It is hard for history to see her as she was. Some writers simply dismiss her as a phenomenon of her time, assuming that descriptions of her greatness were the gushings of an overwrought audience in thrall to a beautiful, half-naked woman. Yet, at the height of her fame, there were hundreds of Isadora wannabes - young women in Greek tunics who posed in drawing rooms and skipped on music hall stages. Much more important, though, was the ground she opened up for other dance pioneers. Martha Graham's stark, serious modernism may have evolved far beyond Duncan's rhapsodies. But it was Duncan who proved that dance could be taken seriously outside the ballet academy and that a solo woman could take charge of her career. Despite her opposition to what she called "the sterile gymnastics" of ballet, Duncan also made a profound impact on classical choreography. She danced several seasons in St Petersburg - the citadel of classicism - in the early 20th century, and among the reverential crowds she drew was Mikhail Fokine. At that time the choreographer was himself trying to envision a more naturally expressive style of ballet, and in Duncan's performances he found his inspiration and validation. Her imprint is visible on several of his works, not least in the delicate arm movements in Spectre de la Rose and in the transparent romanticism of Les Sylphides, in which the poetic pulse of Chopin's music is evoked in ecstatic runs, haunted gestures and delicately nuanced rhythms. Ashton's own debt to Duncan was various and large. It resonated in the held poses that form the still centre of Symphonic Variations, and led him to choreograph his duet Thais as a pure trance of unashamed, rapturous emotion. It influenced the peculiar plasticity and pliancy he always encouraged in his dancers' bodies, and it particularly inspired his own curtain calls. Even in his 80s, Ashton could generate an instant ovation with his dapper, if creaky, version of the famous Duncan run. What he attempted in Brahms Waltzes was of course more direct. A few of the details are replications, such as the forward run in which Duncan strews rose petals from her cupped hands. But Ashton wasn't aiming for an exact reconstruction, rather a dialogue between his sensibility, Duncan's and Lynn Seymour's.