Mata Hari at the Folies Bergere. Comoedia Illustre (July 20, 1913)
Turn-of-the-century Paris was an international mecca for female dance soloists. Many came from abroad. Although women were a rarity at the Paris Opera, many served as ballet mistresses at less illustrious institutions such as the Folies Bergere which had its own ballet troupe.
One of the most colorful figures in the history of dance, Mata Hari (1876-1917) was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan and convicted spy who was executed by firing squad in France on October 15, 1917 under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I. Her dance repertory was as exotic as her origin in the Dutch East Indies. Her dances traversed the world, ignoring borders and the niceties of national style, especially in the Salome works that she presented in the decade before World War I. Some contemporary critics thought Mata Hari superior to Isadora Duncan as a dancer. She brought Salome’s dance of the seven veils to Paris music halls. At the end of her veil dance, she fell prone to the floor and simulated orgasm. She first did this in 1904, years before Vaslav Nijinsky created a major artistic sensation by doing the same thing in his performance of “The Afternoon of a Faun.”
Mata Hari attempted to join Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and her audition ended in disaster. Diaghilev and his assistants insisted that she audition for them in the nude. She found this condition insulting but submitted to it, only to be humiliatingly rejected.
Mata Hari at the Folies Bergere. Comoedia Illustre (July 20, 1913)
Turn-of-the-century Paris was an international mecca for female dance soloists. Many came from abroad. Although women were a rarity at the Paris Opera, many served as ballet mistresses at less illustrious institutions such as the Folies Bergere which had its own ballet troupe.
One of the most colorful figures in the history of dance, Mata Hari (1876-1917) was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan and convicted spy who was executed by firing squad in France on October 15, 1917 under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I. Her dance repertory was as exotic as her origin in the Dutch East Indies. Her dances traversed the world, ignoring borders and the niceties of national style, especially in the Salome works that she presented in the decade before World War I. Some contemporary critics thought Mata Hari superior to Isadora Duncan as a dancer. She brought Salome’s dance of the seven veils to Paris music halls. At the end of her veil dance, she fell prone to the floor and simulated orgasm. She first did this in 1904, years before Vaslav Nijinsky created a major artistic sensation by doing the same thing in his performance of “The Afternoon of a Faun.”
Mata Hari attempted to join Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and her audition ended in disaster. Diaghilev and his assistants insisted that she audition for them in the nude. She found this condition insulting but submitted to it, only to be humiliatingly rejected.