Mary Grace Swift entered the Ursuline Order in 1947 and was educated at Creighton University and Notre Dame University, in history and Russian studies. Swift taught at Loyola University. Her first book, The Art of Dance in the U.S.S.R., was published in 1968. A Loftier Flight was awarded the first de la Torre Bueno Prize for the best unpublished book-length manuscript in the field of dance, in 1973.
