
Lori Belilove's direct lineage and prestigious performing career have earned her an international reputation as the premier interpreter and ambassador of the dance of Isadora Duncan. She has been hailed as "...one of the most impassioned and authentic Duncan interpreters around." -Janice Ross, of the Oakland Tribune.
Through her performances, master classes, and workshops, children, college students and professional dancers have experienced the purity, timelessness, authentic phrasing, and musicality that has been passed down to Lori through the direct line of Isadora Duncan dancers. Among her first Duncan teachers were 2nd generation Duncan Dancers Julia Levien, Hortense Kooluris, and Mignon Garland. She was coached for performance and technique by 1st generation Duncan Dancers Anna Duncan and Irma Duncan, two of the six adopted artistic daughters of Isadora, also known as the Isadorables. Lori received a B.F.A. in dance, religion, and classical studies from Mills College. She trained extensively in the modern technique of Doris Humphrey as a private student of both Eleanor King and Ernestine Stodelle, original members of the Humphrey-Weidman Dance Company. Lori has toured extensively both nationally and internationally including Brazil, Korea, West Africa, Canada, Mexico and Europe. She maintains a studio and school in New York City and is considered an important source for the documentation and interpretation of the Duncan technique and repertory. She is the leading dancer in the award-winning PBS documentary "Isadora Duncan: Movement from the Soul" narrated by stage and screen actress Julie Harris. As a master teacher she has held residencies at such distinguished institutions as Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Northwestern University, Smith College, University of Alabama, Ohio State, Franklin & Marshall among others.
She is sought after as a unique contemporary artist who understands the essence of Isadora and who can create works in her own voice. Last season she staged and danced the leading role as Isadora in the off-Broadway dance-theater work Isadora. No Apologies deemed "irresistibly joyous" by Jack Anderson of The New York Times, further; "Through her dancing, Ms. Belilove, a Duncan authority, makes this great choreography seem eternally fresh." At Peter Norton Symphony Space in March 2004 Ms. Belilove premiered Isadora Into the 21st Century, called "ingenius" by Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times, the evening featured two choreographic works "Perfumes of the Night", a modern Isadora waltz for four women set to a revised score of Valse Triste by Sibelius, and "Wind Sail", set to a piano concerto by Michael Nyman. In the spring of 2005 and 2009 Lori traveled to Brazil to establish and teach our affiliate Duncan school and performing Company Ensemble Contemporanea. Recently national tours include the Center for the Arts in Northern California, The Newberry Library and Arts Club of Chicago, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. Internationally, the company recently appeared in Malta, Rome and Southern Italy. In Russia the Company gave performances at the Moscow International Performing Arts Center and the Great Tchaikovsky Hall. Belilove's recent evening-length choreographic endeavor The EveryWoman Series: The Red Thread premiered in New York in June 2007 at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater to critical acclaim. Recent New York appearances include concerts of The Art of Isadora at the Judson Church Dance Theater, a performance and gallery exhibit on the legacy of Duncan Dance Isadora Goes Downtown: The Legacy, The Inspiration, The Women at the Dance New Amsterdam complex in lower Manhattan. The Company performed for The Career Transitions for Dancers November 2009 Jubilee Gala performance at Manhattan's City Center, at the grounds of The Alice Austen House, Staten Island and was the featured guest Company for both the World Dance Alliance conference at DTW in July and the Downtown Dance Festival, Battery Park in August 2010.