Louise Alexander

Louise Alexander, born Jennie Louise Spalding on June 29 or 30, 1888, in Hartford, Kentucky, was an American theatrical and social exhibition dancer whose career spanned from 1905 to 1916. She died on October 29, 1958. Her mother was Nanna Spalding and her father was William L. Spalding. Until she was approximately eighteen years old, Alexander lived in Kentucky, primarily in Louisville, where her father worked, and in Owensboro, where her grandparents resided. She relocated to New York City in late 1905 and adopted the stage name Louise Alexander.

From 1905 to 1908, Alexander worked as a chorus girl in Broadway productions and on tour, with her parts frequently including speaking roles. Her early credits included The Earl and the Girl, The Social Whirl, the Ziegfeld Follies of 1907, and the Follies of 1908. Her Broadway career continued through 1911 and also encompassed the musicals Peggy, Arms and the Girl, and The Queen of the Moulin Rouge.

Alexander became closely identified with the Apache dance following her performance in The Queen of the Moulin Rouge, which opened in New York on December 7, 1908. In that production she partnered with Joseph C. Smith in a number titled "The Underworld Dance," which represented one of the first major Apache dance presentations in America. The French Apache dance had gained theatrical prominence in July 1908 when performed at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, and had become a London hit in October of that year before Alexander and Smith brought it to New York audiences. Smith later recalled that during early rehearsals Alexander's hair accidentally fell down during the dance, which enhanced the dramatic effect, leading him to commission weighted bone hairpins that would fall out at the appropriate moment in performance. New York reviewers described the number as the most sensational dance of its kind the city had seen in years, and a British publication reported that the production contained a neck-breaking Apache dance that surpassed anything of its kind in London or Paris. Alexander told the New York Times that despite the physical demands of the dance, including being thrown to the floor, she felt the exhilaration outweighed the strain, though she acknowledged being absolutely exhausted after each performance. Press coverage credited Smith and Alexander jointly as already famous for what was called the most artistic character dance the stage had seen in years, while criticism of the dance's content was directed at the producer and theater rather than at the performers themselves.

After performing the Apache dance in The Queen of the Moulin Rouge for nearly three months, Smith and Alexander departed the show to perform on the vaudeville circuit. A Variety reviewer observed that their vaudeville act represented among the best work seen in the Apache line. A Baltimore reviewer documented seven dances in their act, including a mechanical doll dance, La Kio, Temptation, Shadow, the Apache dance, and a French two-step. In June 1909, also in Baltimore, the pair were required to eliminate their temptation dance after its first performance when the theater owner deemed it vulgar and suggestive.

In January 1910, Alexander joined the cast of Ziegfeld's musical Miss Innocence, starring Anna Held and then playing in Chicago. Her contribution to that production was a temptation dance titled "The Dance of the Flirt," choreographed by Julian Mitchell. A Chicago Tribune reviewer noted that Alexander presented a wanton leer that constituted a work of art and described her as a wonder at seductive crouches. Later that year, in June 1910, she appeared in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910, again performing a temptation dance, this time retitled "A Fool There Was," with Julian Mitchell as her partner. Critic Channing Pollock noted that the dance was rendered notable chiefly by Alexander's costume, which consisted of a pearl necklace and a spotlight.

In late 1911 Alexander appeared in Peggy, an American adaptation of a successful London musical of the same name. It was reported that Alexander had financed the production herself. The producer was Thomas W. Ryley, who had also produced The Queen of the Moulin Rouge and Florodora, and the stage director was Ned Wayburn, though Peggy was not a commercial success. One reviewer noted that in the production Alexander sang more and danced considerably.

By early 1914 Alexander had transitioned into social exhibition dancing, partnering with Clive Logan for a vaudeville tour accompanied by a five-piece orchestra of Black musicians. Their repertoire included the Argentine tango, the hesitation waltz, the maxixe, and the one-step. A Baltimore Sun reviewer, placing Alexander on a bill alongside Fanny Brice and Cathrine Countiss, noted that she was remembered for her creation of the Apache and vampire dances and credited her partnership with Logan as the best exhibition dancing seen in Baltimore that season, with particular praise directed at the accompanying orchestra.