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The Lumière brothers began producing moving pictures in the 1890s; this short of “The Serpentine Dance” required each frame of the film to be hand-colored.
Several links for this video indicate that it was produced in 1899, although the dialogue by the narrator implies a date of “1913.” The dance is in the style of “Butterfly Girl” Loïe Fuller, who used billowing skirts to create a serpentine dance for the Follies-Bergere; interestingly she is reported to have used multicolored and changing lights to illuminate her skirts during the performance – the effect that this video presumably is trying to recreate.
YouTube link, via Kottke.
