THE SHOCK OF THE RISKY(QUÉ) FEMALE: FEMININITY AND THE TRAUMA OF THE GREAT WAR ERA IN THE DANCING OF MAUD ALLAN AND ANNA PAVLOVA

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/2236-3254.111593

Abstract

What role did the figure of the dancing female play in negotiating cultural anxieties in the Great War era? I explore this question by looking at the female performer Maud Allan who was famous for her danced interpretations of Salomé in pre-War London and cause of a sensational libel suit in 1918 bring together deviant female sexuality and wartime espionage. I juxtapose Allan with ballerina Anna Pavlova, a contemporary, and role model par excellence for proper femininity. These two examples offer a rich comparison from which to discuss how dancing and femininity was the grounds for inciting and palliating the profound cultural trauma of the Great War era.

 

Keywords

Dance. Femininity. Cultural Trauma. Great War Era.

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Author Biography

Victoria Thoms, Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Universidade de Coventry

Before doctoral study in the United Kingdom, Thoms trained in ballet, contemporary dance and choreography in Canada as part of her Undergraduate and Master’s Degree. She is author of Martha Graham: Gender and the haunting of a dance pioneer (2013). Her new research projects work with  literary theory and trauma studies to understand how theatre dance in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century was a form of bearing witness to the era's upheaval and violence. She has published in Dance Research Journal, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Research in Dance Education, Women: a Cultural Review, Modernism/Modernity Print+, and Dance Chronicle. She was Chair of the Society for Dance Research in the UK from 2011 to 2018. Thoms is presently co-editor of the interdiciplinary book series Dance in Dialogue published with Bloomsbury.

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Published

2021-04-20

How to Cite

Thoms, V. (2021). THE SHOCK OF THE RISKY(QUÉ) FEMALE: FEMININITY AND THE TRAUMA OF THE GREAT WAR ERA IN THE DANCING OF MAUD ALLAN AND ANNA PAVLOVA. Revista Cena, (33), 8–22. https://doi.org/10.22456/2236-3254.111593

Issue

No. 33 (2021): Dossiê Arte e Trauma

Section

Artigos

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