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Mata Hari’s Dance in the Hari! Dancing barefoot is a thing of the past, the modern-day female artist is more revealing ...” Context of Femininity (anon. 1906: 9). As such contemporary reviews and Exoticism show, Mata Hari’s dances – many of which she performed in states of undress – were all the rage during the decade of her artistic career. When Mata Alexandra Kolb* Hari, née Margaretha Geertruida Zelle,1 entered the theatrical profession in 1905, she was already a ABSTRACT scarred woman – separated and estranged from her The Dutch dancer Mata Hari (alias husband, a Dutch officer, grieving the mysterious Margaretha Geertruida Zelle) has achieved an death of her young son and eking out a hand-to- th iconic status within 20 -century dance history, mouth existence because her husband failed to pay partly due to her execution as a German spy her alimony. Her stage career and abandonment of in 1917. Although she lacked significant her former bourgeois lifestyle was thus born out of dance training, she successfully performed her necessity rather than any real artistic inclination or works, primarily in eclectic oriental styles, indeed professional training. before European audiences. My discussion While Mata Hari’s excessive private lifestyle considers Mata Hari’s contributions against and scandalous execution as a German spy in the backdrop of the pre-WWI European dance in 1917 have been very well-documented, scene. It specifically explores the ideological hardly any research has been invested in and aesthetic framework within which she contextualising her dance within the framework of was embedded as a female artist in the con- early 20th-century developments. This paper hence text of related concurrent dance trends. Draw- fills an obvious gap in existing literature. It will ing on feminist theories, and post- consider Mata Hari’s contributions to dance against colonialism (Edward Said), the paper the backdrop of the pre-WW1 dance scene; and examines how Mata Hari’s on- and off-stage more specifically explore the ideological and aes- personae conformed to certain stereotyped thetic framework within which she was embedded images of women whilst al so subverting so- as a female artist, in relation to important dance cial conventions. trends of the time such as Ruth St. Denis’s work, Keywords: Mata Hari, orientalism, nudist orientalism and nudist dance. dance, feminism. For someone without any prior dance training, Mata Hari enjoyed a remarkable career which Mata Hari’s Dance in the Context of spanned various genres: private salons, music halls, Femininity and Exoticism opera houses and musical comedy. She began by presenting her own choreographies in ethnic styles, In 1906, a critic from the Neue Wiener Journal loosely based on Indian and Javanese dances, in wrote: “ is dead, long live Mata private Parisian salons in 1905. She declared these creations to be authentic Asian dances, though she * Alexandra Kolb is the Chair of the Dance Studies possessed only a limited knowledge of Javanese programme at Otago University in New Zealand, having and Sumatran dances as a result of several years received her doctorate from Cambridge. She trained (from 1897 to 1902) spent in the Dutch East professionally in dance in Düsseldorf and at John Indies, as a housewife and mother alongside her Neumeier’s Academy of the Hamburg Ballet. Her husband who worked in the colonies. She probably research interests include European dance and literature in twentieth century modernism; dance, politics, and globalisation. She has contributed to several international 1 Mata Hari – Malay; literally: eye of the day – was an journals, and her book on Performing Femininity assumed name designed to make her dancing appear (Oxford) will be published shortly. more authentic. 59

had no first-hand knowledge of Indian dance at all, perceived in literature as a serious artist on a par but apart from a few sharp-minded critics no one with figures such as the Americans Ruth St. Denis, seemed to notice or care. who performed works with similar Indian themes, She went on to perform her choreographies of or Maud Allan, or even La Belle Otero who, like primarily (semi-)nude dances in music halls and Mata Hari, worked as a courtesan. Puzzling dis- theatres, sometimes alongside variety acts such as crepancies and contradictions emerge from contem- juggling and trick dogs, for example at the porary accounts of her dancing. The French author Trocadero Theatre and the fairly prestigious Olym- Colette, who herself performed in oriental-themed pia Theatre in 1905. She also toured abroad, for music hall pieces and was thus effectively a com- instance in and Vienna, and later even petitor of Mata Hari’s, and the art lover and patron- danced ballet interludes (this time fully clothed) in ess Misia Sert judged her dancing unequivocally serious arts theatres, notably in the ballet of negatively. Sert’s report of her encounter with Mata Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore in Monte Carlo in Hari, who hoped to land a contract with 1906. At the second apex of