The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-10-07
9anF Tho Dance.


no account Of its origin. There is evidences
that man knew how to dance wherever Their,
are hum recnrds; in the hieroglyphics Of thu
Oldest nations, on Egyptian monuments, il
pictures on rocks, in the most ancient writing.
on parchment and papyrus. The priests 81
ISIS and Osiris danced before their affairs, the
Hebrew children, when they escaped from
fharaoh, danced to the songs of Miriam, and
David danced before the Ark of the Covenant,
but suppose we skip history and come down
70 yesterday. The Herald writer saw on
Madison street rubicund and jolly individual,
manitestly in that states of happiness pro-
duced by libAtions of something more potent
than water. To give full expression 10 his
etsrnAl delight he began gyrating and dane
ing TO the musical croonings of his own husky
Toiee. There WAS happy but vacuors smile
upon his face, and his showed him to be OBJ
Ilvious to most things external. With appro-
pirate but by no means graceful gestures he
Walized around on the pavement, holding his
cane Tor his partner, having no thought for
himself and no care for the spectators. Ma
ture was thus indicating her supremacy and
illustrating that, after language, dancing is
the one method by which the feelings arc
expressed, and has its origin in the con-
stitution OF humanity. There is not an emo
tloE that has swept the heartstrings but what
d.
pho art. Love, mirth, martial fury, funereal
grief, religion, all have their special dances,
and religious form still survives among us
IN That eccentric sect VIC call the Shakers.
Among the savages, the glories of the chase as
we'll as the more heroic deeds Of war are re-
counted by means Of dancing and besides their
war dances the North American Indians have
their buffalo dance, the Kamtschatkans their
bear dance, and the Australians their kangaroo |
dance.
CHANGES.
From our own social dances the pautonime .
and the ceremonial have long disappeared,
and little remains but the love of kicking and
the love Of flirting. No one who dances a
quadrille nowadays is conscious why he
shutiies his feet in one way at one time and
another way at another time, if, in fact, he
condescends to shuttle them at ALL Every
motion had meaning at one time, though the
key is now lost. For all that, dancing still
has its uses. Is any young man short in his
conversational powers, aud, like Orlando,
easily "gravelled for lack of matter2' He
can still bold his own with the fair sex if he
have but agility, a single conversational for
mula being adaptable to many partners. Thus
he may dance himself into the affections of
sumo maiden fair, though he could never have
talked himself there if be had lived a hundred
Z
her form so well as in the dance? The '1adies'
chain" was invented expressly for that, and ]
very well does it fulfil its purpose.
Most nations have their own peculiar dances,
aud we, cosmopolitans that we are, have tried I
them nearly all. The country dance is indigo S
nous with US, or rather brought by our fore t
fathers from England, and its hearty, social P
fun, its pretty figures, its availability for any
number and for all ages, make it a truly happy c
lance, like the chorus of song where all the II
parts come in together. Then there was the Il
Itately minuet dance of the eighteenth century 81
which we see occasionally in some old comedy n
IN the stage. That, too, was English, and t.
Iuited to the English temperament. We read N
hat at grand ball given il New York on the "
of Washington as President, and pJ
n bis honor, be danced two cotillons and a IN
1inuct. We are glad to rescue from the idle b,
VorShippers such q bit as this about the al
father Of his Country, for we have but little W
Their evidence that he was human being V
Fe know of three occasions on which he in
wore, and Of one on which he laughed up- tr
and these, with his dancing, must sc
onvince the most skeptical that he had some Pr
the attributes of humanity at least Per- of
lpI as time goes on we will fine more. in
THE CoTILLoN OR QUADRLLE.
The cotillon, or quadrille, we got from tn
A@uSSI VIC hlaHuIhd anu pDlOudlSt llOu 10 tlHI
md, the waltz from Germany, though it or NJ
mated in France some centuries before the ed,
erInAns adopted it. The German cotillou. sec
hich We call "the german also came from I'M
ermany. This is not so fashionable as it was tio
teen years ago, but it is most seductive of
nee. Schiller describes ii: poe
how the couples whir along the dances buoyant nat
tide, mo,
ID scarcely touch with winged feet the floor on which mo-
they glide. un'
are they flying shadows from material forms sct Gre
free!
elan shapes, whose airy rings the summer moon ing
beams sect Crul
Every accessory was called in to beautify thai
figures. Gay and many-colored streamers doir
d strips of tarletan hnated about the heads her
the dancers, while juggling bells and ex- 7
ding bonbons kept time with the low and the
npAthetic music that filled the air like this
-fume. To lead the german was post of an a
h honor, and one who could do it well had amo
ether worlds OF dance to conquer. 1t re- cess
re1 clear head, fertile imagination, poet
cofui figure a handsome face n nolisbed /, "A