Reel

Gypsy Dancers at Pan American Exposition

Gypsy Dancers at Pan American Exposition
Clip: 493589_1_1
Year Shot: 1901 (Actual Year)
Audio: No
Video: B/W
Tape Master: 1151
Original Film: H10111
HD: N/A
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Timecode: 00:53:35 - 00:55:07

"Spanish dancers at the Pan-American Exposition." (As with some of the other entertainment at the Exposition, it's not certain whether these folks are actually Roma or Sinti, or if they are just pretending to be.) Buffalo, NY, USA Several Gypsy women in costume perform a high-spirited dance in front of a building or wall, a tent under a couple fake palm trees; sign on leaning on a gypsy man stands in BG watching, and some visitors are seen walking past behind him. The dancers twirl around and swinging their voluminous skirts about, some doing high kicks and showing a little ankle. Occasionally a dancer stands in one position while revolving her hips and even throwing in a few pelvic thrusts! (Maybe that's why a contemporary Edison film company catalog referred to this as the "famous Gypsy dance that created such a furor at the Exposition" and promised that "Features of the well known couchee couchee are introduced by some of the dancers."