In the shadow of Carmen: Otero, Guerrero, Tortajada, and pantomime on the cosmopolitan stage

The Belle-époque fascination with exotic dance made stars of a new generation of Spanish dancers on the cosmopolitan music hall stage. Gaining their first international exposure in Paris, La Belle Otero, La Tortajada, and Rosario Guerrero carried the fashion for Spanish dance across the world, from the 1890s through to the outbreak of World War I. However, they responded to the changing landscape of music hall entertainment in the first decade of the twentieth century by creating vehicles for their talents in the dramatic genre of pantomime, infused with Spanish dance and song. These acts drew inspiration from the most pervasive embodiment of the stereotype of Spanish women as sensual, inconstant femmes fatales, the character of Carmen.