Dancer, poet and choreographer Ian Spencer Bell will reconstruct Isadora Duncan's famous solo work "The Many Faces of Love" with live music by classical pianist Lauren Aloia, set in the magical gardens at Chesterwood. Bell begins with his own choreography, narrating his original poem "Six Chelsea Love Poems" which then braids in another Duncan piece with the famous Mad Scene from the ballet Giselle.  Bell then moves into his re-creation of "The Many Faces of Love", a piece rarely performed by a male soloist, set to 16 Waltzes, Op. 39 by the late 19th c. German composer Johannes Brahms.  Bell learned the Duncan choreography from third-generation Duncan dancer, Lori Belilove, founder and director of Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation and Company in New York City.  Duncan was a pioneer of modern dance and her celebration of classical ideals combined with her natural, athletic movement revolutionized dance and theater.

Isadora Duncan danced in the garden at Chesterwood in the summer of 1898 when she called upon Daniel Chester French to advise on classical costumes.  French's wife, Mary, wrote in her memoirs "she danced on the upper terrace of the garden, with her long fragile figures, poppies in her hair, her fleeting motions, she seemed like a Greek figure come to life she was most beautiful."

Isadora's brilliant concept of love-letters in dance to the Brahms waltzes, were conceived and composed in Berlin in 1912 to the accompaniment of a four-hand piano. Dancer May Sano remarked "When I perform these works, I feel a strong connection to Isadora telling us to be passionate, tender, loving, strong and calm. Each piece is short in length but portrays these different and pure emotions from Isadora’s heart."  

Bell has danced his solos at Boston Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Poetry Foundation, and Queens Museum. Lauren Aloia has performed with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and the Newtown Chamber Orchestra.