Salome and Her Dance of the Seven Veils - The Evolution of a Myth

Was she the chaste young daughter of a manipulative mother? An evil temptress responsible for a holy man's death?
A Judean princess with an ordinary royal life?

Shireen Malik offers a lecture presentation exploring the history of this fascinating story. She shares her extensive research as a contributing writer for the book The Veil: Women Writers On Its History, Lore, And Politics, University of California Press, 2008. In the Western imagination, an Oriental woman is typically envisioned either as a passive victim hidden beneath her veil or an exotic temptress - the dancing girl whirling with wild abandon in a dance of the seven veils. Such a dance is the literary creation of English playwright Oscar Wilde in his opus Salome, completed in 1892. The play premiered in Paris in 1896, but was banned in Britain because of its portrayal of biblical characters. Ironically, there is no Salome mentioned by name in the Bible, nor is there any reference to dancing with veils - not one veil, let alone seven. In 1905, the Richard Strauss opera Salome, based on Wilde's story, was presented with great success to the European public, bringing to life the Dance of the Seven Veils. The dance, with its myriad of interpretations has become a trademark of the opera, typecasting Salome as an exotic, erotic dancing destroyer of men. The subject matter covers a wide range of topics: art, dance, history, literature, mythology, opera, orientalism, theater, theology, and women's studies. Program consists of a one-hour lecture with hundreds of visual images, and a twenty-minute film presentation.

Maud Allan as Salome, 1908

Praise for Salome:

Shireen Malik's brilliant program combines immaculate research and scholarship with wonderful, entertaining imagery.. With care and great wit, she brings the obscure fable of the maiden who danced for the head of John the Baptist out of the shadows and into focus. Malik's dextrous and dazzling presentation takes us across centuries of literature, art, film and pop culture to reveal the truth behind a story that, among other things, has for centuries inspired the orientalist misdefinition of the Eastern woman.

--Jennifer Heath
author, The Scimitar & The Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam (Paulist Press, 2004)
editor, The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics (University of California Press, 2008)

I greatly enjoyed the Salomé presentation at the Dairy Center for the Arts in June, 2008. The lecture was very scholarly and intriguing. The images portraying the evolution of the figure of Salomé were fascinating, and I found myself excitededly awaiting each new image as the history of this legendary figure unfolded. I thank you for enlightening me on the legend of Salomé.
I would unreservedly recommend this lecture presentation to anyone.

- Salli Gutierrez
flamenco dance instructor
Department of Theatre and Dance
university of Colorado, Boulder

What makes Shireen Malik's presentation such a fascinating piece is the range of interdisciplinary research engaged in its making. Her project is groundbreaking, surprising and often hilarious. Malik is immensely knowledgeable and clear, grounding her presentation initially in the biblical tale of Salome supposedly dancing for the head of John the Baptist. Malik goes on to reveal the many projections of Salome through the ages, in order to unfurl the exaggerations and the total inventions concerning her life and character as a woman.

-- Frances Charteris
artist and educator
Program for Writing & Rhetoric; Department of Art & Art History
University of Colorado, Boulder

Your research results tie together many of the random snippets of fact, trivia and invention surrounding my knowledge of the Salome character. It was satisfying to have them linked in logical [and chronological] order. Your extensive compilation of examples of the campy and the serious applications of the story was impressive! I had never considered how pervasive the character and myth is in our western culture.
Besides your presentation being thoroughly fascinating and edifying, it was just plain entertaining too. … your research and its summary conclusions in the presentation is a bona fide piece of education.

--Hara Eirene (In Memoriam)

This is a wholly worthwhile and enlightening performance that has its own unique mix of education and entertainment.

-- Bob Backerman and Carolyn Beezley

Boulder, Colorado