This is another of the Edison Manufacturing Company's dance documentaries. And, considering the topic, you'd be right in saying that this was notorious in the day. Fatima was a well known belly-dancer who's act was called scandalous by many, and the Edison Co, not wanting to pass up an opportunity to make some cash, got Fatima to come to their studios to be filmed. The result was this film, which got lots of attention and became equally naughty. In fact, it got so bad that certain prints of the film were marked with some grid-like lines to cover up the sexy parts of the performer. For me this helped little and the dance is still pretty easy to view.
Besides the censorship issue, which the other reviewers have pointed out, there is another point to be made here: no more boring black background! Instead, there's a backdrop behind Fatima which makes it seem as though she's outside the studio. This is definitely a step up from the Black Maria's black backdrop, which they used back in the days of W. K. L. Dickson. It is an interesting bit of footage with some interesting points to be made.