The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-17
OUR LADY OF DREAMS.
London Goes Daffy Over Dancing of
 Maud Allan.

From the London Times.
 Miss Maud Allan Is the mode of the moment. "All London" as the posters say, or at any rate as much of London as can squeeze itself into the Palace The atre of Varieties, Is making a point of seeing her. For the serried ranks of gen tlemen, old and young, equipped with op- era glasses, 1t Is easy to account for the rumor, not at all accurate-that the lady is attired for one of her dances to little else than beads. But the mundane danes are there, too, to see and be seen, and careful scrutiny may even reveal a genuine admiration of dancing for danc- ing's sake. When Miss Allan's turn" arrives, at quarter past 10, there Is the sudden silence that betokens eager ex- pectation. The stage is unfurnished save by a few pedestals for fiambeaux. and for background there are plain velvet, curtains of a subfuse hue. Then the vio- lin bows glide softly into the first strains of Chopins valse in A-minor (Op. 34, No. 9, and the dream begins. The fig ure of the dream is a young girl; you perceive her, that Is to say, to be girl when you awake again, but to your dreaming sense she Is nymph or tanagra statuette. Timidly she slips through the curtains, and then appears to be drawn unconsciously into move ment by the music.
 Your next dream is to the familiar, rather too familiar, tune of Mendels- sohn's Spring Song" the dream figure fitting hither and thither-allegretto gra- zioso-in pursuit of an imaginary butter fly. This is of course no time for lan- nents are brisk and rapid; she makes little rushes backward and forward, or, like Camilla, skins along the plain" Now she is on tiptoe with arms out stretched now swiftly bending to the ground, now getting for moment like the butterfly she pursues-in short, gives you the quintessence of the papilona- you feel the warm summer breeze-agaln an impression curiously incongruous with your actual surroundings In the true sense of the word, then, the danc- CTS art is entrancing It converts you into a hypnotized subject.
 But the dancer has reserved her mas ter stroke for the last. This "Vision of Salome' has not only made her famous but has so haunting a fascination that to our own knowledge, many people can not keep away from 1t and return to the Palace to see it night after night. For many of us in this world would go any, where in search of dreams, taking Colde- ron's vida es sueno for our motto, and caring little whether our dreams come to us through the Gate of Ivory or the Gate of IIorn.s This time our dream is sensu- GUS, decadent, macabre. To the strains of weird Oriental music, Salome slowly
 descends the palace steps. There are jewels on her neck and bosom, and she wears tunic of black gauge. It is of the essence of course of Eastern dancing to show rhyinthic movements of the body
 round itself so to speak, as a pivot, which means, of course, that it may be- come, as in the notorious case of the
 danse du ventre, something lascivious and repulsively ugly. Now 1t is obvious that this dancer could make no move
 nlent or posture that is not beautiful, and, in fact. her dancing as Salome,
 thou gh~ Eastern in spirit through and through, Is absolutely without the slight
 est suggestion of the vulgarties so faml-
 lar to the tourist in Cairo or Tanger.
 She achieves the distinction-we admit
 1t risks being a nice distnction. but she achieves it-between the lascivious and the voluptuous. Salome dances as one
 fascinated, slowly advancing toward the head and swiftly receding from it, gradually drawing nearer and nearer, then falling upon hahds and knees and gloating half savagey, half amorously, over it. then bouncing upon 1t like a hawk upon his prey. Thereafter she dances with a quivering, shuddering dance and finally collapses, huddled- but still graceful, still beautiful-mass. And there you have the secret of her art, sheer beauty; every line in it, every rhythni every movement every posture every pause is beautiful. And so Maud Allan gives you beautiful dreams, and we do not wonder that all the dreamers in London, and all the lovers of her beauty for beauty's sake are crowding to see her. aild return to see her again and again.