Olga Desmond

Olga Desmond (born Olga Sellin 2 November 1890 in Allenstein in East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland); died 2 August 1964 in Berlin) was a German dancer and actress.

Olga Desmond studied drama and earned her living as a model for artists and painters in Berlin. In 1907 she joined a group of artists and appeared as Venus during the group's nine-month tour at the London Pavilion where they put on "plastic representations." In Berlin she co-founded the Association for Ideal Culture and gave shows called "living pictures" in which she posed after the manner of ancient classical works of art. These so-called “Evenings of Beauty” (Schönheitsabende) were prohibited on more than one occasion starting from 1908, because the actors usually posed nude or wearing only bodypaint.

The "heroine of living pictures," Olga Desmond became one of the first to promote nudity on the stage in St. Petersburg, Russia, 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."

Olga Desmond herself persistently defended her right to appear naked. "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," she told the Russian press. "I decided to break the centuries-old heavy chains, created by people themselves. 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."

Asked whether a stage costume would interfere with her, Olga Desmond answered: "To be completely graceful in a costume or even in a tricot 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 people with broader demands for it would come, people who will look on me as a servitor of art."

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