Betsy Ross Dance - 1903

SUMMARY
Opens on a bare stage with a painted backdrop of an interior theater wall and pillar. From screen right, a woman twirls onstage and performs an enthusiastic dance. It appears she is a woman dressed to look like a little girl, in a short, ruffled dress and sash, tights, and ballet slippers, with long, dark hair worn in curls. Her movements include some with an apparent ballet influence, such as pirouettes and walking on pointe. She also performs various feet and leg movements, leg kicks both to the front and side, spins, and twirls, all the while flouncing and lifting her skirt and smiling coquettishly. She ends by throwing a kiss to the camera as she twirls offstage.
From R. Snyder, The voice of the city, 1989: The "Betsy Ross Dance," filmed in 1903, shows a young girl in a frilly skirt cut above the knee. As she dances, she kicks her leg, swings her skirt, climbs up on pointe, lifts her skirt and twirls around. The camera catches an occasional glimpse of a garter just above her knee (p. 137).
CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903.
NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 25June1903; H32944.
Camera, G.W. "Billy" Bitzer.
Performer: Little Anita.
Filmed June 18, 1903 in the Biograph New York City studio.
SUBJECTS
Dance--United States.
Dancers--United States.
Ballet dancing--United States.
Silent films.
Dance.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.
RELATED NAMES
Little Anita, performer.
Bitzer, G. W., 1872-1944, camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)