This study focuses on seven women who used the fin-de-siecle's popular stage as a space to develop their experimental performance practices: acts that won them international fame and critical acclaim. The diverse entertainment careers of Maud Allan (1873-1956), Jane Avril (1868-1943), Loie Fuller (1868-1926), Sylvia Grey (1866-1958), Yvette Guilbert (1867-1944), Letty Lind (1862-1923) and Cissie (Cecilia) Loftus (1876-1943) encompassed song, dance, impersonation and acting. In accounts, reviews, autobiographical writings, interviews and other cultural products associated with them it is clear that individual female celebrities understood their work as creative, professional and original performance practice. The absence of their creative work from studies of performance history reveals much about hierarchical approaches to cultural environments, gender and physical, non-scripted performances that demands to be interrogated.

About the Author
Catherine Hindson is Lecturer in Performance Studies at the University of Bristol


Book Information
ISBN 9780719074851
Author Catherine Hindson
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press