Maud Allan

Maud Allan (born 1883, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died Oct. 7, 1956, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) was a Canadian-born interpretative dancer and teacher, one of the forerunners of modern dance.

The daughter of two physicians, Allan grew up in San Francisco, studied music in Berlin, and taught herself to dance. Her career began in 1903 in Vienna, where she choreographed and performed dances to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn. Her most famous piece was Vision of Salomé, which brought her international acclaim in the years before World War I. As the exotic biblical character Salome, Allan danced barefoot in a halter of beads and a long, flowing translucent skirt, all of which unsettled some audience members. Allan toured frequently, performing on six continents before settling in England, where she taught dancing (1928–40). She wrote several articles and a book, My Life and Dancing (1908).