Dans l'Hellade (1909)

Overview

In all the arts the ancient Greeks excelled and their statuary, their music, their poetry, their dances, have remained to subsequent generations a standard to be followed and emulated. Terpsichore was the goddess of the dance, and if we read our mythology aright, taught the poetry of motion to her devotees. To all but a few who have made a study of Hellenic dancing such grace of action, such lithesomeness of body as was essential to the art when Grecian beauties tripped lightly and rhythmically over the green sward, is impossible. Mesdemoiselles Napierkowska and Marly, however, are superb in an exquisitely graceful ballet by Sacha Dezac, entitled "In Ancient Greece." The dance is perfect and the quality of the film is such that it is difficult to believe that the dancers do not themselves appear in the flesh before the eyes of the spectators, instead of being a mere photographic reproduction of their swaying rhythmic movements.