her career in 1911-12, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, is devastating: “She after several years of keeping a low artistic profile, took a few ‘sculptural’ positions and marked two or she was invited to perform her well-known The three dance steps. I was fairly shocked, as she had Princess and the Magic Flower in Gluck’s Armida, no talent whatsoever” (1954: 212). Both Colette and also played Venus in Bacchus and Garbinus at and Sert deemed her performances vulgar, superfi- the world’s foremost opera house, La Scala in Mi- cial and merely exhibitionist, the former asserting lan. She later danced in revues at the Folies- that her dancing did not better in any way “the Bergère, in musical comedy styles and in 1913 at common platitudes of ‘Hindoo acts’ from the music the Trianon Palace theatre in Sicily: a theatre-cafe hall” (Colette, 1991: 1072). On the other hand, Sam offering cabaret with musical entertainment, which Waagenaar’s well-researched book on her life and could be since as a comedown as she shared the career collates a number of voices who declared stage with performers of questionable artistic merit. Mata Hari a fully-fledged artist (1964: 66). Specifi- In 1914 she moved to and Holland where cally, Waagenaar quotes the famous Italian operatic her career soon came to a halt due to the outbreak conductor Tullio Serafin from La Scala, whom we of World War 1, prior to her arrest by the French may ascribe some authority in the matter, as praising on suspicion of for the German govern- her as “very cultured, and with an innate artistic ment in early 1917. disposition”. Moreover, according to Waagenaar, he This paper will focus on her own artistic crea- termed her a “serious artist” (ibid: 98). tions. Mata Hari’s dances shared many characteris- From the perspective of the lay audience, who tic similarities with the works of other leading early were primarily acquainted with the (declining) art modern dancers: solo dancing (occasionally framed of ballet, there were relatively few points of com- by dancers or musicians in the background); danc- parison due to the novelty of modern dance in the ing barefoot; actual or evoked natural settings (in first decade of the 20th century. Owing to a lack of Mata Hari’s case, she often insisted that her scen- filmed records and accurate descriptions, her actual ery include palm trees and moonlight, and she degree of competence is difficult to assess in retro- sometimes danced outdoors, at least for private spect. Many descriptions of Mata Hari’s dancing performances); the shedding of the corset; the use are irritatingly vague, most likely because she of ‘reformist’ clothing such as veils which enabled evinced a mystic aura rather than any vocabulary of a wide range of movement; and her penchant for recognisable steps. One of the most vivid descrip- the fashion of orientalism, one of the two crucial tions is given by the anonymous critic of the Neue dance trends expressing ‘otherness’ along with Wiener Journal from 15th December 1906. In an antique models. article entitled Brahma Dances in Vienna, the critic Despite the commonalities she shared with other reviews her performance at the Viennese Secession early modern dancers, Mata Hari has rarely been Hall thus: 60 GÊNERO E RELIGIÃO NAS ARTES

The auditorium was steeped in mystical darkness. postures and clothing of the industrial age, other Covered blue, green, white lights. A Brahma-altar, forms of nudist dance (such as those of the chorus surrounded by a blossoming fruit tree, has been erected line) were seen to emulate the mechanisation of at the front side of the room. Steaming incense burners modern life (see for instance Siegfried Kracauer’s augment the almost solemn atmosphere of the small discussion of the Tiller girls’ precision dance in auditorium. Then the Hofburg actor Gregori enters the Mass Ornament, 1977: 55). room ... he improvises a little introductory speech. [He Mata Hari’s nudity was extremely risqué and says] Mata Hari’s dances are like a prayer ...the Indian would have been even more so had she not softened people dance when they venerate their Gods. Mata Hari herself enters with measured tread. A the impact by spiritualizing the dance, embedding it Junoesque apparition. Big, fiery eyes lend her noble-cut into a religious Indian context. In its blending of face a peculiar expression. Her dark complexion [...] sensual and spiritual elements, Mata Hari’s dancing suits her marvellously. An exotic beauty of first order. A resembled that of the much more widely acknowl- white, gathered veil envelopes her, a red rose adorns her edged American dance artist Ruth St. Denis, who deep black hair. And Mata Hari dances ... That is: she began performing in Europe in 1906 – one year does not dance. She performs a prayer before the idol, as after Mata Hari’s debut. Despite the similarities a priest performs a service [...]