No composer made more of an effort to immortalize the epic quality of America than Aaron Copland. Though he studied music under conservative German and French teachers in his youth, Copland was constantly tempted to experiment with innovative, contemporary musical styles. Born during the first year o

20th-century music, Epic, Expansive, Grand, Pioneering

When Alvin Ailey stumbled into Lester Horton's dance theater at UCLA, he abandoned his original plan to major in foreign languages. Instead, he moved to fulfill his destiny and become one of the finest, most influential, and most beloved Modern choreographers of this century. Just one year after his

African american fiction, Euphoric, Expansive, Kinetic, Political, Polychromatic, Spiritual

Isadora Duncan liked to say she first danced in her mother's womb -- and she may have been right. Her art seems to have been fueled by a combination of instinct, intuition, and irresistible calling. Her bohemian childhood nurtured her free spirit, and she flirted with dance classes and techniques, al

Euphoric, Expansive, Feminine, Formless, Political, Rebel, Visceral

Diane Arbus is called the "Wizard of Odds" because her photographic subjects have included circus freaks, nudists, mentally retarded adults, eccentrics, homeless people, orgiasts, and outcasts. Her work has been dubbed "grotesque," "hateful," and "in bad taste." Norman Mailer stated the prevailing se

Confessional poetry, Dense, Documentary photography, Expansive, Grotesque, In-your-face, Intimate, Moody, Pathos, Perverse, Sublime