What is Isadora Duncan?
{{Infobox artist | name = Isadora Duncan | image = Isadora Duncan portrait.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Angela Isadora Duncan | birth_date = {{Birth date|1877|5|27|mf=yes}}, [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S.A | death_date = {{Death date and age|1927|9|14|1877|5|26|mf=yes}} | death_place = [[Nice]], [[France]] | nationality = [[United States|American]], [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] | field = [[Dance]] & [[choreography]] | movement = [[Modern dance|Modern/contemporary dance]] }} [[File:Isadora Duncan - first fairy.jpg|thumb|230px|Duncan as the first fairy in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.]] [[File:Esenineisadoraduncan1923.jpg|thumb|230px|Isadora Duncan and husband Sergei Yesenin, 1923]][[Image:AX Isadora Duncan Tomb crop.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Tomb of Isadora Duncan at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris]] '''Isadora Duncan''' (May 27, 1877 – September 14, 1927) was an [[Americans|American]] dancer. She was an inspiration for [[modern dance]]. Duncan was born in [[San Francisco]], [[California]]. She preferred natural movement, instead of what she called the artificial movements of [[ballet]]. Her 'free dance movement' was based on simple, flowing movements of the body. It was inspired by nature, and by [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[sculpture]]s. Costumes were flowing and [[transparent]]. Dances involved simple runs, skips and jumps, big gestures and [[mime]].<ref name=Ox>Craine, Debra & Mackrell, Judith 2000. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Dance''. Oxford University Press. p152 {{ISBN|0-19-860106-9}}</ref> Duncan was wildly [[unconventional]]. A [[bisexual]] who had two children but did not marry either of their fathers, she became a [[communist]], and [[wikt:boast|boasted]] about it. She went to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1922, but left in less than two years. At different times she lived in [[Paris]], [[London]] and other European cities. She started dance schools in [[Moscow]], [[Berlin]] and [[Paris]]. The schools did not last long, but Duncan had admirers who have continued her influ