Tuesday 20 December 2011

Maude Allan and the Dance of the Seven Veils

In 1906 Maud Allan inspired by Salomé, a play written by Oscar Wilde, created Vision of Salomé. Her Dance of the Seven Veils created great controversy. In 1908 Allan took her production of Vision of Salomé to England. According to James Hayward, the author of Myths and Legends of the First World War (2002): "Allan had performed her dance with great success in London in 1908, its popular success due in large part to her voluptuous figure and revealing costume."

During the tour Allan was banned from appearing in Manchester: On 8th June 1908 the New York Times reported: "Miss Maud Allan, the barefooted and otherwise scantily clad dancer, in whose favor a very profitable boom has been worked up in London, and whose manager is anxious to give New Yorkers a chance of witnessing her Salome and other dances, has been warned off the stage in Manchester, which is the most important theatrical city in England outside of the capital."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWallanM.htm