Isadora Duncan

This passage talks about Isadora Duncan, who is the creator of a style of dance called modern dance.

Lexile Level: 650L

Categories: People & Places Art & Music

When you are listening to music, do you like to dance? Isadora Duncan loved dancing. She devoted her life to it. She was the founder of a style of dance which became know as "modern dance." Isadora was born in San Francisco in 1877. Growing up, her family didn't have a lot of money. As a teenager, she taught dance classes to young children in order to make money for her family. She loved teaching the children to love dance as much as she did. But in her classes, she was doing something no one had seen before. Americans were used to seeing ballet dance. Ballet dance is very formal. Ballet dancers wear shoes and have a strict set of movements that they must follow. Isadora didn't like ballet. She thought it didn't feel like a natural way to move. She liked to dance barefoot. She liked to move how she wanted to move, without worrying about how it looked. She believed that she could express her emotions through movement. Her dance style became known as "modern dance." Today, thousands of modern dancers have Isadora Duncan to thank for creating such a unique and beautiful art form.