. between a number of aspects of their dance – such [Then] Mata Hari dances the budding love of a chaste as costumes, the use of nudity, and the iconography girl. A while veil – the slendang – serves as a symbol of (i.e. similar postures and arm movements which can chastity. Beneath the veil, the beautiful dancer wears on be seen on existing photographs) – no research has her torso a breast ornament and a golden belt ... nothing yet been invested in a comparative analysis. As else. The audacity of the costume is a minor sensation. Sally Banes has argued, Ruth St. Denis made use of But without the slightest trace of indecency ... What the artist reveals in dance is art. Each muscle of the upper religious connotations in what would otherwise have body is engaged. The dance ends with a victory of love been unambiguously erotic choreographies to make over restraint ... the veil drops [...]. nude dancing appear more respectable, particularly Finally the dance of Siva, the destroyer. The priestess, in to women spectators (1998: 89 and 92); and the a passionately engaged dance, sacrifices every piece of same may well be true of Mata Hari. We would oth- jewellery, so that He hears her prayer. One veil after erwise be hard pressed to explain the fact both another drops until in the end she stands in her pure, dancers were invited, often by female protégés, to undressed beauty [...]. The priestess sinks, unconscious, perform before illustrious circles including many to the floor in front of the feet of the stern god [...] women spectators. Moreover, Western women incor- Stormy ovations (anon. 1906: 9). porating Indian temple dancers were able to refer to common Indian practices such as the Devadasi sys- In this description, the merging of the profane tem, where young girls were dedicated to temples (nudity, fashion, and jewellery) with the sacred (the (‘married’ to a god) and practiced classical Indian priestess and god scenario, and the altar) is particu- art forms such as Bharatanatyam. These women larly noteworthy. The emphasis on the naked body were sharply criticized during colonial times for around the turn of the century has been fairly well- their engagement in sex outside marriage and pros- explored, with Klaus Toepfer’s 1997 book on Em- titution. The blending of spiritual and sensual planes pire of Ecstasy providing a rich collection of had undeniably become part of their image; they sources along with some interpretation. Nudity in could either be seen as “sexually exploited temple dance was, ideologically speaking, a very complex dancer/prostitute or the embodiment of sacred femi- phenomenon, oscillating between conveying femi- nine power” (Ali 2001, http://www.history.ac.uk/ nist aspirations and an eroticism that was clearly reviews/paper/daudAli.html)2 – or perhaps as both aimed at satisfying the male gaze. There are further of these at once. dichotomies: while on one hand it was often em- 2 ployed (for instance in Laban’s and Wigman’s For a fuller discussion of the history of the devadasi system and further literature see http://en.wikipedia.org/ works) to provide a counterpoint to the ‘unnatural’ wiki/Devadasi. 61

However, Banes’s inference that the successful tainment. Although, as Elbert concedes, the tableau mix of the sensual and spiritual was “a new mes- had largely degenerated to cater for pleasure-seek- sage to Western eyes” (1989: 89) is incorrect. In ing men in late 19th-century theatres, its earlier in- fact, the marriage of the two was – even in Western carnations in the salon milieus had allowed ama- society – anything but new. There are innumerable teur female performers to experiment with examples, particularly from the realm of the visual unconventional and often eroticised identities in the arts, of very ambiguous depictions of passionate safe havens of private homes and artistic exoticism. saints and eroticised angels. Giovanni Lorenzo Their performances, Elbert argues, provided an Bernini’s 1650s marble sculpture The Ecstasy of St. escape route from their confined existences as Teresa, whose body posture and facial expression housewives. Tableaux vivants were thus part of a have been interpreted both as expressing divine joy “project of self-fashioning” (ibid: 236) and, like and as signalling a veiled orgasm, is perhaps the later modern dance works, allowed women to bring best known example (see http://en.wikipedia.org/ to light certain facets of their repressed, hidden wiki/Ecstasy_of_St_Theresa). The 19th-century art- selves – including their sensual desires. ist Dante Gabriel Rossetti also conceptualised the The tableau vivant was still en vogue in the female form in terms of heaven and salvation, com- early 20th century, and Mata Hari is reported to bining physical beauty and sensuousness with reli- have danced in at least two, which were transferred gious notions. Thus, early 20th-century educated onto stage. She performed a Spanish dance – de- audiences were well acquainted with the practice of parting from her usual theme of Indian art – in a merging sensuality and spirituality from the visual “living painting by Goya” during a show entitled arts, and this did not necessarily constitute a femi- Le Revue en Chemise at the Folies-Bergère in 1913 nist practice as Banes seems to imply. (see Waagenaar, 1964: 109) and a ballet based on One might surmise that Mata