The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-09 00:00:00

THE STAGE.-BALLET DANCING.

Time Was when the most iorpo- ta-,t and anxiously looked for pieea
of news which a journal c,:uld itn kb was a copy of the playbill for
next day. The stage has sadly li.W2 liner! at a feature in social life and
an object of journalistic care ; and save in the metropol, s,
where something of its ancient aigi y linger about it, the attention it
receives, whether from th public or from ne--atar,,rs, is rf a. very
su,:ordinste and casual des-ription. A tbe neg,e,:ted
altogether ; and just now, wheii topics ,f greater ialp-,rtance are not
pr.-sting, and we find a little leisure on our hands, we have a word or
two to say on a subject concerning the present condition and one or
_

two con4picu-us features of the stage, to which we crave attention.
The theatre cannot yet be safely overlooked by the journalist or by
society. In proportion as the come Alan between it and the
respectable classes of soc'ety has become loose and uncertain,
a wholesome control upon the star his been lost, ant a
licence been given to tendencies of an unhealthy charac•er. It is
no gain to purity thct the tribunal betore which dramatic morality

ani histrionic merit are tried has been removed from the boxes to

the gallery. We are far from affirming that the stage is worse than
it was when the theatre was a more general resort; because the
spread of intelligence and wholesome manners has reached even the
gass to whom its patronage is chiefly confined, and has raised than
mach above the standard of former years, while indirectly the
nfluencesof the time have penetrated behind the scenes, and respec-
table managers and performers of blameless life have striven hard
against the pernicious and dsheartening power of audiences deficient
in intelligence and of degraded taste. The theatre is not worse
than it was, and in some respects it is better ; but even this is faint
praise in an age when the upward tendency of society is so strongly
Marked, and when parity of manners and speech has attained etch
a gratifying universality. In many points the stage is greatly below
the tone of modern society ; and tee difference is not lessening.
aving'ceased in a great measure to be a social institution, it can no
longer reflect the characteristicsof modern social life. The connec-
tion halting been severed, the conforming powers fail to operate, and
the identity is necessarily lost. It is in this way that the theatre has
on the whole fallen behind the march of the time, and that the influ-
ences which have been compelling every other institution to keep
abreast of the general movement have failed to reach and stimulate
its lagging steps. We leave oat of view here the opinion held by
many good people, that theatrical exhibitions are radically vicious
and the theatre unimprovable. We think they are wrong, though we
admit thetthe bulk of the facts furnished by the history of the stage
is in favour of their views. It is undoubtedly true that no institution
is so easily or has been so frequently turned to unworthy uses. The
actor, in " holding the mirror up to nature," has more frequently to
reflect the vices than the virtues of his audience, and the mimic pre-
sentation of the latter is generally most warmly welcomed and
vociferously applauded. It is also true that when the eirtuous are
gregariously disposed, they do not select the theatre as their place of
assembly, so that, when lofty appeals to virtue have to be made, they
are too often addressed to natures which but dimly comprehend and
do not relish them. They fall cold and flat for want of a kindly surface
to reflect the warmth of the actor, who in his turn becomesdisheartened
with his teme part, and longs for the role of the swaggering villain,
whose performances draw down the thunders of the gallery. All
this we admit most readily; and yet we do not think there is anything
inherently vicious in the stage, nor any evil which now infests it
which might not be banished by having the light let in and the force
of public opinion turned upon it. Besides, we must take the theatre
as an existing fact, which no mere opinion of its vileness entertained
by a pious public will ever get rid of. Admitting, fore the sake of
argument, that it is as bad as many well-meaning people insist upon
believing it, the shutting of our eyes to its existence will•not..Pnt. and
end to it, and is just as unlikely to make it better. The theatre may
be made worse by a persistent effort to ignore its existence, but it will
never be weakened in its bold upon the class to which it appeals,
neither will it be improved or reformed. The true way to check
theatrical excesses, and to discourage the growth of those vices and
defects which, if let alone, would speedily overrun the stage, and
smother whatever of good it can boast, is for the public, and specially
for the press, to keep a watchful eye on theatrical entertainments,
and expose and denounce everything of a vicious tendency the moment
that it is introduced. We have frequently been remonstrated with by
excellent friends on the attention we give to the theatre ; but if those
friends would reflect that it is the function of journalists to record and
review everything of a public naturewhieh transpires—not to make
events, or to select those of them which happen to suit their own tastes
or crotchets—and, if above all, they would remember that .the super-
vision exercised by the press over the theatre, if conscientiously
fulfilled, is one of the most salutary and efficient influences which
can be brought to bear upon it, they might thadecause fonmodifying;
their opinions. Mad it not been for the independent critlearfuhctiotle`
