Imperial Japanese Dance

This is one of many examples of one of the most popular of the earliest movie genres. Many of the Edison Kinetoscope films featured dancing acts that were popular at the time. (Other very popular subjects included vaudeville acts and boxing exhibitions.) For the most part, this one shares many of the features common to the other early movies of its kind.

The movie features a three-woman dancing act that performs an "Imperial Japanese Dance" that was supposed to have been based on "The Mikado". As with the movies of other dancers like Annabelle (Whitford) Moore and Amy Muller, this was filmed inside Edison's 'Black Maria' studio. These dancers also had distinctive costumes, which included streamers and fans.

The main difference is that most other dancing acts in the early Edison features starred a solo dancer, who had the stage to herself, whereas these three are limited in their movements by the need for all of them to stay within the camera frame. Another drawback of the studio setting is that (at least in the non-tinted version) the black (or dark) streamers are often barely visible against the black background, so that the footage pretty much loses whatever effect the contrasting colors of the streamers were supposed to have had.

The material itself is actually rather bland, but these consequences of the Edison studio's limitations might make this somewhat interesting as an example of some of the less obvious decisions and difficulties involved in early film-making.

William Heise and W.K.L. Dickson film three female Japanese dancers. They do subtle dance moves that involve some twirling and fan waving. The ladies are dressed in formal Japanese get ups.

Not much goes on here not recommend more than any of the other ninety-plus shorts produced by Edison's studio in 1894. Basically any vaudeville or stage performer from New York was able to get a chance in front of the camera. Edison and company were in need for shorts to fill their Kinetoscope business. Heise and Dickson just set up the camera and let the performers to their thing. Later in the year they would move to filming actual scenes.

It could be said that since the invention of motion pictures became well-known around the world, many pioneers began to make experiments looking for a way to make that the images captured on film had the same colors as real life. The earliest successful attempt to make a color movie was done by Émile Reynaud in 1892, who decided to hand-color his animated shorts frame by frame. Given that the experiments in color photography at the time weren't giving good results, American inventor William K.L. Dickson decided to use Reynaud's technique of hand-coloring for the Kinetoscope movies he was making for Thomas Alva Edison's company. On those days, Kinetoscope was the most used device to watch movies, and their series of films showing folkloric dances from around the world was very popular, so it would be one of those movies the one that would become the very first color movie in the history of cinema.

"Imperial Japanese Dance" is a short documentary that shows three women performing a Japanese dance, apparently inspired by the 1885 comic opera "The Mikado". In this movie, the three women appear dancing side-by-side while dressed in extremely elaborate costumes that could actually be real traditional dresses from Japan. The dancer in the center twirls a fan, while the other two wave banners as they dance in the traditional style. Given the great beauty of the dancers' dresses, it wasn't a surprise that "Imperial Japanese Dance" was the film chosen to be the first hand-tinted movie by the Edison Studio, as the movie certainly had a powerful visual impact when colored. As usual, the movie was directed by William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, who took special care to make the movie as most visually attractive as possible, carefully placing the three dancers to fit the camera frame.

Sadly, a lot of the impact that "Imperial Japanese Dance" had is lost when the film is seen without the tinting, as the movie looks too dark in black and white, with some elements getting barely visible due to their original colors not being captured on film. While not really an amazing film, it's of high historical importance as it was the first movie featuring real people (in other words, not an animated movie) that was hand-colored. The process of hand-coloring movies would be the only way to make color films in a long time, although due to its difficulty to make it wouldn't be as widely used as many would have liked. Of great interest to those studying Japanese culture, "Imperial Japanese Dance" was another step towards the invention of cinema as we know it. 6/10

Japan had been closed to the rest of the world until about 1860, when it opened up again to foreign trade and technology. Also traditional Japanese culture was exported around the world to such places as the fair at Knightsbridge, London, which inspired WS Gilbert to write one of his greatest operettas, The Mikado in 1885. Although visiting Japanese dancers may have been exotic curiosity to Edison, for us 109 years later it is a window to a distant world. The costumes are probably more ornate than typical "Mikado" costumes, and the dancing is better than is seen on most amateur stages, with the two outer ladies perfectly together. There is an awkward moment (0:24) when the middle lady gets caught in the long twirling ribbon of the lady on the left, but they extricate themselves so deftly that it looks like an edit on first viewing.

Technically the contrast and exposure are very good, although (I imagine) it is the rough film transport that gives the film a hand-held feel. Go to the Library of Congress and have a look!

Imperial Japanese Dance (1894)

This early Edison short is a good example of them bringing culture into their small studio, filming it and releasing it to the public. The film runs just over twenty-seconds and features three women dancing the title dance. If you've seen enough of these early Edison films then you know it's rather common for the studio to simply bring various acts back to their Black Maria studio and film them. Quite often you got one person doing their act or dance and that's pretty much what separates this film because three people are in the studio doing their thing. I believe this is one of the first times I've seen this happen as the studio is usually so small that not even one person could do a dance. I guess that makes these three women all the more impressive since they were able to handle the small setting.