Hari’s candid dis- Lancret’s work La Camargo, entitled Les Folies play of the female form and its acceptance in up- Françaises, in , Holland (ibid: 126). per-class evening entertainment was facilitated by More generally, the familiarity of the middle and the fact that this type of performance had certain upper classes with tableau vivant may have paved precursors. The tableau vivant (or ‘living picture’), the way for Mata Hari’s early salon performances, in particular, was a popular parlour entertainment which could be integrated virtually seamlessly into for the 19th-century middle and upper classes in the characteristic evening entertainment of the day. many European countries, including England, In particular her nudity, while still sensational, was France and , and was later used exten- simply pushing to new extremes a mild eroticism sively in various forms on stage. The tableau already inherent in the tableau and similar types of vivant’s main function was to recreate paintings performance – a risqué interplay of bodily exposure using real life, costumed participants – primarily and modesty for which the veil acted as a symbol. women – to imitate well known works of art in Moreover, the fact that female masquerade – a static poses which were held for a certain period of practice of toying with different identities – was time, as if in freeze-frames. This genre thus mar- accepted as a society pastime could explain why ried the visual with the performing arts. Mata Hari was seldom outrightly or publicly ousted What is notable, however, is the fact that in the as an impostor. Clearly, her life and career were prudish 19th century, “woman’s body [was] the site based on a fabrication of lies designed to promote of interest” (Elbert 2002: 241) and that “men in the herself. She took ‘performativity’, in the sense of audience received a rare opportunity to observe constructing new identities for oneself (as opposed women in dress and postures generally more pro- to Judith Butler’s more limited sense of constructed vocative than those customarily allowed in polite gender identity) to an extreme by constantly chang- company” (ibid: 235). A famous tableau, Venus ing characters and putting on different ‘selves’. Rising from the Sea, became notorious when it According to some sources, she was the grand- shifted from the parlour to cheap theatrical enter- daughter of a native Javanese regent (anon. 1906: 62 GÊNERO E RELIGIÃO NAS ARTES

9). Valerien Svetloff, writing for the Dancing Taking a more guarded approach, Craft- Times, wrote as late as 1927 that she was “the Fairchild points out that female writers were cau- daughter of a Dutch planter in and a native tious about assigning an emancipatory impetus to woman” and that her mother, “knowing the fate for the masquerade disguise. She maintains that texts children of mixed European and native parentage, written by women on the topic of masquerade ul- and wishing to save her from an existence where timately show that “cultural constraints make it she would be despised, gave her up to a Buddhist impossible for a woman to achieve a full ‘identity’; temple as a religious dancer” (1927: 195). None of whatever identity she can negotiate is always in a these stories were true; they were aimed at hiding complex and complicitous relationship to the iden- the much less glamorous fact that she was of Dutch tity (identities) her society constructs for her” origin, the daughter of a woman who died shortly (1993: 163). She holds that masquerade did not after separation from her husband, and a salesman “alter women’s status” (ibid: 53), arguing rather who, after an initially successful career, found him- that the display of female bodies was counterpro- self in precarious financial circumstances. ductive to real emancipation as it turned women By making such false claims, Mata Hari success- into mere (sexual) spectacles, allowing men’s eyes fully closed the gap between her onstage and off- to wander freely over their bodies, thus effectively stage personae. Moreover, her experimentation with rendering women passive objects of male desire. different identities and images both in and outside The salons in which Mata Hari first performed of her performances is significant from a feminist (and, later, the variety-theatre and opera stages) viewpoint. Several studies in the humanities, such provided an ideal playground for self-fashioning as Terry Castle’s (1986) and Catherine Craft- her identity and escaping the everyday reality of Fairchild’s (1993) examinations of masquerades in early 20th-century Europe. Although she did not 18th century literature by female authors, have actually wear a mask like women in masquerade addressed the function of the masquerade disguise events, her incorporation of different identities, as in patriarchal societies. Arguably, the masquerade well as her exotic appearance, fulfilled very similar opens up spaces of liberation for women to escape functions. As mentioned earlier, she constantly from the domesticity and confinement of their eve- nurtured the image of an ‘authentic’ Eastern ryday lives. Masquerades