1895-1908 Loie Fuller’s Serpentine Dance (highlights from the greatest movie pioneers’ films)

Many of the earliest filmmakers chose the Serpentine Dance as a subject for one or more films: the Skladanowsky brothers (1895), Dickson and Heise for Edison Manifacturing Company (1895), Dickson for American Mutoscope (1896), Lumière brothers (1896), Demeny (1897), Alice Guy (1899,1900,1902), Méliès (1899), G.A. Smith (1902), De Chomon (1902, 1908) and many others. It is unclear whether any of the surviving films registered a performance by the original dancer / choreographer Loie Fuller; some of the pictures had her name in the title or otherwise credited her as the dancer, but all are thought to be imitators. Loie Fuller was a pioneer of modern dance and of theatrical lightning effects. She developed this dance in 1891 and combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-colored lighting of her own design. In several of the Serpentine Dance movies her special colored lighting effects have been translated into fascinating hand-colored effects. Fuller also had a success