A Nymph of the Waves

SUMMARY
Superimposition of a woman dancing over footage of crashing waves from the rapids of Niagara Falls. The woman wears a frilly, perhaps feather-trimmed, white dress with a low-cut bodice, a matching feathered hat, white stockings, and white ballet slippers. She holds up her skirt through the entire dance, revealing her ankles and lower legs as well as a flash of a garter above the knee on her left leg. Her movements appear to be a mixture of ballet and variety-style dancing such as a cancan, including spins and toesteps on pointe. She closes with a flourish of her skirt as she executes a curtsy on pointe with one foot.

From Biograph picture catalogue: 25 feet. This is a double-printing picture combining a view of Mlle. Cathrina Bartho in her celebrated "Speedway" dance, with one of the Whirlpool Rapids of Niagara Falls, the resulting effect being that the dancer appears to be gliding over the surface of the rushing waters.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, [1900?]

NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 24Apr1903; H30731.

Performer: Cathrina Bartho.

SUBJECTS
Dance--United States.
Ballet dancing--United States.
Dancers--United States.
Ballerinas--United States.
Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.)
Silent films.
Dance.
Vaudeville.
Trick films.
Shorts.

RELATED NAMES
Bartho, Cathrina, performer.
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
• ballet
• vaudeville