‘I cannot continue to live in a world where there are beautiful blue-eyed, golden haired children. I cannot!’

These anguished words came from the lungs of one of the world's legendary dancers, Isadora Duncan. She was reacting to the painful loss of her own two children, Deirdre (aged five) and Patrick (aged three). They had drowned some years before, trapped inside a car that had plunged into the river. She uttered her despairing words often, whenever she saw living children that looked like her own little ones. Ironically, Duncan's own life would be cut short by a traffic accident too. And it would also involve a form of strangulation.

Isadora Duncan was born in San Fransisco in 1878. At an early age, she rediscovered the ancient Hellenistic ideas about freestyle movement and dance. Duncan was captivated immediately. She elevated these old principles, which were very much in contrast to the formal ballet regimen, to a creative artform for the 19th century. Duncan learned to coordinate voice with movement, spontaneity with grace and, like so many geniuses, innovation with ego. Early in her career, she remarked to a theatrical producer during an audition: ‘I have discovered the art which had been lost for two thousand years. I bring you the idea that is going to revolutionize our entire epoch.’

She was not wrong, even in the opinion of her critics. Her dancing spread her fame around the world in giant leaps.