Princess Rajah Dance (1904)

• 56%
• 1904
• Documentary

A woman stands in front of a building, a chair to her left, dressed in black, full skirt, quarter sleeves, and a scooped bodice. Her hair is piled high. She bows slightly, and, with castanets, begins to dance. She twirls (showing petticoats and dark-stockinged legs). She dips, swirls, then shimmies and shakes her hips, working the castanets continuously. Half way through the dance she stops and, with her teeth, picks up the chair by the top of its back and swings it above her head, balancing it in her teeth as she resumes dancing. She reclines, the chair still above her, never touching it with her hands, until, after a Dervish's twirls, finishes, bows, and exits.