Valborg Borchsenius and Hans Beck - 'Tarantella from Napoli' (1903)

This film of has been uploaded to YouTube a number of times before and my only justification in doing so again is that this footage is the clearest I've seen.

It is of Valborg Borchsenius (1872-1949) and Hans Beck (1861-1951) of the Royal Danish Ballet dancing 'Tarantella from Napoli' (1903).

The tarantula was the delirious dancing that was supposed to follow being bitten by the infamous spider.

Well-known British dance critic, John Percival, wrote of this performance on the site 'Dance View Times - Writers on Dance' in 2005:

"Following its seasons commemorating Rudolf Nureyev ten years after his death and George Balanchine on his centenary, London's National Film Theatre has come up with a bicentennial celebration under the title "Dancing Bournonville". This comprised four programmes, each shown twice, spread through the month of August.

The opening bill was fascinating for its inclusion of ten short films made a whole century ago, in 1902-06, by the Court photographer Peter Elfelt using, amazingly, a camera he made himself, by hand, from his sketch of one seen at the Paris Exposition.

Of course they were made in silence, but a piano accompaniment by Elvi Henriksen has been added, and the film is projected in a version with every second frame printed twice to alleviate the flickery effect usual in early movies.

It's great to see fragments from "La Sylphide", "The King's Volunteers" and "Napoli" given by such historic names as Ellen Price, Valborg Borchsenius and Hans Beck, but perhaps even more so to catch unknown dances from "Il Trovatore" etc. including numbers by Beck and Poul Funck (who he, you may ask—I certainly did)."

This originally silent film now has a piano accompaniment by the late Elvi Henriksen.

I hope you enjoy this 'Tarantella from Napoli' as much as I did with this new clarity!