The naked performers who
The Neo Naturists were a group of women who blazed a trail with their nude happenings. Lindsay Baker takes a look back at their flamboyant performances.
By Lindsay Baker
22 July 2016
“Stunned silence” was the audience reaction to a performance art piece by the Neo Naturists at London’s grand Royal Opera House, says artist Wilma Johnson, one of the group’s founder members. The naked cheer-leading routine with body paint and pom-poms left the entire venue in shock. The live-art group had been invited to perform at the fund-raising event by the ballet dancer and choreographer Michael Clark. It is Johnson’s favourite memory from the time. “When I was a kid I was chucked out of ballet school because I was really gawky,” she tells BBC Culture, “so to silence the Royal Opera House was amazing.”