In these often extremely short films we can definitely recognize the precisely identifying features of the original matrix of the Serpentine Dance. Numerous common aspects identify this direct descent. The choreography and movement, the use of a black background which evokes the oneiric atmosphere provided by the appearance of the dancer, the white costume covering the performer, “absorbing” the body, its veils extended and manoeuvred via long canes fixed inside them. From the technical point of view, the static and fixed framing of these films is counterbalanced by the movement of the dance, and it can be established that colour, applied to film for the first time by Edison for Annabelle’s Serpentine Dance, was used in an attempt to restore to the images the amazement of the phantasmagoria which was the basis of Loïe’s creation.

Massimo Piovesana