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Martha Graham 1894 - 1991

An American dancer and choreographer, regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance and one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. Graham invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But never-the-less it is inevitable."

Dame Marie Rambert (1888-1982)

Dame Marie Rambert (1888-1982) a Polish-British dancer and teacher, who exerted a lasting effect on British ballet. Born Miriam Rambach in Warsaw, she went to Paris to study medicine. Learning eurhythmics from the Swiss founder of the technique, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, she taught it to the ballet company of the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev (thereby influencing the choreography of the Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. She then studied ballet with the Italian teacher Enrico Cecchetti, danced briefly with the Diaghilev company, and in 1917 went to London. Opening a school in 1920, she trained such notable British dancers and choreographers as Antony Tudor and Sir Frederick Ashton. Her company, Ballet Rambert (now Rambert Dance Company , promoted the work of many British choreographers and stage designers.