in 18th century English woman. Whilst, moreover, the salons lacked the ballrooms, for example, permitted women to don explicit eroticism and disguise of masquerade masks in order to disguise and transcend their true balls, they played an important role in socialising identities, as well as providing an erotically between the sexes and even women’s education, as charged atmosphere. In the liberated context of the many women (being barred from higher education) ballroom settings, women were able to express used them to participate in and lead political or some of their otherwise suppressed erotic desires intellectual discussions. As the women’s studies and, to some extent, exert power; the disassociation scholar Goldberg Moses notes, they were therefore from their own selves offered them a space for sometimes perceived as a threat to male dominance resignification of identity and detachment from (1984: 4). Like the masquerade ballrooms, salons conventional morals. Castle, drawing on the disregarded social hierarchies and allowed people Bakhtinian notion of the carnivalesque, notes that of different ranks and orders to mix. Hence, they masquerade represents “a feminocracy… a were an ideal place in which to embed a daring gynesium – a realm pervaded by female desire, dance form such as Mata Hari’s. authority and influence” (1986: 254). In her view, When it comes to transgressing given identities, the masquerade thus allows a (temporary) liberation Mata Hari’s career benefited greatly from the turn- from the burden of traditional structures and hier- of-the-century craving for the ‘oriental’ and the ex- archies, disrupting as it does categories of privi- otic. The year 1899 saw the publication of a fresh leged class and, in particular, gender. translation into French of The Book of the 1001 63

Nights (also known as the Arabian Nights) and the stiffen suddenly in the middle of contortions, like 1900 world fair in featured performances by the flaming blade of a kiss” (quoted in Waagenaar, Javanese and Cambodian dancers; both of these 1964: 52). Here, the critic points to several key sparked a new interest in all things oriental. Moreo- elements which reflect the themes and practices of ver, the widely-known 1883 translation of the Kama oriental dancing; namely, passion as the raison- Sutra by the author Richard Francis Burton may d’etre of the dance, expressed through the fire have strengthened the perceived link between the metaphor; an inherent eroticism (“kiss”); and use of Orient and an exotic sexuality and sensuality. Ex- sudden contrasts and mood swings – the dancer otica, often from the spheres of Oriental art, were initially flexed and bent her body only “to stiffen also instrumental in early modern dance develop- suddenly”. Another newspaper, the Gaulois (17th ments, with a range of exponents from Ruth St. March 1905) perceived Mata Hari as “so feline, Denis to Sent M’Ahesa for whom oriental themes extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thou- became principal motifs of solo dances. sand curves and movements trembling in a thou- Oriental dance was so much in the public con- sand rhythms, one finds oneself far from the con- sciousness that a number of books on dance at the ventional entrechats of our classic dancers” (quoted time devoted whole chapters to the trend. For in- in Waagenaar, 1964: 53). Valerien Svetloff also stance, Troy and Margaret West Kinneys’ 1914 noted her “slow, voluptuous movements” (1927: book The Dance: Its Place in Art and Life gives an 193). Here again there are clear analogies between intriguing account of the Western (or more pre- Mata Hari’s dance and the Kinneys’ observations, cisely American) perspective on dancing in what specifically concerning multiple rhythms and curvy, were deemed ‘oriental’ countries: Arab nations in non-linear moves: a novelty to those who were the first instance, India and her neighbouring coun- accustomed to the geometrical, linear patterns of tries, and also China and Japan. The authors main- academic ballet. However, from what we can de- tain, in short, that the essence of oriental dancing is duce from the existing sources, Mata Hari’s danc- the display of the female body and its physical at- ing did not exhibit one of the key characteristics of tributes. The eye, they write, “has time to dwell much authentic eastern dance, namely the rotating upon a posture, to revel in the sensuous grace into hip movement and emphasis on abdominal muscles which it casts body and limb” (1914: 198). Move- typical, for instance, of belly dance. ment, they further claim, is typically subordinate In the era of British and French colonialism, it and often based on improvisation; this view might comes as little surprise that dance artists chose explain why only a handful of critics admonished orientalism as a main motif. Oriental artworks the lack of proficiency and execution of Mata formed part of a powerful discourse during the Hari’s dances. Passion (“she is fired”, ibid: 218) is colonial period, and being one of few Western cited as the principal theme of oriental female women to have lived in a colony in