Maud Allan

Born Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant
27 August 1873
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died 7 October 1956 (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Known for Dance and choreography
Movement Modern/contemporary dance

Maud Allan (born Ulla Maude Durrant,[note 1] 27 August 1873 – 7 October 1956) was a Canadian dancer, chiefly noted for her Dance of the Seven Veils. Though not perceived as an accomplished dancer, she performed in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, dancing the title role topless, which garnered great attention. During World War I, she sued the British MP Noel Pemberton Billing for libel against allegations that she was a lesbian and that German agents were using her sexual orientation as grounds to blackmail her into spying for them on the British government. She was unsuccessful. The trial resurrected public disapproval of Oscar Wilde, whose own failed libel trial had initiated his arrest, conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency two decades earlier.

Maud Allan was born Ulla Maude Durrant in Toronto, Canada, in 1873 to William Allan Durrant and Isabella (Hutchinson) Durrant. Allan was the second of two children, after her older brother, Theodore Durrant. As a young person, Allan loved piano and was very musically gifted. Her teacher was Miss Lichenstein, a well-known piano teacher in Toronto and Montreal at the time.