La Sylphe

La Sylphe (Edith Lambelle) was a famous exotic dancer in the 1900s. Allegedly this is a photo of her wearing a corset she invented (I suspect even if that's true, that the photo has been doctored by the old school 'painting in' technique.) She portrays an extreme version of the fashionable S-Bend silhouette and flattened chest.

La Sylphe's popularity in the United States increased after Salome by Richard Strauss was banned by the Metropolitan Opera in 1907. She called her performances The Remorse of Salome. She understood the body dance of the Far East, which had been termed the "houchee kouchee dance" when it was first observed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. She danced in a scene at a French ball included in a skit entitled Around New York In Eighty Minutes. A review described her as a young woman who was seemingly made up of muscle but without bones, and who would make an ordinary contortionist turn green with envy at his talk of suppleness. Although her dances and accompanying skimpy outfits often provoked shock, La Sylphe confessed that her New York performances were tame in comparison to those she gave earlier in Europe. She performed as close a rendition of her muscle dance as she dared, given American conventions.