which the press has discharged 'towards the theatre for many years
back it would, we believe, have been in a much more unhealthy c on-
dition at-this day. The occaalonal presence of the representatives of
the Fourna Estate in their own unobtrusive way, and the knowledge
that they will do their duty without fear or favour if anytning be
amiss, have a wonderful influence upon theatrical performers and
performance. They stimulate true art, repress vulgarity, banish
coarseness, and set bounds to the low tendencies and improper licences
of inferior actors. In this way, theatrical critiques, modest and un-
pretending though many of them are, contribute in no insignificant
degree to the compari tire purity of the stage. We bay" comparative,"
because there are many things tel rated even in our local theatres,
notwithstanding the undoubted respectability of the managers, and
the efforts they have made to remove or mitigate whatever is objectieeta.
able on the score of morality or good taste, which merit energetic and:
general condemnation. The Edinburgh press has not done its duty mot:
it ought in some of these matters, and we cannot re use to take upon..
ourselves our share of the blame, though we have never failed to
rebuke whatever we thought improper, when it happened to come
under our observation. There has been too great a teneerneae in
handling some subjects, arising in part from the d-licacy of the sub-
jecta themselves, but in a still lareer degree from a fear ef injuring,
the theatre cr the individual performers. We believe the forbearance
has been ill-judged. It has been a breech of a public duty in the first
place, and a mistaken kindness to the managers of these establish-
ments in the second; because, unless reprehensible spectacles and
dramas of doubtful morality, are essential to the success of theatres
(which, admitted, ought to close every place of the kind to-morrow),
it is obviously the most considerate policy to expose what is wrong,
that it may be amended before the decent portion of the playgoing
public are put hopelessly to flight. This has not been done with the
freedom and outspokenness that the case required. Several abuses
of a serious kind have been growing of late years, and others which
are not new have reached dimensions and assumed an aspect which
ought to compel the attention of every one interested in checking
the spread of open indecency. We refer chiefly to the frequent repre-
sentations of trashy adaptions from the modern French stage
repertoire, and to the gross indecency and immodesty which charac-
terise the ballet and stage dancing, or rather posturing, in most of
its pees relent aspects. The former of these abuses, thongh it has been
mach the least objectionable and alarming of the two censpictously
bad features which we have noticed. Vice in its more discussing and
vinanens aspects, though certainly far from commendable as the
staple of stage representation . is not eearly so dazgerone as the
lascivious posturing and shameless gestures of a troop of hale naecd
gees, se ecten for their personal at, ractiens. The effect of such an
exhibition upon the hundreds of young persons wha frequent the
thattres, end constitute their chief supporters, we believe to be the
most ruinous. Dramas of tie, blood-and-murder school, variegated
by seductien or effectively dashed with polite adultery, bad as they
are are really nothing to it. Both need mending, but the ballet
most. We do not feel called upon to denounce stage-dancing in the
proper sense of the term: it constitutes an agreeable variety in the
entertainments of an evening. But we do moat energetically and
firmly protest against the shameless exhibitions which are given un-
der the name of " the ballet;" and we g.onnd our protest equally
upon the interests of morality and art. The posturing and (frame's
of the corps de ballet seriously outrage both ; and the influence of
every one who desires to see popular taste cultivated in a right direc-
tion, and exhibitions pernicious to the morals of society suppressed
or mitigated, ought to be enlisted and actively applied to bring about
a reform is these two characteristics of stage dancing. What in
general are the features of the ballet to which we object ? We dare
not give a detailed or minute answer to this question, but, so far as
we can venture, we shall indicate them: First; as to the dress of the
young women who take part in these performances—it is so scanty,
of such materials, and so arranged, that it is not only immodest, but
indecent. The skirts of their dresses are so short (reaching little
more than half-way to the knee), and composed of such a slight and
gauzy fabric, that, in the violent leapings hither and thither (not to
speak of more gnu fixed attitudes), the danseuse might pretty
nearly as well be naked. Granted that the lower limbs are clothed
in silk tights, these, as they are scrupulously toned to a flesh colour,
and fit so closely, are really no covering at all. A substantial . coat
of paint might as well be said to be a decent suit of clothes for every
day wear, as that flesh-coloured silk tights are a sufficient dress for the
nether limbs of stage-dancers. Nor is the upper part of the young
woman's body much better protected from the peering eyes of play-
going satyrs. Within the past fortnight we have seen ballet-dancers
appear on the stage of Edinburgh with such a slight covering to their
bodies that the whole contour of them was as d'stinctly visible as
the forma of the fairies are threngh the gauze curtains employed in
modern performances of the "Midsummer night's dream." These
are matters which it may readily be conceived we feel little pleasure
