Transcript Dancing the Orient for England: Maud Allan’s The Vision of

“Dancing the Orient for England:
Maud Allan’s The Vision of Salome”
by Amy Koritz
Presentation by Christian Hughes
Outline
• Orientalism, Imperialism, Etc. (10 minutes)
• Life of Maud Allan/ story and portrayal of
Salome/ characteristic gestures(15 minutes)
• Maud’s Thoughts (5 minutes)
Aims
• To understand the stereotypes, attitudes, and
biases of England at the time when Maud
Allan performed “The Vision of Salome”
• To understand Allan’s portrayal of Salome
and the popular reaction to it
• To understand the impact Allan’s Salome
had upon London society
Key Terms
• Orientalism: “characterized as female those
attributes that denoted the inferiority of England’s
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 one’s nation
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)
White Man’s Burden
• The stereotypes these
ism’s 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
Discussion Question
• Imperialism was said to make “good
ideological cement” as it helped to “subdue
dissatisfaction” and got “potentially
rebellious internal groups…to 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?
And then there’s 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 brother’s
death, Maud abandons
piano for dance
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
Salome
• Biblical story of girl in
King Herod’s court who
makes enemies with the
king’s 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 John’s head
on a plate
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 Wilde’s play into
an opera
• All-female Salome parties
evolved that featured nude
women dancing seductively the
Dance of the Seven Veils
Maud Allan’s 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
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).
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?
Advertising for “The Vision of
Salome”
• Manager of the Palace
uses the “Orientalist
stereotypes of
aggressive and
dangerous-but inviting
and available-female
sexuality” (140) to
lure audiences.
• 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).
Discussion Question
• Do you think that
some ads/movies/tv
shows today
accentuate the
sexuality of other
cultures in order to
lure audiences?
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
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?
National Dance
• A culture’s 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).
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?
Come on, Maud, tell us what you
really think…
• As an opponent to the women’s 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 middleclass woman (she was single, childless, and selfsupporting), 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.)
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?
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.
Additional Sources
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Burnside, Julian. R v PEMBERTON BILLING: The Black Book Case, 2001.
10th November, 2001.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/pembertonbilling.htm
Cherniavsky, Felix. Maud Allan and Her Art, 2001. 10th November, 2001.
http://www.dcd.ca/bkmaud.htm
History of Sexuality. The Clitoris: historical myths and facts, 2001. 10th
November, 2001. http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah/clitoris.htm
Marlow, Shelly F. Salome, 1996. 10th November, 2001.
http://www.zingmagazine.com/zing3/reviews/030_marlow.html
McGill, Nichole. Saints of the Month, 2001. 10th November, 2001.
http://www.freewillastrology.com/pages/zenpride/archives/january99/saintjan.html