Danse Serpentine (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts 16.2 extract: Danse Serpentine (1900)

The Serpentine Dance (Danse Serpentine) was hugely popular around the turn of the 20th century. It was a burlesque dance created by Loïe Fuller that involved the manipulation of flowing fabric under changing coloured lights. Countless different versions of this dance where put to film between 1895-1901 and onwards with everyone from the Lumières to Edison to Georges Demenÿ to Alice Guy-Blaché making and remaking each other's depictions of the performance. 

It is this version from Guy-Blaché that expresses just how popular this dance was; to keep the performance interesting to audiences 5 years after the first films depicting it were made, Guy-Blaché shot Madame Ondine performing it a cage with live lions and tigers. So, to anyone who thinks re-makes and absurd rip-offs are a problem unique to the modern age, maybe watch this.