the Dutch East dancing (ibid), and indeed of oriental womanhood Indies, Mata Hari was particularly well-placed to per se (for in the authors’ descriptions, the female convey images captured there and to embed them dancing body and oriental femininity often seem to within a narrative of her own experience, padding coincide). Other characteristics include frequent them with fictitious stories as she saw fit. The dancing in postures, acknowledgement of weight, Orient, as a theme within Western literature and dancing with flat feet, sudden mood changes in the philosophy, has been scrutinised in some detail by choreography, and multiple rhythms. Edward Said in his influential and widely-discussed A closer examination of the descriptive reviews book on Orientalism. Said maintains here that the of Mata Hari’s performances reveals poignant simi- Orient may be theorised as a “European invention” larities between her dancing and the Kinneys’ ac- (1978: 1), a projection foil for images of otherness count of oriental dance. The theatre critic Edouard – specifically those which reveal the “surrogate and Le Page wrote that Mata Hari’s “flexible body at even underground self” (ibid: 3) of European cul- times becomes one with the undulating flames, to ture. The relationship between East and West is 64 GÊNERO E RELIGIÃO NAS ARTES

posited as one of cultural hegemony, with the West thus distanced from the audience’s reality. Moreo- dominating and being deemed superior to the East. ver, the association of immoral behaviour (repre- The binary of East and West is also compared with sented by the sexualised female dancer) with the gender asymmetry, i.e. the dualism of the genders, East confirmed the superiority of European culture and certain attributes of ‘oriental’ culture (such as (1995: 38). Drawing on critical reviews from the the inability to speak for itself, sensuality and cru- time, Koritz also points out that Allan’s works, elty) seem to reverberate in discussions of the fe- which spiritualised oriental dance, were regarded as male. For instance, the Austrian cultural theorist superior to ‘authentic’ eastern dances, which with Otto Weininger, in his well-known book on Sex their allegedly explicit sensuality were seen as and Character (1903), describes the female gender somewhat vulgar. Allan’s performances thus re-af- as unable to speak sense and as unproductive, firmed both culturally chauvinistic beliefs and gen- amoral and consumed by sexuality. Like femininity der ideology (see ibid: 39). in patriarchal cultures, oriental culture in the West Descriptions of Mata Hari’s works are is seen as the exotic ‘other’ that threatens male encouched in a similar vocabulary to those of St. dominance. Indeed, in his essay Orientalism Re- Denis’s and Allan’s pieces. Reviews suggest that considered, Said writes: her dances exuded the same mysteriousness, a com- parable amalgam of sensuality and chasteness We can now see that Orientalism is a praxis of the same which reflects the two stereotypical representations sort, albeit in different territories, as male gender of femininity (Madonna and whore), together with dominance, or patriarchy, in metropolitan societies: the a similar nexus between femininity and orientalism. Orient was routinely described as feminine, its riches as The French newspaper Le Journal, for instance, fertile, its main symbols the sensual woman, the harem, declared Mata Hari the incarnation of Indian cul- and the despotic – but curiously attractive – ruler. ture: “Mata Hari personifies all the poetry of India, Moreover, Orientals like Victorian housewives were its mysticism, its voluptuousness, its languor, its confined to silence and to unlimited enriching production hypnotising charm … rhythm, poems of wild vo- (1985, p. 103). luptuous grace” (Waagenaar, p.76; his translation). The critic clearly equates India with female at- Both Ruth St. Denis’s and Maud Allan’s works, tributes, notably those which elude the rational which have close affinity with Mara Hari’s in mind: voluptuousness, hypnosis and mysticism. theme, style, and their use of scanty costumes, have Hence, while these uncanny and threatening char- been analysed within the theoretical framework of acteristics are ascribed to the ‘female’ East, the Edward Said’s influential texts. Amy Koritz argues critic’s implication is that the West incorporates the that descriptions of Allan’s oriental-style perform- opposite characteristics (rationality, efficiency, etc.) ances in England reveal an interaction of racial and which are normally associated with masculinity. gender stereotyping that reinforced English as- The exotic, mysterious oriental woman (often of sumptions about the ‘Oriental’. This Orientalism Middle Eastern or North African origin) is also a (in Said’s sense of the term) in turn depended upon popular version of the femme fatale, a construction a rhetoric that characterized as female those at- of femininity prevalent at the turn-of-the 19th cen- tributes that denoted the inferiority of England’s tury, which had clearly misogynist (and possibly colonized peoples (1994: 63). even racist) implications. Mata Hari has often been Reviewers commented on both the binary con- seen as paradigmatic of the femme fatale; charming struction of East and West on one hand, and the and erotically titillating but also dangerous. (Indeed, female and male genders on the other. The English she is still cited in the online encyclopedia Literature and Gender Studies scholar Amy Koritz Wikipedia as the incarnation of this image; see http:/ maintains that while Allan’s performances evoked /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale). Her nudity an uncanny image of the sexualised female, this was sensational at a time when it was indecent for was transferred to an alien ‘oriental’ location and women in most European countries to be seen unac- 65

