French choreographer and filmmaker Gabrielle Bloch, better known as Gab Sorère, was BOTD in 1870. Born in Lorraine to a wealthy middle-class family, she travelled extensively with her mother through India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). She settled in Paris, where she befriended Gertrude Stein and a lesbian coterie including Romaine Brooks, Eileen Grey and Marie-Louise Damien. She formed a relationship with American dancer Loïe Fuller, scandalising Paris society by living openly together as a couple and dressing in men’s clothes. During World War One, she established a relief service to transport food and clothing to Belgium and northern France. After the war, she stage managed and designed Fuller’s dance performances, creating special effects with mechanical props and phosphorescent lighting, while also managing other artists and running a furniture and design store. Sorère and Fuller made three experimental dance films together: Le Lys de la vie,  Visions des rêves and Les Incertitudes de Coppélius. After Fuller’s death in 1923, Sorère continued the dance company, mounting a number of dance productions in tribute to her. She became the partner of French singer and actress Marie-Louise Damien, remaining together until her death in 1961, aged 91.