Danse Serpentine | 1900 | Documentary, Short

Title: Danse Serpentine | 1900 | Documentary, Short Studio: A.-F. Parnaland Starring: Madame Ondine; Dompteur Laurent Release Date: 1900 Runtime: 2 Format: 35mm, hand-colored, silent Country: France Language: Silent Genres: Documentary, Dance, Short --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Entrance and taming 00:00:25 Lions under command 00:01:10 Dancer enters the cage 00:01:30 Serpentine dance 00:01:55 Closing tableau --- Summary: A lion tamer demonstrates control over big cats inside a cage. The act culminates with a brief, hand‑colored serpentine dance performed in the same enclosure, the dancer’s flowing costume providing shifting waves of color against the bars and animals. The film presents a concise display of circus spectacle and popular stage dance, combining animal training with a visually striking, color‑enhanced performance typical of early actualities. --- Background: The serpentine dance was a major stage phenomenon of the 1890s popularized by Loïe Fuller; early filmmakers frequently recorded variants of the act. This ca. 1900 production, credited by archival programming to A.-F. Parnaland and surviving in a hand‑colored 35mm print, reflects that crossover of music‑hall attractions to the screen. --- Trivia: Some databases attribute the film to Alice Guy at Gaumont, while archival notes credit the production to A.-F. Parnaland; title variants include “La Loïe Fuller dans la cage aux lions .” The surviving print is hand colored, a process applied frame by frame to create the swirling chromatic effects associated with serpentine dances. Several sources identify the dancer as “Madame Ondine,” and describe the structure as a taming display followed by a brief serpentine routine in the cage. Stage precedents existed for serpentine dances performed in lion cages; French performer Bob Walter presented such an attraction in the 1890s, anticipating cinema versions. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: 1900 Original Studio / Distributor: A.-F. Parnaland Copyright Status: Public Domain Renewal: No --- Hashtags: DanseSerpentine SerpentineDance SilentFilm EarlyCinema FrenchCinema PublicDomain HandColored 1900 BigCats Parnaland This video was sourced from Internet Archive. Originally uploaded by jake@archive.org. https://archive.org/details/silent-danse-serpentine