<blockquote>The icon of the age … Anita Berber, dipped white rose petals in a cocktail of chloroform and ether at breakfast, before sucking them clean.”<sup>1</sup></blockquote>The actress and dancer Anita Berber (1899–1928) is remembered as Weimar Germany’s “Priestess of Debauchery”. During the intoxicating and turbulent Golden Twenties, Berber was a symbol of Berlin’s excesses: an openly bisexual drug addict, who reportedly spat brandy at disorderly spectators during performances.<sup>2</sup> <br><br>Yet there was more to Berber than her provocative nature. <em>Kokain</em> (Cocaine), one of her well-known dances, tells the story of addiction. Whilst it was indeed titillating — at times it was performed nude<sup>3</sup> — it was also distressing. Berber threw her body “into a monstrous cascade”,<sup>4</sup> and the dance ended in the death of the addict.<sup>5</sup> These performances were not a celebration of cocaine, but rather a portrayal of its devastating effects. <br><br>Although Berber was undoubtedly a transgressive figure, this dance demonstrates the complexity of her work, containing as it does an element of social commentary. In <em>Kokain</em>, Berber chose to portray not the decadence of the era, but her own struggles, to which others might relate.<br><br>According to Berber herself, such themes were not uncommon in her performances. Much like today, in her time she was both misrepresented and misunderstood; speaking to journalist Fred Hildenbrandt in 1922 she said, “we dance death, illness, pregnancy, syphilis, madness, dying, infirmity, suicide, and nobody takes us seriously.”<sup>6</sup> To remember her only as an icon of debauchery is to ignore these socially critical elements.<br>