790:"The Prussian Ministry has now definitely forbidden Fräulein Olga Desmond to hold any more "beauty evenings" in Berlin of the sort described in these dispatches last week. Fräulein Desmond was allowed to appear on Monday evening of this week on condition that she wore clothing of a non-transparent character, but her costume proved so exceedingly abbreviated that the police censor decided to bar further public performances. Fräulein Desmond will hereafter do her dancing before invited guests of the Society for the Propagation of Beauty, and it is probable that the box office receipts will be only slightly less than at the public performances."
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406:, which included a new method of writing down dances and transcribing the movements into special symbols. The pamphlet included images of her in see-through gowns and nude women dancing within floral patterning; Desmond understood the precision that went into dancing. Her pamphlet helped other female dancers in a new and interesting way. Thereafter, she made fewer public appearances and from 1922 devoted herself entirely to teaching. Among her best-known students was
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313:, when in the summer of 1908, the German dancer arrived there with her repertoire of performance. Olga Desmond's Evenings of Beauty quickly became the subject of a great debate in the Russian media. At least one of the representatives of official "justice" wanted to haul Desmond into court for "seduction".
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is unthinkable. And I decided to throw off this needless yoke." Objecting to the claims that she excites "base instincts" of the public, the dancer said: "I purposely set a high admission charge for my shows so that the street would not get in, for it has little understanding of pure art, but so that
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Call it daring or bold, or however you want to describe my appearance on the stage, but this requires art, and it (art) is my only deity, before whom I bow and for which I am prepared to make all possible sacrifices ... I decided to break the centuries-old heavy chains, created by people themselves.
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and gave shows called "living pictures" in which she posed after the manner of ancient classical works of art. Upon returning to Berlin, she changed her name to Olga
Desmond, working with Adolf Salge. She began to create her own show, and would dance with a veil. Eventually she switched to a long
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Olga
Desmond raised the prices of some of her shows so that only people who respected her kind of art would be seeing her shows. In addition to raising prices, many of her performances were only open to members of other dance societies so that people on the street could not see her performances.
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The authorities in St. Petersburg paid little attention to the explanations offered by the dancer from Berlin, and her first appearance in the imperial
Russian capital was also her last: further shows were forbidden by the mayor. Many artists in the capital took the side of the authorities. For
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When I go out on stage completely naked, I am not ashamed, I am not embarrassed, because I come out before the public just as I am, loving all that is beautiful and graceful. There was never a case when my appearance before the public evoked any cynical observations or dirty ideas.
358:. But "scandalous" also meant well-known, and as a result of her renown, there were cosmetic products that carried her name. She traveled through Germany on numerous tours until 1914, when she married a Hungarian large landowner, and went off with him to his estate.
377:. In 1917, she separated from her husband and returned to the stage. Her first appearance took place on 15 April 1917 at the Theatre of the Royal University (Theater der Königlichen Hochschule) in Berlin. In the same year, she appeared in a performance of
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After World War II, Desmond lived in the eastern part of Berlin. In her late years, forgotten by the public, she worked as a cleaning woman. To make a living, she also sold vintage postcards and other memorabilia from her time as a renowned dancer.
219:) were prohibited on more than one occasion starting from 1908, because the actors usually posed nude or wearing only bodypaint. She defended them by comparing them with the classical Greek ideal of nudity.
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sharply denounced what he called the "cult of the naked body", saying that "beauty, like much else in life, must have its hidden secrets, that we don't even have the right to expose."
183:(now Olsztyn, Poland), and shared a home with thirteen brothers and sisters. At the age of fifteen, she left her family and joined a theatre act in London. In 1906, she attended the
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mediaeval-style belt. The more she posed, the more she realized that she wanted to move on stage. She wanted to bring nudity to life. These so-called "Evenings of Beauty" (
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421:, she married her second husband, Georg Piek, a Jewish businessman with a studio for stage equipment, decorations, and special fabrics. After 1933, Piek left Germany.
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which ran at Museum des
Moderne Salzburg in 2014 and at Das Verborgene Museum in 2015–2016. Otto Skowranek's series of photos of Desmond's sword dance is held at
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Waldorf, Hanna (2015). "Nudes, Swords, and the
Germanic Imagination: Renditions of Germanic Sword Dance Narratives in Early Twentieth-Century Dance".
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performed between two upward pointed spearheads set on the stage floor. This led to invitations to appear around
Germany and in St Petersburg.
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members see sensational dance: Deputies make personal investigation of entertainments complained of in Berlin – "Beauty
Evenings" barred".
207:." They were permitted to perform nearly nude provided they kept still, and used a curtain to hide them when they moved between scenes.
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Variéte-Tänzerinnen um 1900. Vom
Sinnenrausch zur Tanzmoderne, Ausstellung des Deutschen Theatermuseums MĂĽnchen 23.10.1998-17.1.1999
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Asked whether a stage costume would interfere with her, Olga
Desmond answered: "To be completely graceful in a costume or even in a
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Toepfer, Karl (2012). "Aesthetics of Early
Modernist Solo Dance in Central Europe". In Gitelman, Claudia; Palfy, Barbara (eds.).
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Desmond's work continues to be exhibited. For example, in 1993 a photo of her 1908 'Schönheitsabende' performance featured in
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did not stop her performing there. She also introduced solo dances between the tableaux and a new performance piece,
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Dörr, Evelyn, (2008). "Rudolf Laban: The Dancer of the Crystal", Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, page 99-101.
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Wortelkamp, Isa (2021). "Scratches, Holes, and Spots: Decay and Disappearance of Early Dance Photography".
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The "heroine of living pictures", Olga Desmond became one of the first to promote nudity on the stage in
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Olga Desmond was no less the subject of controversy in her own country. In 1909, her appearance in the
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Olga Desmond herself persistently defended her right to appear naked. She told the Russian press:
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people with broader demands for it would come, people who will look on me as a servitor of art."
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reported in 1909 that she had been ordered to cover up when performing at the Crystal Palace,
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Toepfer, Karl Eric (2003). "One Hundred Years of Nakedness in German Performance".
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was the cause of such a scandal that it became a subject of discussion even in the
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Desmond was an advocate for teaching as well. In 1919, she published a pamphlet,
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Rhythmographik. Tanznotenschrift als Grundlage zum Selbstudium des Tanzes
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Glezerov, Sergei (10 January 2003). "XX vek nachinalsya s obnazhenki ".
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From 1916 through 1919, she appeared in various films including
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Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture
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Prussian-German dancer, actress, and art model (1890–1964)
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On Stage Alone : Soloists and the Modern Dance Canon
137:; 2 November 1890 – 2 August 1964) was a German dancer,
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1078:"Startseite » Personen » Olga Desmond"
694:. University Press of Florida. pp. 73–118.
444:'s The Uncanny. In 2009 she was the subject of
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952:"Olga Desmond 1890-1964 PreuĂźens Nackte Venus"
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161:Olga Desmond c. 1910
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932:'s 'The Uncanny'".
771:. 29 November 1908.
395:(now Wrocław), and
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340:Konstantin Makovsky
203:where they put on "
135:Olga Antonie Sellin
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788:. 6 December 1908.
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417:After the
177:Allenstein
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