Maud Allan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant 27 August 1873 |
| Died | 7 October 1956 (aged 83) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Known for | Dance and choreography |
| Movement | Modern/contemporary dance |
Maud Allan (born as either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant;[1][2] 27 August 1873 – 7 October 1956) was a Canadian dancer, chiefly noted for her Dance of the Seven Veils. Though not perceived as an accomplished dancer, she performed in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, dancing the title role topless, which garnered great attention. During World War I, she sued a British MP for libel against allegations that she was a lesbian and that German agents were using her sexual orientation as grounds to blackmail her into spying for them on the British government. She was unsuccessful. The trial resurrected public disapproval of Oscar Wilde, whose own failed libel trial had initiated his arrest, conviction and imprisonment for sodomy two decades earlier.
- ^ Birthname given as Ulah Maud Alma Durrant
McConnell, Virginia A. Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco, University of Nebraska Press (1 January 2005), page 294 - ^ "Maud Allan". www.dcd.ca. Retrieved 21 July 2020.