Isadora Duncan was a modern dance pioneer and choreographer who is known as the founder of modern American dance. She died tragically in a car accident at the age of forty-nine.
She was born in 1878 in San Francisco, California, the youngest of four. Her mother introduced the children to all the culture and art that San Francisco had to offer. Her parents were divorced in 1888 and the children moved to Oakland with their mother.
Isadora dropped out of school and started performing in the theatre but became disenchanted with it and eventually became a solo dance performer. In 1900, she moved to Paris where she opened her own dance studio. Her flamboyant personal style and her unique approach to dance made her a star in the Paris.
Isadora Duncan was ahead of her time in many of her beliefs. She didnt believe in marriage and bore two children out of wedlock. Tragically, both children drowned in 1913. She was known for wearing flowing gowns, dancing barefoot, and wearing long, flowing scarves.
Unfortunately, a scarf was to be her undoing. In 1927, while she was riding as a passenger in a sports car, the scarf she was wearing somehow became entangled in one of the back wheels of the car. She was pulled from the car and dragged behind for several yards, her neck was broken by the force. She died instantly.
She was cremated and her ashes lie in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, resting place of such people as Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.
