Duncan, Isadora, originally Angela Duncan 1877-1927
US dancer and choreographer

Born in San Francisco, she travelled throughout Europe, performing her own choreography, and founded schools in Berlin, Salzburg and Vienna. A pioneer of modern dance, she based her work on Greek-derived notions of beauty and harmony, but also used running, skipping, and walking movements. In Moscow (1922) she married a young Russian poet, Sergei Yesenin, who later committed suicide. An influential and controversial figure, she held unconventional views for the time on marriage and women's liberation. She herself was accidentally strangled when her scarf caught in the wheel of her car. She published her autobiography, My Life, in 1926-27.