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Dancing the Orient for England Maud Allans The
Vision of Salomeby Amy Koritz

• Presentation by Christian Hughes

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Outline

• Orientalism, Imperialism, Etc. (10 minutes)
• Life of Maud Allan/ story and portrayal of
  Salome/ characteristic gestures(15 minutes)
• Mauds Thoughts (5 minutes)

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Aims

• To understand the stereotypes, attitudes, and
  biases of England at the time when Maud Allan
  performed The Vision of Salome
• To understand Allans portrayal of Salome and
  the popular reaction to it
• To understand the impact Allans Salome had upon
  London society

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Key Terms

• Orientalism characterized as female those
  attributes that denoted the inferiority of
  Englands colonized peoples (133)
• Separate-Spheres Gender Ideology notion that men
  and women have different roles in society
• Imperialism English policy of extending their
  rule over other peoples
• Nationalism devotion to ones nation

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Working Together

• Orientalism led to wide-spread acceptance of
  English imperial policies
• Imperialism helped to bring together people
  domestically and keep their dissatisfaction
  subdued
• This combination of imperialism and Orientalism
  thus led to a rise in nationalism and the
  formation of the English national character
  (strong and masculine)

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White Mans Burden

• The stereotypes these isms formed led to
  defining the Oriental as needing, deserving,
  even desiring domination (134).
• Women were excluded and ignored for much of this
  period as the female nature was considered
  inadequate to the needs of the Empire

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Discussion Question

• Imperialism was said to make good ideological
  cement as it helped to subdue dissatisfaction
  and got potentially rebellious internal
  groupsto ignore their own interests (134). Do
  you think this is similar to the situation in the
  U.S. right now? And if so, is it a good or bad
  thing?

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And then theres Maud (Allan)

• Born in Toronto in 1873
• Moved to SF a few years later, young Maud
  kidnapped by Indians for a short period
• Left SF in 1895 to pursue a music career in
  Berlin
• Brother charged and executed for brutal murders
  while Maud is in Europe
• Distraught over brothers death, Maud abandons
  piano for dance

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More of Maud

• Debuted as a dancer in Vienna at age of 30
• Soon became a star in London performing The
  Vision of Salome
• Lost libel case she brought against a British MP
  who linked her name publicly to the Cult of the
  Clitoris in 1918
• Gradually popularity dwindled and she died in
  poverty in L.A. in 1956

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Salome

• Biblical story of girl in King Herods court who
  makes enemies with the kings prisoner John the
  Baptist
• Herod (whom Salome despises because he killed her
  father) offers her anything she desires if she
  will dance for him
• She does the famous Dance of the Seven Veils and
  is brought Johns head on a plate

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More Salome

• Oscar Wilde wrote a play based upon the story of
  Salome
• Came to be associated with homosexuality as Oscar
  Wilde performed the play in drag (performance was
  banned in England)
• Strauss turned Wildes play into an opera
• All-female Salome parties evolved that featured
  nude women dancing seductively the Dance of the
  Seven Veils

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Maud Allans Salome

• Very popular in London around 1908
• Ran an unprecedented 250 performances in the
  Palace Theatre
• Eclipsed Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis in
  England
• Allan claimed Salome dance was one of spiritual
  awakening

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Portrayal by Allan

• Her portrayal of the Oriental princess Salome
  did not employ the kind of movement many critics
  associated with Eastern dancing (139).
• It was not recognized as typically Western
  either as it was not typical of contemporary
  English dance and she made striking use of her
  hands and arms (139), instead of placing the
  focus on her feet, as in ballet and step-dancing.
• it was considered an inauthentic Eastern
  dance,as an authentic dance would have been
  something lascivious and repulsively ugly and
  dismissed as vulgar(140).

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Discussion Question

• Do you feel Americans censor or warp authentic
  items of other cultures in order to make them
  conform to American tastes and/or beliefs?

