United States History - 19th Century - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous European History, Dance, Entertainment Biography, Women's Biography, Feminism, United States History - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous Literary Critic
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
The origins of the art of exotic dancing lie in English drama and Viennese opera: Oscar Wilde's 1893 play Salome, and Richard Strauss's 1905 opera based on it, brought onto the stage a female character who captured and dominated the audience with the raw power of her naked body. Her Dance of the Seven Veils shocked and fascinated, and Salome became a pop icon on both sides of the Atlantic. Toni Bentley explores how four influential women embraced the persona of the femme fatale and transformed the misogynist image of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation.Synopsis
The origins of the art of exotic dancing lie in English drama and Viennese opera: Oscar Wilde’s 1893 play Salome, and Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera based on it, brought onto the stage a female character who captured and dominated the audience with the raw power of her naked body. Her Dance of the Seven Veils shocked and fascinated, and Salome became a pop icon on both sides of the Atlantic. Toni Bentley explores how four influential women embraced the persona of the femme fatale and transformed the misogynist image of a dangerously sexual woman into a form of personal liberation.
New York Times Book Review
A highbrow survey of what generally passes as a lowbrow art.
Editorials
Choice
This fascinating slice of popular culture will appeal to both social and dance historians.Charles Rearick
No other historian has told the story of the femme fatale in nineteenth-century culture so well and so engagingly. Bentley brings four memorable women to life—women who seized the mythic role of Salome and used it creatively and powerfully.Booklist
[T]he personal stories of the four extraordinary women who embodied and embraced the freedom represented by Salome.New York Times Book Review
A highbrow survey of what generally passes as a lowbrow art.Publishers Weekly
Former NYC ballerina and independent scholar Toni Bentley offers a study of four famous women who created versions of the legendary femme fatale Salome (popularized by Oscar Wilde) in Sisters of Salome, a cultural study and the story of an obsession. Bentley explores the experiences of women who have tapped into the power of the nude female body, particularly four who found fame by portraying Salome: Maud Allen, Mata Hari, Ida Rubenstein and Colette. Bentley gives a sketch of each woman's life and what compelled them to dance their own versions of Salome, showing how she was "not only a misogynist, masochistic male fantasy, but a heterosexual, sadistic female fantasy as well." Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.New York Times
“Here is a book that will scare the pants off John Ashcroft. A highbrow survey of what generally passes as a lowbrow art. . . . The detail is as delicious, and as revealing, as a Dance of the Seven Veils.”—New York TimesVillage Voice
“Bentley studies the figure of the fin-de-siècle femme fatale, in particular four women–Colette, Maud Allan, Mata Hari, and Ida Rubinstein–who chose the way of Salome. They danced exotically to wield their power, reinvent themselves, and, paradoxically, hide their sad pasts by becoming as nude as possible.”—Village VoiceBooklist
“This fascinating slice of popular culture will appeal to both social and dance historians.”—BooklistBook Details
Published
April 1, 2002
Publisher
Yale University Press
Pages
240
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780300090390