Dancer

Butterfly Dance

August 1896 •English

A very graceful dance with voluminous draperies, by Annabelle Moore, well-known on the metropolitan stage.

Danse de l'éventail

October 1905 •French

A variation on the popular Butterfly Dance, released in hand-colored and stenciled versions. The film has the catalogue number 2011 and was likely shot in 1897 but not screened in France until the 10th of December 1899.

Ballet, 'Le carnaval de Venise' II

October 1897 •French

A group of women dressed up as Commedia dell'Arte characters dance together.

Bal d'enfants

October 1896 •French

A group of ten infant girls are on a playground. They are in pairs, matched in height. They are doing an organised dance. Each pair twirls simultaneously, while all five pairs rotate in a circular sequence. They often stop their circular rotation so that each pair can perform the same manoeuvre as the other four simultaneously.

Danse indienne

September 1898 •French

American Indians dancing.

A Delicate Balance

November 2018 •French

A Delicate Balance explores the life and dreams of young dancers at the dawn of adolescence. A tender and captivating documentary in which the students of the Quebec Superior Ballet School tell each other with candid lucidity.

Ella

July 2016 •English

Ella Havelka made history in 2013 by becoming the first Indigenous dancer at the 50-year-old Australian Ballet. In this engaging, MIFF Premiere Fund-supported world premiere, Ella – a descendant of the Wiradjuri people – charts her inspiring journey from growing up in modest circumstances as the only child of a single mother in rural Australia to gaining entry to National Ballet School, then spending formative years with the acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre before accepting the invitation of The Australian Ballet's artistic director David McAllister to join one of the world's foremost ballet companies.

Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra

February 2021 •English

Taking us through Bangarra Dance Theatre’s spectacular growth, we follow the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers — Stephen, David and Russell Page — turned the newly born dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse.

Flamenco at 5:15

January 1983 •English

In this Oscar Winning documentary short film, students in their final year at the National Ballet School of Canada are seen learning the flamenco from Susana and Antonio Robledo, who come to the school every winter to conduct classes which are held after the day's regular schedule has ended.

Nathalie: The first and last prom

January 2024 •Spanish

Christine attends her first and last prom accompanied by Martin Fredericksen

Dance of the Little Swans: Vaganova Academy Auditions Young Dancers

June 2016 •English

Many young girls dream of becoming ballerinas, but only very few are prepared to apply the all-out effort and make the sacrifices that this dream demands. The famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St.Petersburg welcomes the most talented and determined young dancers, but it makes them no promises. RT Doc meets some of the young hopefuls storming the doors of the famous Academy to find out more about the dream they share, and to follow them on their first steps towards achieving it.

Whose Utopia

July 2006 •Chinese

A three-part film by Cao Fei. Part one, 'Imagination of Product', shows workers and machines at the OSRAM lightbulb factory in China's Pearl River Delta. In the second part, 'Factory Fairytale', dancers and musicians appear in the factory, as work continues around them. Finally, 'My Future is Not a Dream' consists of portraits of the factory workers facing Fei's camera.

Rize

January 2005 •English

A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came out of the low income neighborhoods of L.A.. Director David LaChapelle interviews each dance crew about how their unique dances evolved. A new and positive activity away from the drugs, guns, and gangs that ruled their neighborhood. A raw film about a growing sub-culture movements in America.

Danser sa peine

January 2019 •French

Slow, une histoire d'amour

January 2024 •French

Brotherly Dance

July 2004 •Serbian

Savo from Kikinda (Serbia) and his brother recall how they called communal service few years back to empty the septic tank in their backyard. As careless servicemen weren't coming for days, Savo staged his death by drowning in the hole. Communal service sent three trucks while Savo was looking at them from the attic. A story of a small man who fought the system and won, only to become a huge YouTube hero afterwards.

Wallachian Dance

September 1905 •Macedonian

Early Balkan footage.

Memories of Nijinsky

August 1980 •Russian

A valuable testimony that approaches the essence of Nijinsky who did not leave a video. Boris Kochno, who was at the center of Russian ballet, vividly tells how Nijinsky, who had fallen ill, witnessed his newly choreographed self-made work. Nijinsky's successor machine is a rare record of transferring Nijinsky's appearance in the popular work "Afternoon of a Faun" to two great dancers, Grigorowich and Wasiriev, who carry Bolshoi ballet on their backs.

Hirde Dyama

March 1971 •German

The first Hirde Dyama National Festival of Culture of the Republic of Guinea was held in March 1970 in the country's capital city of Conakry. The film features many colorful and diverse performances and highlights the protection of traditional West African cultural traditions and art forms under President Ahmed Sékou Touré.

Rhythm is it!

June 2004 •English

RHYTHM IS IT! records the first big educational project of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra ventured out of the ivory tower of high culture into boroughs of low life for the sake of 250 youngsters. They had been strangers to classical music, but after arduous but thrilling preparation they danced to Stravinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps' ('The Rite of Spring'). Recorded with a breathtaking fidelity of sound, this film from Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch documents the stages of the Sacre project and offers deep insights into the rehearsals of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.