined the meaning of grace in their art and their lifestyle, conveying vital truths about what it means to walk the world as a woman. Veale brings to life the stories and artistry of these remarkable individuals and reveals how, in their refusal to conform, we can find urgent lessons for today.

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue: State of grace
• Act 1, Curtain: Dismantling the Cult of Domesticity
• Act 1, Scene 1: The church that Isadora built
• Act 1, Scene 2: Our Loie of Ascension
• Act 1, Scene 3: Of vice and virtue
• Act 2, Curtain: Beyond the ballot box
• Act 2, Scene 1: The last frontier
• Act 2, Scene 2: The rebel with discipline
• Act 2, Scene 3: You and me and all others
• Act 3, Curtain: Rewriting the self
• Act 3, Scene 1: A handful of dream-dust
• Act 3, Scene 2: Blood at the root
• Act 3, Scene 3: Between two worlds
• Coda: A blessed unrest
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Index
• Plates
• About the Author
• Copyright