2025 Dance Teacher Magazine Awardee!

Lori’s Acceptance Speech

Greetings!  I’m thrilled so many people are congratulating me… it really warms my heart. I am moved… I never expected such recognition, let alone an award!

 I was struggling with this talk… and a dear friend mine said to me: “I've always found your personal dance story incredibly compelling... tell your story in order.” 

So, my first teacher was a man who lived in Athens, Greece. When I met him, at age 12, I was a tomboy, and I didn’t know anything about ISADORA DUNCAN.  His name was Vassos Kanellos, and, as a young man, he met Isadora and her brother, Raymond, and they embraced him and changed his life. He told me his stories of studying with Isadora, then he turned to me, and said, “I think you’re the next Isadora.” I looked right and left and then I thought, “Well, let me find out everything I can about this woman and see if there’s a match” …and sure enough when I did explore Isadora back home in Berkeley, I felt like I had met my soul sister. That visit changed my life. I went back to Athens to study with Kanellos after graduating from high school.

After years with Kanellos, I continued studying the Duncan technique with Irma Duncan, Anna Duncan, and many other descendants of the Duncan legacy.   

That’s my story!

Exploring Isadora’s Art of the Dance became a deep passion for me, and, over many years, I performed the hell out of her dances—all over the world—then I established a Performing Company and The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation—all to continue her legacy.

I studied her fiercely, then turned around to teach it to the best of my ability. I started teaching children, then the sisters and mothers wanted lessons, too. So, I was always teaching while also training extensively.

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Teaching Duncan Dance has a few magical, mysterious, dare I say elusive, points because Duncan actually confessed “I don’t know if I can teach what I have created,” and it was Irma Duncan, her long-time student, who made much of the technique concrete, achievable, and transferrable.  

 But you may ask, how can this be if the history books say Duncan had no technique, whose work supposedly died with her, but was widely acknowledged as an extraordinary, charismatic performer. I was determined to explore this contradiction, and my research and travels around the world brought me answers

And note that, because the technology to capture the moving image was in its infancy in her lifetime, and because she was highly conscious of her lasting image, Duncan purposefully allowed no filming of her work, making my exploration of her dances and technique all the harder!

 Frustrated by her early exposure to dance classes, Duncan went outside—to nature, to the beach, to the art museums, literature, and philosophy. She claimed dance as a high art, a synthesis of all the arts.

 Duncan encouraged students…

“Listen to the Music in your soul. Now, while listening, do you not feel an inner self awakening deep within you—that it is by its strength that your head is lifted, that your arms are raised, that you are walking slowly toward the light?”

To me this quote was the window I needed into understanding the depth and power Duncan dancers can gather. 

When Duncan established her first school in Germany in 1904, she shockingly said, “I don’t teach dance, I teach joy”…and “to dance is to live, what I want is a school of  life!”

I have learned a lot about what it takes to be a good teacher, by studying with some of the best, because they have enriched me so. Wonderful teachers leave you flying out of the classroom, feeling exhilarated, and that you have given and received, and that you are growing.

 Lori’s Thanks…

There are so many folks to thank on my journey, but before I get too far, I want to acknowledge my husband, John Link, who has been so incredible, supporting me through thick and thin. 

I thank all my Company dancers, and the many students from around the world for their openness to learn. By teaching you, I have learned twice, if not more than twice.

Pamela Pribisco, as my ballet and performance coach for 25 years. Pam, I cannot thank you enough for believing in me, encouraging me, and teaching me so many things beyond dancing.

Thank you, Nanette Charisse, for your elegance and daily rigor at Steps on Broadway. 

To Hilary Cartwright, my inspiration of grace and beauty and yoga power—you have meant so much to me as an example of living life with gusto.

 Dance Schools that have supported my teaching: 

The Ailey School stands out to me because of their support throughout my years of teaching in their pre-professional program.

In teaching at Juilliard, both in the music and the dance department. With intense focus, one Juilliard seniors blurted out… “this simplicity is so hard!”

In Russia, where Isadora is still a household name, she is the symbol of freedom for them. When I performed at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, I experienced such respect that you could hear a pin drop.

 In China, at the Duncan Dance Academy, where I was appointed Artistic Director, I had mothers watching and filming from an observation window. The children were oblivious and used to it, then I learned they were grilled on what they learned at home! The holistic Duncan teaching approach often conflicted with the training the children were used to and its emphasis on technical perfection. Thank you, Moses Wang, for your visionary leadership to bring Duncan dance to China!

 One of my greatest joys and creative inspiration has come from my residencies in Brazil, under the directorship of Fatima Suarez, such that we now have a touring, performing ensemble. Isadora and the Brazilian joie de vivre permeates their free movements, especially in Bahia where the temperature is 80 degree year-round, ah! 

 And, finally, thanks to all the fun folks at Dance Media and Dance Teacher Magazine for pulling off this wonderful event to honor an important art form.

On October 7th, 2025, Dance Teacher Magazine hosted the 2025 Dance Teacher Awards. The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation was thrilled to see our artistic director, Lori Belilove, honored for her ongoing dedication to dance.

"A direct heir of Isadora Duncan, Lori has made it her life's work to pass Duncan technique to the next generation, sharing her immutable love of dance and joyful way of life in the process. 'Isadora's work feeds me--my body, mind, and soul--and I feel it's my destiny to keep it alive and pure,' she tells Dance Teacher. True to her word, Lori has served as Artistic Director of The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation since 1980 teaching the same way she dances... as an artist," said Hana Le of Dance Teacher Magazine.

Numerous members of the New York City dance community attended. Lori Belilove was honored along with three other masterful teachers:  Sylvia Waters, Dianne Walker, and Roger Montoya. 

This recognition of Lori comes at a time when The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation is inviting the world to rediscover the revolutionary spirit of Isadora Duncan through Isadora150, a celebration of Isadora's 150th birthday from 2025-2027.

Lori was joined for the awards luncheon by friends of the Foundation and members of the Company, and she gave the following acceptance speech: