| Elseeta, the Dancing Marvel | |
| Birth Name: | Helen Loder |
| Birth Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Death Place: | New York |
| Occupation: | vaudeville dancer |
Elseeta or Elcita was the stage name of Helen Loder Jones (1883-1903), an American vaudeville barefoot toe dancer. Known as 'the Dancing Marvel',[1] or the 'Toe Dancing Marvel',[2] Elseeta was "a rising star on the circuit at the dawn of the 20th century".[1]
Helen Loder Jones was born in Philadelphia in 1883. She took up toe dancing at the age of five,[3] making a debut in vaudeville.[4] She went on to perform for the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit and in Klaw and Erlanger productions in New York.[3] She danced on roof-garden circuits, appearing at Madison Square Gardens and the Casino Theatre roof-garden. She danced barefoot. One of her acts involved jumping from the top of a grand piano, managing to land en pointe on the piano's high and middle C.[4]
Fred S. Stone composed a 1900 ragtime number 'Elseeta' in her honour. There is also an image of her on the cover of L. W. Young's 1900 march / two-step 'Hearts are Trumps'.[1]
Elseeta's last performance, before heart problems stalled her career, was in the 1901 Broadway performance of The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast.[4] She died on February 23, 1903, at the house of Mrs. Henry Huey, 3 Eighth Avenue, New York.[3] (Another source gives her place of death as Newark, New Jersey.[4]) Her cause of death was said to be "heart disease, superinduced by excessive dancing".[3]