1. Maud Allan was born Ulah Maud Allan Durrant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1873 to William Allan Durrant and Isabella Durrant.
45 Facts About Maud Allan
1. 2.
Maud Allan's teacher was Miss Lichenstein, a well-known piano teacher in Toronto and Montreal at the time.
3.
Theo and Maud Allan attended Lincoln High School and then the Cogswell Technical Institute where she took courses in wood carving and sculpture.
4.
Maud Allan gave concerts in the homes of affluent people living in San Francisco like Adolph Sutro.
5.
Maud Allan's family was actively engaged in the Emmanuel Baptist Church, specifically her brother Theo who was the Assistant Superintendent of the church's Sunday school.
6.
Maud Allan's brother was enrolled in medical school at Cooper Medical College.
7.
Only six weeks after Maud Allan went to pursue her career in Germany, her brother committed what was known as the crime of the century.
8.
Maud Allan was unable to say a final farewell to her brother, because he was hanged on 7 January 1898, at San Quentin Prison while she was still living in Berlin.
9.
Maud Allan blamed herself for her brother's death because she believed if she hadn't left him, he wouldn't have committed the murders.
10.
Maud Allan always maintained that her brother was innocent, and he died unnecessarily.
11.
Maud Allan's death stayed with Allan for many years after, and she and her mother Isabella scattered his ashes around Europe to mourn his loss.
12.
Maud Allan began her dance career after meeting Ferruccio Busoni, the director of the Meister-schule in Weimar, Germany where she studied piano after she finished studying in Berlin.
13.
Allegedly, the first time Maud Allan danced was in front of Busoni and he became enthralled with her performance requesting that she stop pursuing piano and pursue dance instead.
14.
Maud Allan made her stage debut in Vienna, Austria on 24 November 1903, at the age of 30.
15.
Maud Allan danced to Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Bach, Schumann, Chopin, Schubert, and Debussy.
16.
Maud Allan toured this performance throughout Europe and travelled to cities like Liege, Brussels, Berlin, Leipzig, and Cologne over the next 5 years.
17.
Maud Allan thought that the lead role could have been better expressed through a different medium, and this is how she got her idea for The Vision of Salome.
18.
Maud Allan danced topless; her body was only covered by intricate jewellery.
19.
Maud Allan made the decision to dance topless because she believed that her body was her instrument, and no other artists cover their instruments while they created.
20.
Maud Allan used the severed head as a prop towards the end of the performance, and it received a lot of attention in the media for being gruesome and absurd.
21.
Maud Allan began this "conquest of London" by performing a two-week residency at the Palace Theatre where her performance ended with The Vision of Salome.
22.
Maud Allan continued performing in London for 18 months and performed The Vision of Salome 250 times.
23.
In 1909, Maud Allan decided that Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia were her next targets.
24.
Maud Allan's tour travelled to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Kansas City, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose, Rochester, and San Diego.
25.
Khamma was much more ambitious than The Vision of Salome because Maud Allan included other dancers all choreographed by her, a full symphony, and possibly singers.
26.
Maud Allan began working in collaboration with Debussy in 1911 while continuing to perform in London.
27.
Maud Allan's performances were generally well received by audiences and critics, but the stark cultural differences and religious intolerance for indecency caused some outroar in the press.
28.
Maud Allan began another North American tour in 1916 which led to a disaster.
29.
Maud Allan appointed her friend and manager Charles Macmillen as the head of the Maud Allan Concert Agency in New York to manage the second North American tour.
30.
Maud Allan hired her own orchestra and a group of dancers to make this tour much more elaborate than the previous one.
31.
Maud Allan began this tour on 28 September 1916, in Albany and then made her way up into Canada.
32.
Maud Allan completed her second tour in North America in April 1917 by travelling to New York and performing at the Palace Theatre for two weeks.
33.
Maud Allan returned to London in 1918 and took the lead role of Salome in Jack Grien's production of Oscar Wilde's Salome.
34.
The article accused Maud Allan of being a lesbian associate of German wartime conspirators.
35.
Maud Allan introduced evidence of Allan's insanity through exhibits highlighting her brother Theo's murder trial and subsequent execution.
36.
Maud Allan justified that by suggesting that Allan's insanity was hereditary.
37.
Maud Allan stated that she knew little about Salome, but thought that Oscar Wilde was a great artist.
38.
The trial, and the public outcry against Maud Allan, contributed, among other factors, to the demise of her career in Europe.
39.
Maud Allan decided to tour South America in 1920 and take her mother along.
40.
Maud Allan moved her mother to London in 1928 and spent the next two years with her until her mother died in 1930.
41.
Maud Allan became a volunteer ambulance driver for the Red Cross.
42.
Margot Asquith paid for Maud Allan's apartment overlooking Regent's Park for twenty years from 1910 onward.
43.
Aldrich was twenty years younger than Maud Allan which allowed Maud Allan to emotionally abuse Aldrich with her demands and paranoia.
44.
In 1930, Aldrich received a marriage proposal from a widowed man which led to Maud Allan throwing a tantrum, threatening to expose Aldrich as a lesbian and then commit suicide.
45.
Maud Allan lived in the apartment until it was bombed in The Blitz.