Marguerite Acarin was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 dancer, choreographer, and artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

.

Acarin is generally known by her stage-name, Akarova. She was called "the Belgian Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...

". She studied music and dance under Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze , was a Swiss composer, musician and music educator who developed eurhythmics, a method of learning and experiencing music through movement...

, creator of eurhythmics

Eurhythmics

Dalcroze Eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze Method or simply Eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodaly Method, Orff Schulwerk, Simply Music and Suzuki Method used to teach music education to students. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by...

, after which she joined the Antwerp ballet. She soon left due to disputes with the ballet mistress.

In 1922, attending a meeting arranged by Isadora Duncan's brother Raymond, she met artist Marcel Baugniet, with whom she would collaborate for many years. They married on 31 October 1923, but separated in 1928. Baugniet coined Marguerite's stage name. In this period she danced, choreographed, and designed sets and costumes, in performances to works by composers such as Igor Stravinski and Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

. Her second marriage, to artistic patron Louis Lievens, took place on 6 April 1935. This marriage too ended in a separation, in 1939.

Noted Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 architect Jean-Jules Eggericx constructed a studio, performance venue, and home, for Akarova at number 72, Avenue de l'Hippodrome, Ixelles, in 1937. The venue opened on 30 January 1937 with performances by Akarova from Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

's Les Biches

Les Biches

Les biches is a ballet by Francis Poulenc, premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1924. The composer, who was at the time relatively unknown, was asked by Serge Diaghilev to write a piece based on Glazunov's Les Sylphides, written seventeen years earlier...

, Ravel's Boléro

Boléro

Boléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel . Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel's most famous musical composition....

, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

The Rite of Spring

The Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...

. Performances at the Avenue de l'Hippodrome ended in 1957. After the closure, Akarova devoted her time to painting and sculpture. She died at home in 1999.

She is the subject of the 1990 TV documentary J'aurais aimé vous voir danser, Madame Akarova, which features interviews with her.