PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: dance
Canadian ballet dancer
Karen Kain is a Canadian ballet dancer who became one of Canada’s finest and most internationally renowned dancers and a respected public figure. She continued working with the National Ballet of Canada...
American dancer and choreographer
Lester Horton was a dancer and choreographer credited with launching the modern dance movement in Los Angeles and for establishing the country’s first racially integrated dance company. In his short career...
French author
Théophile Gautier was a poet, novelist, critic, and journalist whose influence was strongly felt in the period of changing sensibilities in French literature—from the early Romantic period to the aestheticism...
Indian dancer and singer
T. Balasaraswati was an Indian dancer and singer in the Carnatic (South Indian) tradition, who was one of the 20th century’s foremost exponents of the bharata natyam style of classical dance. She was instrumental...
Indian dancer and theosophist
Rukmini Devi Arundale was an Indian classical dancer and follower of theosophy, best known for catalyzing the renaissance of the bharata natyam dance form and founding the Kalakshetra Foundation in Madras...
American dancer
Misty Copeland is an American ballet dancer who, in 2015, became the first African American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Misty Copeland and her siblings grew up with...
American choreographer and dancer
Anna Sokolow was an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher noted for her socially and politically conscious works and her unique blend of dance and theatre choreography. She is also recognized for...
American performance artist and author
Laurie Anderson is an American performance artist, composer, and writer whose work explores a remarkable range of media and subject matter. Anderson began studying classical violin at five years of age...
Japanese choreographer
Michio Ito was a Japanese choreographer, dancer, and scenic director for theatre and film who established himself as a pioneer of modern dance in Europe, New York City, and Los Angeles during the 1920s...
American dancer
Raven Wilkinson was an American dancer who became the first Black woman to dance with a major classical ballet company. Wilkinson was interested in dance from a young age. After her mother, who had studied...
Russian dancer and choreographer
Alexei Ratmansky is a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer known for his exceptional musicality, seemingly limitless energy, and stylistic versatility. As artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet (2004–08),...
American dancer and choreographer
Mark Morris is an American dancer and choreographer who formed his own modern dance company, the Mark Morris Dance Group. He was noted for his innovative and, at times, controversial works. At age eight,...
British-born dancer and choreographer
Christopher Wheeldon is a British-born ballet soloist and choreographer, known for his work with New York City Ballet, its connected institution, the School of American Ballet, and the Royal Ballet, London....
French dancer and musician
Arthur Saint-Léon was a French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and inventor of a method of dance notation, celebrated as the choreographer of the ballet Coppélia. The son of Léon Michel, a dancer who...