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Advertising for The Vision of Salome

• Excerpt from advertisement The desire that
  flames from her eyes and bursts in hot gusts from
  her scarlet mouth infects the very air with the
  madness of passion. Swaying like a white witch,
  with yearning arms and hands that plead, Maud
  Allan is such a delicious embodiment of lust that
  she might win forgiveness for the sins of such
  wonderful flesh (140).

• Manager of the Palace uses the Orientalist
  stereotypes of aggressive and dangerous-but
  inviting and available-female sexuality (140) to
  lure audiences.

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Discussion Question

• Do you think that some ads/movies/tv shows today
  accentuate the sexuality of other cultures in
  order to lure audiences?

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Stereotypes and Salome

• Allan violated the privilege of middle-class
  femininity by appearing in public scantily clad
• Violated separation of East and West by being a
  Western woman playing an Eastern woman
• As she was playing an Eastern woman, it implied
  that Eastern cultures could not represent
  themselves, but that they needed superior
  cultures to do it for them
• Reaffirmed the spiritual nature of woman
  contained in the separate-spheres gender ideology

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Discussion Question

• Maud Allan was thought to be more popular than
  Duncan and St. Denis in London because she
  represented the attitudes of the English better
  than them. Do you think artists are more popular
  that embody our beliefs or attitudes toward
  things?

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National Dance

• A cultures style of dance is thought to be based
  on the characteristic gestures of their people
• According to one author, the English national
  dance is the Morris, which is the organized,
  traditional expression of virility, sound health
  and animal spirits. It smacks of cudgel-play,
  of quarterstaff, of wrestling, of honest
  fisticuffs. Of course, there is nothing
  sinuous about it, nothing dreamy, nothing
  whatever is left to the imagination. It is the
  dance of folk who are slow to anger, but of
  great obstinacy. It is considered the perfect
  expression in rhythm and movement of the English
  character (143).

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Discussion Question

• Do you think the U.S. has a national dance? If
  so, what is it? And what does it say about us or
  our culture?

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Come on, Maud, tell us what you really think

• As an opponent to the womens suffrage movement,
  Maud argued that women were too emotional and
  easily swayed to be included in politics
• Even though she violated the traditional role of
  the middle-class woman (she was single,
  childless, and self-supporting), she placed great
  emphasis on the spiritual duties of women, as
  outlined in the separate spheres gender ideology.
• She did, however, support equal opportunities for
  women in education and job opportunities (if the
  women had no men to support them).
• Many, however, believe that Allan may have
  suppressed her true beliefs to be dissociated
  from feminism. (Many of her best patrons were
  not allied with the suffragists.)

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Discussion Question

• Do you think many women today hide their true
  beliefs on equality in order not to get ahead or
  just not be associated with feminism? Why or why
  not?

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Conclusion

• While Maud Allan may have advanced women somewhat
  by making it more acceptable for middle-class
  women to have careers in dance, as Salome, she
  also fed into the imperialism, Orientalism, and
  separate-spheres gender ideologies popular at the
  time.

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Additional Sources

• Burnside, Julian. R v PEMBERTON BILLING The
  Black Book Case, 2001. 10th November, 2001.
  http//www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/pembertonbil
  ling.htm
• Cherniavsky, Felix. Maud Allan and Her Art,
  2001. 10th November, 2001. http//www.dcd.ca/bkm
  aud.htm
• History of Sexuality. The Clitoris historical
  myths and facts, 2001. 10th November, 2001.
  http//homepages.primex.co.uk/lesleyah/clitoris.h
  tm
• Marlow, Shelly F. Salome, 1996. 10th November,
  2001. http//www.zingmagazine.com/zing3/reviews/0
  30_marlow.html
• McGill, Nichole. Saints of the Month, 2001.
  10th November, 2001. http//www.freewillastrology
  .com/pages/zenpride/archives/january99/saint-jan.h
  tml