Birth date
1873
Death date
1956
Biography
The classical dancer Maude Allan (misspelled Allen in the “Catalogue of Pictures”) was born in Toronto in 1883, the daughter of the physicians William and Isabel Allan. She studied piano in San Francisco (where she was raised), Berlin and Vienna. She taught herself dance, and made her dancing debut in Vienna in 1903, when she performed and choreographed dances to the music of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schubert. She appeared in many European cities before she made her London debut at the Palace Theatre in March 1908, creating a sensation with her “Vision of Salomé”, an exotic piece in which she had first appeared in Vienna in 1903. That dance, for which she wore a translucent skirt and a halter of beads, became her most famous offering over many years, and brought her international acclaim.
After dancing in St Petersburg and Moscow in 1909, she appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York on 20 January 1910 and subsequently toured much of the world, including India, Burma, China, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. She returned to London in October 1917, appearing at the Court Theatre on 12 April 1918 as Salomé in Oscar Wilde’s play. That May she performed at the London Pavilion and then resumed far-flung tours to the Near East, the United States and Argentina, Chili and Brazil. Allan danced in Paris in December 1924, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the Hollywood Bowl in 1925. She returned again to England in 1928, appearing at the Lyceum Theatre in April 1932 and in a revival of “The Miracle” at the Manchester Repertory Theatre in September 1934. She contributed articles on the art of dance to several journals and published “My Life in Dancing”, 1908. Allan died in Los Angeles on 7 October 1956. (See Felix Cherniavsky, “The Salomé Dancer: the Life and Times of Maud Allan”, 1991.)