Words by Roxy Bourdillon
For this week’s instalment of LGBTease: Queeroes Of Burlesque, writer, showgirl historian and managing editor of DIVA magazine, Roxy Bourdillon, shares the incredible story of a trailblazing erotic dancer from the 1920s.
An androgynous beauty with a fire engine red bob slinks into a hotel lobby. All eyes are on her. It’s hardly surprising. She is, after all, butt naked, save for her sumptuous fur stole. Her pet monkey plays around her neck. He is the only one in the whole place who is not completely starstruck. Pinned to his owner’s wrap is a gleaming silver brooch crammed full with her evening’s supply of cocaine. That particular accessory earned her the nickname, “Snow Queen”. She goes by numerous other monikers. “Priestess Of Debauchery”, “Goddess Of The Night”, take your pick. Or perhaps you prefer to use her legal name. In which case, please welcome to the stage the incomparable, incandescent Anita Berber. And if you haven’t heard of her before, oh wow, are you in for a treat.
Before we deep dive into the riveting life of this bisexual bombshell, a quick herstory lesson - because you can’t talk about the Priestess Of Debauchery without understanding the era in which she did all her debauching. So let’s take a trip back in time to Germany in the roaring 1920s. The Great War was finally over, flappers were doing the Charleston while sipping Gin Rickeys, and Berlin’s nightlife was internationally renowned. The vibe was liberated and hedonistic. Think the Kit Kat Club in the movie, Cabaret. The crowds seemed like they had seen, and drank, it all. That is until they saw Anita.
Born in Dresden at the turn of the century, this firecracker was artistically gifted from the very start. Mum was an actress and dad played the violin, but Anita’s passion was dance. She excelled at classical ballet and contemporary movement. By the time she was 16, she was shaking her stuff across the legendary stages of Berlin.
Audiences were captivated by her unique performance style: avant-garde, intensely erotic and defiantly queer.
More often than not, her acts involved getting her bits out. A popular ditty of the day, written by W. Mann, included the lyrics: “What interests the audience? / Hunger, misery, suffering millions / Thousands rotting away in jail? / Does that interest the audience? / Alas, the naked bottom of Anita Berber / That interests the audience.”
While the sight of her bare bum was undoubtedly thrilling, her shows went beyond mere titillation.
She was, in fact, a fearless innovator and feminist icon who used the art of dance to push boundaries and bust taboos. Her repertoire reflected her personal experiences, exploring themes of excess, anguish, same-sex desire and more. She had several acts inspired by her favourite vices. In Cocaine, she performed a scandalous nude routine to the grand, sweeping music of Camille Saint-Saëns. For Absinthe, she cavorted about while swigging from a bottle of the “green fairy”. Chances are if you could get high from it, Anita had a number named after it.
Known for her partying as much as her talent, Anita capitalised on the increasing public craving for celebrities. She lived her life as if it was one ongoing piece of performance art. She received visitors while soaking in the bathtub. She injected opioids into her leg in bars, in full view of other patrons. And one night, irked by an audience member who wasn’t concentrating, she seized an empty champagne bottle and smashed it over his head. That got his attention.
When she wasn’t boogying in the buff, Anita used fashion to subvert gender norms.
An artist’s muse and model for magazines, she found she could turn just as many heads when she was fully clothed. Her signature look was a daringly masculine trouser suit accessorised with a monocle and her monkey.
Anita was extremely open about her bisexuality and had many lovers, allegedly including fellow suit-loving friend of Sappho, Marlene Dietrich. Anita’s queer identity is apparent in the films she appeared in (yes, she was a movie star too). She lit up the silver screen in 1919’s groundbreaking Different From The Others, the first motion picture to portray homosexuality and challenge Germany’s discriminatory laws.
Her love life was as eventful as her sensational career.
Married three times, her first husband was wealthy screenwriter, Eberhard von Nathusius. But that all fell apart when Anita found herself smitten with female bar-owner, Susi Wanowski. It wasn’t long before they split up too. Next on Anita’s growing list of paramours was dancer and poet, Sebastian Droste. Now this one seemed promising.
Together they created critically acclaimed productions including the fabulously named Dances Of Vice, Horror And Ecstasy. This theatrical tour de force featured solo and duet performances, beaucoup de nudity and raw representations of desire, addiction and death. Although they made magic onstage, the pair were a bloody nightmare to work with - not much of a shocker considering the colossal amount of drugs they consumed. One too many cancelled gigs and contract breaches meant that Anita and Sebastian were officially expelled from the International Artist’s Union and banned from performing in union venues. Things became even more bleak when in 1923, just a few months after their wedding, Sebastian scarpered to America, taking all Anita’s jewels and furs with him.
Still, you know our Goddess Of The Night. She’s not one to wallow. Just a year later, she saw American dancer Henri Châtin Hofmann perform and fell for him on the spot. The lovebirds were married within two weeks, which you have to admit was very on brand. They had their own production too, the saucy Dances Of Sex And Ecstasy. Not everyone was a fan though. When they toured the show to Yugoslavia, Anita offended the king and was locked up for six weeks. Yep, the Priestess was in prison and the tabloids had a field day.
But while naysayers wrote off Anita’s wild antics and provocative dance moves as vulgar, others hailed her as a visionary. In truth she was gloriously complicated. Artist, provocateur, it girl, addict, cautionary tale, queero: Anita was all these and so much more. Tragically, she didn’t live to see her 30th birthday. She was buried in a pauper’s grave, after contracting tuberculosis and collapsing mid-show in Beirut. But she sure squeezed a heck of a lot of living into her 29 years. Throughout her action-packed life, Anita shattered societal norms, subverted expectations of women and did some truly magnificent dances in the nuddy. She fell in love almost as frequently as she sloped into hotel lobbies in her birthday suit.