Annabelle Dances and Dances (Serpentine and Butterfly Dances)

This hand-tinted short film captures a Broadway dancer doing the kind of burlesque dance popular in the United States and Europe in the final decade of the 19th century. As she moves her arms and legs and her dress and veil billow and flow, the originally white fabric changes colour with the motion of her limbs.

William K. L. Dickson (1860–1935) was a film inventor and a close collaborator of Thomas Edison. In his Black Maria film studio (the first in the USA), he shot minute-long sketches depicting simple actions such as sneezing or dancing.

Photo Gallery

LIGHT CONE / Christophe Bichon / 157, rue de Crimée / atelier 105 / 41bis Quai de la Loire / 75019 / Paris / France / +33 1 46 59 01 53 / lightcone@lightcone.org / www.lightcone.org