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Dance
see all genres ›Ethnic, fanciful, formal or pop, dance is one art form that filmmakers recognized was ideal for their medium from cinema’s earliest days.
Discover Dance Films
Genres / Documentary / Art / Performing Arts / Dance
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Annabelle Butterfly Dance
Annabelle Whitford, known as Peerless Annabelle, had her debut at the Columbia Exposition in Chicago. Although hardly a stage star on the order of Carmencita, films of her performances proved popular and the negatives wore out quickly (meaning that she appeared frequently before Thomas Edison's cameras...Start your free trial to watch
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Ballets Russes
Unearthing a treasure trove of archival footage, filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have fashioned a dazzling and entrancing ode to the revolutionary 20th-century dance troupes that performed under the Ballets Russes banner. BALLETS RUSSES maps the Diaghilev-era beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris, when artists such...Start your free trial to watch
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Buffalo Dance
Sioux Indians from Buffalo Bill's Wild West dance in Thomas Edison's Black Maria motion picture studio. The Edison Manufacturing Company took numerous films of dancers from different nations and cultures. These could be shown in a bank of kinetoscopes, creating a miniature ethnographic museum.Start your free trial to watch
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Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance
Presumably, this is one in a series of four short dance performances devoted to the seasons. WINTER, SNOW DANCE appears to be the only one of these films to survive (although it isn't clear if Alice Guy made the other three or not). Note the unusual copyright notice that appears momentarily in the lower...Start your free trial to watch
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Dickson Experimental Sound Film
This short film is the world's first known experiment in producing a motion picture with a recorded synchronized soundtrack. Although the kinetophone combined recorded sound with moving pictures, even approximate synchronization was elusive. Still, William K.L. Dickson and his crew pursued serious efforts...Start your free trial to watch
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Hadj Cheriff, Arab Knife Juggler
Hadj Cheriff and his small troupe executed dervish-like dances and feats of strength until his wife's danse du ventre resulted in police interference for indecent performance. After that, he joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West and visited the Black Maria with others associated with William Cody's organization....Start your free trial to watch
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Imperial Japanese Dance
With the continued popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan's THE MIKADO (which debuted in 1885), Japanese dancing girls enjoyed a certain caché in New York's theatrical world. This film featuring the Sarashe Sisters was shown in Japan as NIPPON MAIKO NUNO SARASHI (JAPANESE DANCING MAIDENS WAVING STREAMERS....Start your free trial to watch
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Isadora Duncan
This unsentimental portrait of the complex and charismatic "Mother of Modern Dance" traces the life and artistic development of San Francisco-born Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). Duncan raised dance from mere vaudeville entertainment to a legitimate art form, laying the foundation for today's modern dance. The first American...Start your free trial to watch
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Princess Ali
Barnum and Bailey Circus was in Orange, New Jersey, on May 9th, 1895, and a number of its performers visited the Edison Laboratory and appeared before the kinetograph camera. The only footage of these half dozen subjects to survive is of Princess Ali, who executes a danse du ventre.Start your free trial to watch
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Project 798
One of the most comprehensive and original movies about the Chinese Contemporary Art scene. Shot on location in '798' Beijing's unique Art District where it all took shape. PROJECT 798 explores Chinese society and culture along with different forms of artistic expression, ranging from oil painting to cutting-edge performance...Start your free trial to watch
