The early films often skirted the margins of respectability, so much so that by 1910, middle class critics had become alarmed about their content. In this 1902 film "Karina" dances a sort of modified can-can
According to ads in the New York Clipper, Karina was a "French chanteuse eccentrique" and "creatrice of the 'Valse Deshabille.'" She performed specialty acts, songs, and dances, and was accepting engagements with "first class vaudeville or burlesque managers".