companied in public. Through her stage sets and tion, etc., which had previously been viewed in public explanations of her dances,3 Mata Hari at- strongly positive terms (and connoted with mascu- tempted to frame her performances so as to bridge linity) experienced a dramatic revaluation in intel- the gap between eroticism and a more chaste, spir- lectual and artistic circles. A number of artists and itual image on stage. Judging from reviews, this authors posited an oriental or ancient Greek ‘other’ strategy was apparently successful with some audi- as a legitimate alternative to Central Europe’s own ences and critics: “There was not the merest trace of cultural norms. The Austrian author Hugo von indecency” (anon. 1906: 9). Other critics, however, Hofmannsthal, for instance, commented on Ruth St. were more cagey. The Austrian author Karl Kraus Denis’s Radha from 1906 as follows: “It will have called into question the tendency to label nudist nothing to do with education; it will not illustrate, dance as “merely aesthetic” (1906: 39), satirically will not elucidate. It presents us with something attacking “that culture which one day, upon an totally strange, without pretending to be ethno- agreed signal, raises the exhibition of beautiful legs graphic or interesting, just for the sake of beauty” to a metaphysical revelation” (ibid: 42). (Hofmannsthal, 1979: 497). This was not an at- Despite the linkage of the eroticised femme fa- tempt to dismiss St. Denis’s dancing or oriental tale – an overwhelmingly negative image – with culture per se; on the contrary, like other contem- the Orient, it seems to me that the notion of orien- poraries, Hofmannsthal was dissatisfied with con- tal dancing as invariably connoting Eastern inferi- ventional learning and understanding based on ority in the context of imperialism does not quite purely rational thought processes, which he deemed do justice to the complex array of ideologies sur- to be insufficient expressions of our nature as emo- rounding the modern dance of this era. There were tional and sensual beings. He ultimately saw dance many voices in the European intelligentsia and the (a mute language) and foreign cultures as viable arts scene that argued in favour of foreign values, alternative means of knowledge acquisition, and and which should be distinguished from the wide- even aimed to incorporate some of their principles spread imperialist propaganda of the time. Foreign into his writing. As is well known, much modern (and in particular oriental) influences in dance were dance was based exactly on this premise: finding often cited when critically reconsidering the legiti- alternatives to the human being’s existence in the macy of (European) culture, and not always in the industrial, rationalised age. Oriental dance, which conscious or unconscious attempt to denigrate other in some respects represented an inversion of Euro- cultures as inferior. Hence, the dichotomy of East pean values – favouring languor and mysticism and West – and with it, perhaps, the binary notions over technological efficiency and an over-emphasis of nature and civilisation – were not always used in on cognitive thought – was a key expression of this the arts to further Eurocentricism, but have some- yearning. Seen from such as perspective, oriental times instead revealed Europeans’ weariness with dance might have thus fulfilled precisely the oppo- respect to their self-identity. As Brandstetter rightly site function to that stipulated by Edward Said; notes in the context of her discussion of early 20th- namely to point to the shortcomings of Western, as century oriental dance, “looking at our European opposed to Eastern, culture. culture through foreign eyes confirmed a critical Mata Hari’s oriental dances manifest a deep stance towards civilisation” (1995: 208). ambivalence, perhaps characteristic of much female The popularity of oriental dance reached its peak modern dance of the time. Her very choice of ca- at a time when notions such as rationality, civilisa- reer was in defiance of the dominant norms for female behaviour given her societal background, 3 Karl Kraus quotes Mata Hari as saying in an interview although it was largely necessitated by circum- that the explanations of her dances in an introductory stances. She was forced to adapt to a different situ- speech prior to her performances resulted in her nudity being construed in quasi-philosophical terms by the ation after her failed marriage, due to her financial audience, hence making them forget her (sensual) straitjacket and perhaps also the loss of (male) pro- womanhood (1906: 40). tection and the security of a domestic existence. In 66 GÊNERO E RELIGIÃO NAS ARTES

