Barbara Kane was a student at Youngstown State University when she discovered a technique book by dancer Isadora Duncan.

The book changed Ms. Kane's life.

Ms. Kane, formerly of Fowler, Trumbull County, was studying dance at YSU in the late '60s, but was not getting out of it what she had hoped.

"She (Ms. Duncan) spoke of moving from the inside, knowing why you want to move and saying something," said Ms. Kane, during a recent workshop residency at the Walnut Street Lodge, Sharpsville. "That moved me because I was moving and not saying anything."

Ms. Kane has invested her professional life in promoting and preserving Ms. Duncan's work.

She studied with Lillian Rosenberg, Julie Levien and Hortense Kooluris, all experts in Ms. Duncan's dance, and co-founded and directs the Isadora Duncan Dance Group.

The 21-year resident of London tours the world performing Ms. Duncan's dances and teaching her work to students ages 6 months to senior citizens. She also choreographs original dances in the Duncan tradition.

Ms. Duncan's work has mostly been handed down by memory. She never put her dance moves on paper and mistrusted cameras -- there are few pictures of her dancing -- and film.

"She refused to be filmed," Ms. Kane said. "She felt it couldn't capture the spirit of what she was doing."

Ms. Kane sought out teachers who had been students of Ms. Duncan's students, the most direct sources of the dancer's work.

"They've been transmitted from generation to generation," Ms. Kane said of Ms. Duncan's dances. "My teachers taught me the dances that they were taught."

Although teachers want to stick close to the source, "There's always some interpretation to it," Ms. Kane said.

"I frequently go back to my teacher, Irma Duncan, just to make sure I haven't gone too far from the original. If I change something I tell everybody."

Ms. Duncan (1877-1927) was a founder of modern dance. She sought to express human emotions through movement and free dance from the constraints of classical ballet in terms of movement, music and costuming.

"She was focused on freedom, not just for women but for oppressed people as well," said Ms. Kane, who danced Saturday at O'Brien Memorial Health Care Center, Brookfield, where her mother, Joy Kane, lives.

Although an American, Ms. Duncan spent much of her time abroad and helped Russia move from the stiff poses of tradition to more fluid movements, Ms. Kane said.

Russia is rediscovering Ms. Duncan. The Soviets considered her works and other contemporary dance a crime.

Ms. Kane's adopted home country is not as keen on modern dance as other parts of the world. "I'm quite lucky in that I'm one of the only ones in England. There are quite a few Duncans in America."

Ms. Kane found Ms. Duncan's legacy the strongest in Japan

"Japanese people really love Isadora Duncan. One of the things they say when I ask them why they like it is it's poetic. Japanese people have an in-depth philosophy of life. I think it suits that.

"I've never been treated so well as I was in Japan. I felt like Queen Barbara for two weeks."

Ms. Kane and her Walnut Street students will perform at 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Opening Night, the alcohol-free New Year's Eve celebration in Warren, Ohio. They will dance in the Great Lakes Festival Ballet dance studio on Courthouse Square.