Isadora Duncan was an avant-garde dancer with a novel freestyle which became today’s modern dance, who lived an extraordinary life in all aspects. She was born in 1887 in San Francisco, California, to a family with great appreciation and love of the arts. Her siblings became artists as well. After her parents got divorced, her mother moved the family to Oakland and worked as a seamstress and piano teacher to support them. Since the family was very poor, Duncan began teaching dance lessons to children in the neighborhood throughout her teenage years. Her unique style was already evident in those early years teaching improvisation and freestyle dance. At 19, she started her career as a professional dancer but quickly found that her vision of the art of dance collided with the strict rules of formal dance. From her point of view, the movements of the classical ballet were unnatural, with their exact, pre-written, none fluid, rigid moves. That’s in addition to the uncomfortable corsets and point shoes which were even less natural to the body and its nature. In her vision, each step and movement must be born from the other in an organic succession. Her dancing defined the force of progress, change, abstraction and liberation. The concept of the natural movement of the body was the main key of her unique style, a concept she was willing to take to the edge, and which earned her the fortune and fame she is remembered for to this day. In 1898 she moved to London, where she began performing privately for the wealthy. Her earnings enabled her to rent a studio and develop a grander stage performance. From London, she moved to Paris, and there she attended the Louvre and the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Those experiences had inspired her greatly. The Louvre for its ancient Greek art exposition was a milestone in her vision, and the loosened Greek robe and bare feet became her most identifiable trademark and affected the future of dance. From there on Duncan traveled across Europe and the Americas, performing in her innovative style and developing its technique. Though she became popular and successful, she sought to accomplish her true mission to educate the young. In 1904 she opened her first school in Berlin, and there she taught her vision of dance to young women. Six of her students became the “Isadorables” dance group and continued her legacy. She also adopted them, and they all took her last name. In 1914, Duncan returned to the US and established a school in NYC. She died in 1927 in Nice, France in a strange accident when her scarf became entangled around the open-spoke wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck. Read more...

Born as Chaya Rubinstein in Krakow, Poland, to a Jewish family, and was the eldest of eight daughters. At the age of 24, with some faulty English, empty pockets, and 12 jars of face cream her mother put in her suitcase, she immigrated to Australia. It is told that her fair skin and stylish clothes drew the attention of the local ladies who took an interest in her beauty routine. Rubinstein had a sharp sense for business and saw her opportunity right there. She began selling the facial cream jars and searched for a way to produce more until she found it. With her unique business instinct, she opened her first beauty salon in Melbourne, and the place was such a huge success that another one was opened in Sydney. Realizing the importance of advertisement, Rubinstein was the first to sell her products with pseudo-scientific claims, a business move that made her fortune. Within five years, she earned enough to expand and decided to move to London. There, she established one of the first ever cosmetic companies. Her enterprise was extraordinary since banks didn’t loan money to women at that time, only she didn’t need assistance, she owned her own self-made fortune. After moving to New York, she opened, in 1915, the first salon there, one of many to be opened in the following years, turning her business into a multi-million dollars’ worth of shares. She was known to have a sharp tongue and speak her mind, and her main rivalry was with Elizabeth Arden, both were powerful personas, successful entrepreneurs and businesswomen. Rubinstein’s prime exclusive salon was opened in the 5th avenue with a spa, a restaurant, and a gym, luxurious furniture and art, a new concept at the time. She adored fine arts and was acquitted with some of the top artists in that era, such as Salvador Dali from whom she ordered a portrait and design of a powder box. She shared her fortune and was a philanthropist who founded the Helena Rubinstein Foundation to fund health, medical research, and rehabilitation organizations. She donated to the America Israel Cultural Foundation and established the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion of Contemporary Art in the Tel Aviv Museum. In 1965, she died of natural causes. Read more...