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ACTRESSES AS WORKING WOMEN though her costume (a close-fitting blue satin doublet, trunk hose, and tights) was in no way altered Though her costume was morally objectionable, it was also integral to the male-female dynamic of the act and the erotic implications read by this particular male spectator Whatever thoughts arose in the spectator’s mind, no objections were voiced by the Oxford’s audience, for Mlle de Glorion was a performer, dressed in the uniform of her work, doing what she was paid to do, and fulfilling one among many ritualized sequences in the evening’s programme Solo acrobats could also provoke unease As an equestrienne, trapeze artist, high wire performer, and daredevil,49 the acrobat Zaeo embodied courage, athleticism, and vigour combined with Venusian beauty—all characteristics that women were not supposed to flaunt in public The conclusion of her most famous act, a back somersault and fifty-four foot free fall from a flying trapeze, 50 further communicated her self-control and disturbed her critics This was performed at numerous London music halls, but it only prompted objections at the Aquarium There, the audience’s perspective on the act was crucial: one LCC inspector remarked that the architecture of the hall necessitated that Zaeo perform her entire act directly over the heads of the audience ‘It is’, he admitted, ‘not altogether desirable to place a female in this indelicate position’,51 probably because it highlighted the whole female body in space from all possible angles of view Her gestic pose of autonomous yet feminine physicality followed by the free fall marked Zaeo as the antithesis of the archetypal Good Woman: she was neither a specimen of clinging womanhood nor lighter than air Furthermore, her fall—like the bold forays of New Women into the male world —marked her as a frightening predator of privilege, a virago, and an irresistible villainess who landed supine and proxemically accessible amidst the gaping titillated throng Movement was not a prerequisite for sexual inscription in the mise en scène Stationary tableaux vivants (also known as living pictures and poses plastiques) usually reproduced well-known paintings or sculptures, or arranged bodies in imitation of a ‘classical’ style Despite their honourable origins at the Comedie Italienne in 1761,52 tableaux vivants had a circuitous and sordid route to the British stage They were known in the pre-Victorian theatre, though only with male models: Astley’s playbills announce Ducrow as the Living Model of Antiques (7 September 1829) and in Raphael’s Dream (21 September 1830), and boast a Modern Alcides in Classical and Academick Poses supported by a team of gymnasts (7 September 1832).53 Obviously, 124