in speaking; but the very circumstance that they can scar e y i.e
pointed out in so many words without offending pntlic modesty, is
in only another proof of how gross they are, and how strong the ne-
cessity is for exposing them with a view to some amendment. And
the performance is more detestable than the dress of the performers
is insufficient. A bevy of girls dressed as we have described come
upon the stage, but very rarely to dance, in the general acceptation
of that phrase. They bend their bodies, they swing their limbs hither
and thither in time to absurd music; they throw their rght legs
:simultaneously forward, they stretch their left legs simultaneously
backward, and go through all sorts of ugly tricks, until they are re-
lieved by the superior danseuses, who e superiority seems to lie chiefly
in more flexible spines, and more unnaturally-trained limbs. These
ladies, who look like pairs of big white scissors. wreathed with a bit
of tulle at the joint, introduce themselves in a series of leaps and
whirlings, as if said sCseors had become suddenly possessed. With
each leg stretched at right angles to the other, and with arms extended
like the two wings of a finger-post, they vault madly about the stage,
to the noise of insane scraping on violins, until they are out of breath,
when they finish up by whirling round half-a-dozen times, their
scanty skirts flying oat, obedient to the law of centrifugal force, until
they are quite horizontal, showing the whole figure of the dancer
from head to foot, save a narrow dash of misty white cloud about the
region where it is popularly supposed that the body ends and the
lower limbs begin. This morally nauseous d!splay over, the ladies
recreate themse yes by wonderful contortions of the trunk, bending
back as clowns in circuses may be seen doing, with this aggravation,
that their dresses are not as the clowns' dresses are, adapted for the
decent performances of the feat. A favourite trick at this staeels for
the danseuse to stand up on one leg, on one toe if possible. and
stretching the other leg out in a horizontal position, like a pump-
handle, to be whirled round by her companion several times, and
very slowly, that fast gents in the boxes, sedulously plying their opera-
glasses, may not he defrauded by undue celerity of any view of the
general spectacle, or glimpse of the performer's person, which they
have paid their money to obtain. Tels disgusting part of the
exhibition past, the ladies exemplify their remarkable training by
running about the stage on the tips of their great toes, or by bounding
about the stage with apparently no other object than the disarrange-
ment of their dress, already sufficiently inadequate for the purpose
of decent covering. Such is the ballet, as that may he seen on the
Edinburgh stage, almost any night during the season. We have
described !t as it exists, exaggerating not`• ing, and using as delicate
language as was possible, consistently with making the objectionable
character of its details intelligible to those who are not familiar with
t em. It is, in our opinion, the portion ofmodern stage performances
in which the immorality an ribed to the theatre culminates, nay, is
enneentred. It is enough to banish modest women and decent men
from the theatre, however strong their liking for theatrical represen-
tations may be. We have often made it our business to snatch the
audience rather than the performers while the poaturings, vulgarities,
and indecencies we have just described were going forward, and the
examination must have convinced any one of the dangerous and
improper tendency of the exhibition. Modest women, with down-
turned eyes and cheeks crim son ed with shame—domesticated gentlemen
by their sides, who had brought them "just for once" to see a
favourite drama, absorbed in contemplation of " the flys," or glaring
fixedly at a flower in the decorations, evidently striving hard to look
as if what was going on was all perfectly right and proper—elderly
bachelors, with tiers whiskers, and that rawness of mouth and nose
which marks a mature fondness for sherry or, perhaps, stronger
liquors, gazing fixedly through eye glass or opera-glass, with the
subdued veteran look of natures not easily excited, but not indifferent
—young men, students or clerks new to independent existence, and
for the first time brought face to face with immorality in such seductive
guise, gazing with rapt and hungry fixedness—all these, and many
varieties of them, the practised observer may take in at one glance
around the more respectable parts of the house; while if he raise his
eyes midway to the gallery, or to that elevated and noisy position
rent% he cannot fail to mark even coarser evidences of the feelings the
ballet excites, and gather fresh proofs of its vicous influence. Let us
not be misunderstood ; we do net reflect upon the characters of the
young women who appear its the ballet. We can well believe that to
many of them its requirements, trenching no terribly on modesty, are
exceedingly distasteful and repulsive. But there is no help for them.
Cast, by circumstances, into chat sphere - choosing it even, it may be,
from their desire to lead a virtuous life, they must conform to the
orders of the ballet-master and manager, however painful those may
be. We should like to learn the feelings of a young girl when she
first appears before the footlights in the garb which the usages of the
ballet prescribe. The pangs of wounded modesty and the sense of
degradation which she experiences must be bitter indeed. " Want of
decency is want of sense." We believe that the managers of the
Edinburgh theatres have done serious injury to their Own, interests by