Though not perceived as an accomplished dancer, she performed in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, dancing the title role topless, which garnered great attention.

[4] In 1887, she and her mother and brother moved to San Francisco, California, to meet their father who had lived there for three years before, establishing a life for the family.

[4] Theo and Maud attended Lincoln High School and then the Cogswell Technical Institute where she took courses in wood carving and sculpture.

[4] Allan's piano teacher, Eugene Bonelli, director of the San Francisco Grand Academy of Music, recommended that she continue her studies in Berlin, Germany at the Hochschule fur Musik.

[5] Allan was unable to say a final farewell to her brother, because he was hanged on 7 January 1898, at San Quentin Prison while she was still living in Berlin.

[4] His death stayed with Allan for many years after, and she and her mother Isabella scattered his ashes around Europe to mourn his loss.

[5] There is speculation that her last name was changed to Allan to distance herself from her brother's actions and allow her to have a successful career.

[5] Allan toured this performance throughout Europe and travelled to cities like Liège, Brussels, Berlin, Leipzig, and Cologne over the next 5 years.

[5] These five years were crucial for solidifying Allan's career change from pianist to dancer and legitimating her talents among the ranks of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St.

[citation needed] The piece that placed Allan at the pinnacle of dance in Europe was The Vision of Salome, which premiered in Vienna in December 1906.

[5] The play is centered around Salome, King Herod's stepdaughter, and her attraction to Jokanaan (John the Baptist) who has been imprisoned by her stepfather.

[4] Also, a realistic wax sculpted head of John the Baptist sat at the corner of the stage for much of the performance, often terrifying viewers.

[4] Allan also used the severed head as a prop towards the end of the performance, and it received a lot of attention in the media for being gruesome and absurd.

[5] Allan's next significant career move came when she performed The Vision of Salome in London in 1908 where the depiction of biblical characters on stage was illegal.

[5] After Allan returned to London from her tour in the States, she commissioned Debussy to make the music for a new show she had created called Khamma to replace The Vision of Salome in her act.

Khamma was much more ambitious than The Vision of Salome because Allan included other dancers all choreographed by her, a full symphony, and possibly singers.

Her performances were generally well received by audiences and critics, but the stark cultural differences and religious intolerance for indecency caused some outroar in the press.

[9] This performance prompted British MP Noel Pemberton Billing to publish an article called "The Cult of the Clitoris" in his own journal Vigilante.

Billing speculated that many attendees in the "Black Book", where the names of applicants were recorded, were homosexuals who occupied positions of high status in society.

[9] He also introduced evidence of Allan's insanity through exhibits highlighting her brother Theo's murder trial and subsequent execution.

[5] Over the next decade, she performed in London, Brussels, Paris, San Francisco, and Los Angeles a few more times, with few notable press references.

[5] Allan never disclosed her sexual orientation due to societal norms, but there is sufficient evidence to conclude that she was involved with women throughout her life, most notably Margot Asquith and Verna Aldrich.

[10] Margot Asquith paid for Allan's apartment overlooking Regent's Park for twenty years from 1910 onward.

[8] A suffragette supporter gave Allan's name (as an alias) when arrested near Stirling, Scotland for an attack on Herbert Asquith.