A Nymph of the Waves

A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white dress – with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats – dances across water with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. The film of the dancer, “M’lle. Cathrina Bartho” (1899), is superimposed on that of the water, “Upper Rapids, from Bridge” (1896).