response, she clearly felt that she could capitalise of her dancing and biography is hard to resolve. on a female dancing body that conveyed an exotic Mata Hari constructed and deconstructed conven- otherness, and which was seen as a viable alterna- tional roles for women; her dancing was emancipa- tive to the rigid codes of European dance practice. tory and yet confirmed certain hegemonic struc- Oriental dance offered women certain freedoms tures at the same time. This deep-seated as it shed confined balletic images of the female ambivalence was typical of an era at the threshold dancing body as fairy or nymph, together with bal- of female emancipation. let’s corsets and strict movement vocabulary. Through the adoption of a disguising, romanticised Bibliography ethnic aura, Mata Hari was conceivably able to express her frustration with the female condition in ALI, DAUD. Review of Donors, Devotees, and Daughters Western society (although due to a lack of primary of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu by Leslie C. sources by the dancer herself, we perhaps lack Orre (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). February 2001. http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/daudAli.html concrete evidence to this effect). In one respect, (accessed 15th September 2008). then, Mata Hari’s dance might be seen as liberat- ALTENBERG, PETER. Leben und Werk in Texten und ing. Viewed from another angle, however, it could Bildern. Edited by H.Ch. Kosler. Munich: Matthes & Seitz, be said to have replaced conventional balletic im- 1981. ages with a different stereotype, namely the exotic ANONYMOUS. Brahmanentänze in Wien, Neues Wiener th woman (often enshrined in the image of the femme Journal, 16 December 1906, p. 9. A propos Mata Hari. Frankfurt: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1997. fatale) which equally tends to confine feminine BANES, SALLY. Dancing Women. Female Bodies on identity. Mata-Hari’s dancing conformed somewhat Stage. London/New York: Routledge, 1998. to patriarchal, hegemonic structures in that she tai- BOVENSCHEN, SILVIA. Die imaginierte Weiblichkeit. lored many of her dances to the male gaze. Her (Imagined Femininity). Exemplarische Untersuchungen zu image as a femme fatale indeed found its ultimate kulturgeschichtlichen und literarischen Präsentationsformen expression in her execution, which was seen by des Weiblichen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1979. BRANDSTETTER, GABRIELE. Tanz-Lektüren. Körperbilder some as fair punishment for a sordid lifestyle. Such und Raumfiguren der Avantgarde. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1995. a demise also corresponds to the endings of many CARILLO, E. Gomez. Mata Hari. Leipzig: C. Weller, 1927. femme fatale narratives in fiction as well as dance; CASTLE, TERRY. The Carnivalesque in Eighteenth-Century such as Salome, Lulu or Potiphar’s wife in Joseph’s English Culture and Fiction. London: Methuen, 1986. Legend. CRAFT-FAIRCHILD, CATHERINE. Masquerade and With her numerous affairs, Mata Hari reflected Gender. Disguise and Female Identity in Eighteenth- Century Fictions by Women. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania the lifestyle of many a ballet girl from the Paris State University, 1993. and other opera houses, who were often available COLETTE. Mes apprentissages. In: Colette, Oeuvres. Paris: to provide sexual gratification after their perform- Editions Gallimard, 1991, pp. 981-1076. ances. However, this open expression of her sexual COORLAWALA, UTTARA ASHA. Ruth St. Denis and desires, as well her on-stage nudity, is open to dif- India’s Dance Renaissance. Dance Chronicle 15/2, 1992, ferent interpretations and assessments in feminist pp. 123-152. DESMOND, JANE. Dancing out the Difference. Cultural terms. She certainly went against the grain of early Imperialism and Ruth St, Denis’s “Radha” of 1906. Signs, th 20 -century middle-class expectations of female 17/1, 1991, pp.28-49. sexuality by refusing prudishly to cover her body DIJKSTRA, BRAM. 1986. Idols of Perversity. Fantasies of and asserting her physicality outside motherhood. Feminine Evil in Fin-de-siècle Culture. New York: Moreover, she was no longer forced to lead a life University of Oxford Press. of domesticity and subservience but enjoyed a truly ELBERT, MONIKA. Striking a Historical Pose: Antebellum Tableaux Vivants, “Godey’s” Illustrations, and Margaret cosmopolitan lifestyle, and, at the apex of her ca- Fuller’s Heroines. In: The New England Quarterly, 75/2, reer, a substantial income of her own. This conflict 2002, pp.235-275. between the progressive and regressive tendencies FINNEY, GAIL. Women in Modern Drama Freud, Feminism, and European Theatre at the Turn of the 67

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