Biographical/historical: Beverly Blossom (1926-2014) was a modern-dance choreographer and performer. She was best-known from the 1980s on, as one of the most distinguished solo performers in modern dance. From 1953 to 1963 she was a principal dancer with the Nikolais Dance Theater; she began to choreograph in the 1960s. From 1966 to 1990, she taught the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she returned late in life to become a professor emeritus of dance. Her students included Meredith Monk and the New York choreographer Henning Rübsam.