Dancer Isadora Duncan was one of the great dancers (according to some). On the other hand, Balanchine remembered her as a “drunk fat woman who for hours was rolling around like a pig.” A new book examines her life: “Isadora’s melodramatic death in 1927, at the age of 50, came too late to save her reputation from ridicule. Blowsy and reckless, she commandeered a ride in a sports car (the marque was an Amilcar, not a Bugatti) in order to try out the handsome driver. The long fringe of her red shawl caught in the rear wheel, her neck snapped and her body was dragged along the road for 30 metres. The perfect end, according to Jean Cocteau: ‘A kind of horror that leaves one calm’.” The Observer (UK) 01/27/02