Bessie Potter Vonnoh was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1872 and moved with he family to Chicago at the age of 21. She enrolled at the Chicago Art Institute and began working with sculptor, Lorado Taft. In 1893 she was influenced by the small bronze figures by the Russian sculptor, Paul Troubetzkoy. Soon after, she began creating graceful, serene, bronze figures of females with gently sweeping garments.

The gentle sweeping of a graceful female figure is exhibited in her work, Dancing Girl, 1897.