Editing Mata Hari (section)

==Career==
===Paris===
[[File:Mata Hari dancing in the Musée Guimet (1905) - 1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mata Hari performing in 1905]]

In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider using the name Lady MacLeod, much to the disapproval of the Dutch MacLeods. Struggling to earn a living, she also posed as an artist's model.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Myall|first=Steve|date=17 October 2017|title=Rare pictures of dancer and "spy" Mata Hari who was executed by firing squad|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/gallery/rare-pictures-exotic-dancer-spy-11356154|access-date=7 December 2020|website=mirror|language=en}}</ref>

By 1904, Mata Hari rose to prominence as an [[Stripper|exotic dancer]]. She was a contemporary of dancers [[Isadora Duncan]] and [[Ruth St. Denis]], leaders in the early [[modern dance]] movement, which around the turn of the 20th century, looked to Asia and Egypt for artistic inspiration. [[Gabriel Astruc]] became her personal booking agent.<ref name="world"/>

Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the [[Musée Guimet]] on 13 March 1905.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Noe |first=Denise |title=Mata Hari Is Born — Mata Hari — Crime Library |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210044610/http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hari/5.html |archive-date=10 February 2015 }}</ref> She became the long-time mistress of the millionaire industrialist [[Émile Étienne Guimet]], who had founded the Musée. Entertainers of her era commonly invented colourful stories about their origins, and she posed as a Javanese princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. Some of these pictures were obtained by MacLeod and strengthened his case in keeping custody of their daughter.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=G0UwDwAAQBAJ&q=macleod+custody+mata+hari&pg=PT86 |last=Craig |first=Mary W |year=2017 |title=A Tangled Web: Dancer, Courtesan, Spy |place=Cheltenham |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0750984720 |page=}}</ref>

[[File:Margaretha Zelle, alias Mata Hari.jpg|thumb|upright|Mata Hari in 1906, wearing only a gold jeweled breastplate and jewelry]]
Mata Hari brought a carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which garnered wide acclaim. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled [[breastplate]] and some ornaments upon her arms and head.<ref name="world"/> She was never seen bare-chested as she was self-conscious about having small breasts. Early in her career, she wore for her performances a [[bodystocking]] that was similar in color to her skin, but that was later omitted.<ref name="Mata Hari"/>

Her act was successful because it elevated erotic dance to a more respectable status and broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was later world-famous. Her style and free-willed attitude made her popular, as did her eagerness to perform in exotic and revealing clothing. She posed for provocative photos and mingled in wealthy circles. Since most Europeans at the time were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was thought of as exotic, and her claims were accepted as genuine. One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms."<ref name="Biography of Mata Hari">{{cite web| title = Biography of Mata Hari| publisher = The Biography Channel|date=May 2016| url = http://www.biography.com/people/mata-hari-9402348#spy-for-france| access-date = 10 August 2016}}</ref> One journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that Mata Hari was "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair" and that her face "makes a strange foreign impression."<ref name="Biography of Mata Hari"/>

[[File:Mata-Hari 1910.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mata Hari in 1910 wearing a jeweled head-dress]]
By about 1910, myriad imitators had arisen. Critics began to opine that the success and dazzling features of the popular Mata Hari were due to cheap exhibitionism and lacked artistic merit. Although she continued to schedule important social events throughout Europe, she was disdained by serious cultural institutions as a dancer who did not know how to dance.<ref name="world"/>

Mata Hari's career went into decline after 1912. On 13 March 1915, she performed in the last show of her career.<ref>''Mata Hari – The True Story''. By Russell Warren Howe, p. 63. 1986</ref> She had begun her career relatively late as a dancer and had started putting on weight. However, by this time, she had become a successful [[courtesan]], known more for her sensuality and eroticism than for her classical beauty. She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Before [[World War I]], she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited [[bohemianism|bohemian]], but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress.<ref>Joanna Bourke, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric, 'Mata Hari: Femmes Fatales' (2020)</ref>