On account of her family moving from Italy to...

On account of her family moving from Italy to France and then to Switzerland Lucia became multi-lingual. With her father, she only ever spoke in Triestian Italian. The two became extremely close. Lucia worshipped him and longed for his attention. He was fascinated by her, describing this ‘fantastic being’ as a ‘wonder wild’ with a mind ‘as clear and as unsparing as the lightning.’ He was convinced that she was the true inheritor of his genius. This tall, pale and skinny girl sought to make her mark with humorous impersonations of Chaplin and then, at the age of 15, she began to dance. During the 1920s, the Parisian dance scene was going through a radically innovative and anti-balletic phase. Lucia became one of a group of experimental dancers who toured Europe. She excelled in sauvage roles. Her style was erotic rather than sensuous; one Parisian critic described it as ‘subtle and barbaric’. In 1927 she had a role as a toy soldier in Jean Renoir’s film ‘The Little Match Girl.’ The following year, a reporter for The Paris Times wrote: ‘When she reaches her full capacity for rhythmic dancing, James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father.’