Ailes Gilmour

Dancer Ailes Gilmour was one of the young pioneers of the American Modern Dance movement of the 1930s and one of the first members of Martha Graham’s dance company.
After graduating from high school in 1929, Gilmour studied dance and performing arts on scholarship at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she met the young Martha Graham and joined Graham’s new professional dance troupe. In 1932, Gilmour performed at the opening of Radio City Music Hall with Graham’s company. Their work, Choric Patterns, lasted on stage for only a week, leading Gilmour to comment to a friend that Radio City Music Hall could succeed only when it became a movie theater with Rockettes.
In the 1930s, Gilmour performed with dancer-choreographer Bill Matons, the director of the “experimental unit” of the New Dance League, which had evolved from the Workers Dance League between 1931 and 1935. In 1937, Ailes and Matons performed at the Brooklyn Museum in a Works Progress Administration (WPA) recital. In 1939, they perormed in a WPA-sponsored Broadway musical, Adelante.

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Genmei

Monarch of Japan from 707 through 715 CE. Genmei was the fourth of eight women in Japan’s history to take on the role of empress regnant.

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Genshō

Monarch of Japan from 715 through 724. She was the only empress regnant in Japan’s history to have inherited her title from another empress regnant (Empress Genmei), rather than from a man. Genshō was the fifth of eight women to be Japan’s empress regnant.

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Jitō

Monarch of Japan from 686 through 697. Jitō was the third of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant.

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Kōken

The 46th (with Empress Kōken name) and the 48th monarch of Japan (with Empress Shōtoku name). She reigned from 749 to 758, then, following the Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion, she reascended the throne as Empress Shōtoku from 765 until her death in 770.

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Meishō

Empress Meishō (明正天皇, Meishō-tennō, January 9, 1624 – December 4, 1696) was the 109th Imperial ruler of Japan from 1629 to 1643. Meishō was the seventh of eight women to become Japan’s empress regnant.

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Suiko

Empress Suiko (推古天皇, Suiko-tennō) (554 – 15 April 628) was the monarch of Japand from 593 until her death in 628. Suiko was the first of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant of Japan.

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