The great American icon of dance, Isadora Duncan, who rose to prominence early in the twentieth century and met a tragic death at age 50, was ahead of her time in both her artistic ideals, her modes of physical expression, and her controversial private life. Greatly admired by many, she also became an object of scorn and derision, mocked for her uninhibited approach to her work and pilloried for her scandalous love affairs and "bohemian" associations and lifestyle. Ironically, Isadora Duncan's art has always been more highly valued abroad than in her native land, but her cultural influence in America was considerable. The development of the modern dance form as exemplified by Martha Graham and her contemporaries and successors owed much to Duncan's unshakable belief in the power and force of female self-expression.

Angela Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, the daughter of poor...