A "Tough" Dance

SUMMARY
From either side of a white, apparently outdoors, setting enter a man and woman, both wearing ragged street clothes and caps. As they approach center stage, the man grabs the woman's arm and pulls her to him, then slaps her. Still holding her arm, the man and his partner cockily strut towards the camera. The man grabs the woman in a crouched, bear-hug type of hold and they perform a rough little dance that almost seems a parody of a waltz. In a jerky type of jitterbug, the man twirls the woman out of his hold and back again, a movement which is repeated often within their spinning dance. They finally fall to the ground, still clutching each other, and roll around.

From K.R. Niver, Early motion pictures, 1985: Two people imitate the celebrated dance of the French apache. As the film begins, a man dressed in rough clothing approaches a woman, also dressed in tattered garments, who is standing near the center of camera position. They begin to accentuate their shoulder movements and, at the end of the film, are hitting one another and rolling about on the floor. The participants were Kid Foley and Sailor Lil, who claimed to be the champion performers of this popular Bowery dance.

NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 9Dec1902; H24891.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1902.
Camera, Bonine.

Performers: Kid Foley, Sailor Lil.

Filmed June 19, 1902, at the Biograph New York City studio, perhaps on the roof.

SUBJECTS
Dance--New York (State)--New York.
Hoodlums--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Dancers--New York (State)--New York.
Bowery (New York, N.Y. : Street)--Drama.
Silent films.
Dance.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.

RELATED NAMES
Kid Foley, performer.
Sailor Lil, performer.
Bonine, R. (Robert K.), camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

DIGITAL ID
(m) varsmp http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/varstg:@field(NUMBER+@band(varsmp...))

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• library
• congress
• silent
• dance
• vaudeville
• new
• york