At the age of seven, at a time her family was living in Seattle, Bird was introduced to a neighbor who happened to be a ballet dancer and teacher, Caird Leslie.
Although Bird was too young to go at the time, Graham invited her to join her in New York when she finished high school.
[19] Bird gave her department a collaborative, company-orientation that included programs at Cornish and in the community, particularly in support of social issues.
Cage, who also joined the faculty teaching composition, thrived in the company-oriented department, and the group produced a number of memorable works, such as Imaginary Landscape and 3 Inventories of Casey Jones.
Cage made use of the creative energies of the department and its students to found a percussion orchestra and compose his first work for prepared piano.
Bird had married Dr. Ralph Gundlach during her time at Cornish, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
Gundlach had been a notable leftist before the war, and after, he found himself a target of the Canwell Commission, a local manifestation in Seattle of the Communist-purging House Un-American Activities Committee.
[25] At the YM-YWHA, she founded the children's company The Merry-Go-Rounders, which went on to great success and enticed a who's-who of the New York dance community to produce works for it.
[28] Later that year, Bird was invited to become principal lecturer at the institution charged with developing a "dance theatre department" at the Laban Centre.
[29] In 1977 and '78, the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) validated the dance theater Bachelor of Arts degree developed under the leadership of Bird and North.
[32] Advances led by Bird and North in the academic realm were augmented by moves in dance performance.
In 2002 at the opening of the Laban Dance Centre in London's Creekside—seven years after her death—Bird was honored by the naming of the 300-seat main performance venue as the Bonnie Bird Theatre.