#sepentine dance

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''Serpentine Dance by Mme Bob Walter'', shot by Alice Guy-Blaché  in 1897.

Dancer: Loie Fuller

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Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter (1897) Alice Guy

Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter (French: Danse Serpentine par Bob Walter ) is a film made in 1897 by Alice Guy. It is a serpentine dance performed by the French singer and dancer Bob Walter (Baptiste Adreienne Dorothée Dupré).

In 1892, the American dancer Loïe Fuller enchanted audiences at the Folies Bergère with her Serpentine Dance , a performance she conceived and premiered at the Park Theater in Brooklyn on February 15 of that year. The Serpentine Dance is a "free-body" dance in which the dancer, using wide silk skirts and colorful veils and performing undulating movements and spins, creates striking visual effects such as those we see in the video. The evening at the Folies Bergère decreed the success in France and Europe of Fuller and her new dance, which opened the door to modern dance by introducing the concept of "free body." Although Fuller had gone to great lengths to protect her invention, numerous imitators were coming forward, including Bob Walter who debuted her serpentine dance at the Olympia in April 1893. Walter added an additional element of attraction to the show: she performed her dance in a cage of lions. The following year she performed it on the stage of the Folies Bergère, gaining even more appreciation than Fuller herself. Bob Walter continued with her serpentine dance shows until 1899. In 1897 she made with Alice Guy this film. In 1901, after retiring from the stage, she would again film a serpentine dance this time for Segundo de Chomón:

The following year it would be Alice Guy who would film another serpentine dance, this time with Lina Esbrard . But the first film to capture a serpentine dance had been Annabelle Serpentine Dance by William Dickson: