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Performance
see all genres ›A major attraction from cinema's earliest days was bringing to movie audiences live spectacles they might never be able to witness first-hand, from famous stage acts to world-class athletes and traditional ethnic dances.
Discover Performance Films
Genres / Short / Performance
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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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Athlete with Wand
A gymnast for the Newark Turnverein performed for Thomas Edison's camera, almost certainly as a test in preparation for the filming of Eugen Sandow (which took place a short time later). Scenes of somersaulting athletes were filmed at about this time as well. Why is the dog in the frame? We'll never know.Start your free trial to watch
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Band Drill
One of several films made from Charles Hoyt's musical burlesque "A Milk White Flag," which mocked the state militias that savored their snappy uniforms and male camaraderie (including free drinks at the regimental bar). In fact, their actual courage was questioned for the "milk white flag" (the flag of purity but also...Start your free trial to watch
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Billy Edwards and the Unknown
The only surviving round of a five-round contest (with each round a separate film lasting about 20 seconds). Billy Edwards was a middle-aged boxing instructor in 1895. Because the boxer "Warwick" bears a striking resemblance to Edwards, this film has often been identified (incorrectly) as a Glenroy...Start your free trial to watch
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Black and Tan
RCA produced BLACK AND TAN to showcase its Photophone sound system. Director Dudley Murphy collaborated with Fernand Leger on BALLET MECANIQUE in 1924 and seasons this film with avant-garde sequences while also telling a story. The late Karl Emil Knudsen, well-known Danish producer of jazz records, purchased the original...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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Caicedo with Pole
Juan Caicedo was billed as the "King of the Wire" and was a leading attraction at Koster & Bial's Music Hall for seventeen weeks during the spring and summer of 1894. The filmmakers moved their camera outside the Black Maria studio to photograph his performance. Admittedly, the end-credit ("composed by")...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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Dear Arabella
Ancestors of music videos, YANKEE DOODLER, ROSIE THE RIVETER, and DEAR ARABELLA were made during World War II for coin-operated jukebox devices found in restaurants, bars, and train stations. On built-in glass screens, they projected 16mm films of artists performing popular tunes. These examples, although not in perfect...Start your free trial to watch
