Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-23
NAUTCH DANCE GIRLS.
A Performance at Once Artistic
ahd DecOrOus.
Thos stevenes In Boston Herald.

ThoB. SteveneS IN bOstou her"iu'
From the commanding summit OF the
Kootub Miner, could see that the
Delhi road was one mass of vehicles and
pedestrians-h the people in teemlne
India do swarm on festive OCCASIONS
and thought, perhaps by h gh noon = l. ne
pressure w0uli subside. Instead Oh al.
minishing, however, the swarps seemed
to increase, aud l determined on max
ing nv way back as best could against
that winding stream of human beings.
With this end in view ! re urned to the
dark buugalo where had lett my wheel
aud found that "cycle of strange ex-
periences" had succeeded IN attracting
to itself no less interesting gathering
than a troupe of Nautch girls and their
chaperones. The troupe numbered about
a dozen girls. They had come to the
merry.making to gather honest sheckels
by giving exhibitions of their terpsicho-
rean talent in the Nautch dance.
I had been wondering whether an op
portunity to see this female dance would
occur during my tour through India,
aud so, when four or five of the prettiest
of these dusky damsels gathered around
me. smiled at me winsomely, ogled me
with their bewitching black eyes. smiled
again, smiled separately, smiled unani.
mously, smiled all over their semi.ma.
hogany, but nevertheless not unhand-
some faces, and every time displaying
sets of pearly teeth, what could l do!
What could one do but smile in return?
There is no language more eloquent or
more easily understood, under certain
circumstances, than the language of ia.
eial expression. No verbal question or
answer was necessary. ] interpreted the
winsome smiles of the Nautch dancers
rightly, and they interpreted very
kuickly the permission to go ahead that
revealed itself in the smile they had
forced from me. Eight of the twelve
were commonplace girls of from four.
teen to eighteen, and the other four
were quite handsome, as handsome goes
among the Hindoos. Their arms were
bare of anything save OF bracelets,
and the upper portion OF the body was
but scantily clothed. after the manner
and custom of the Hndoo females; but
An ample skirt of calico reached to the
ankles. Rings were on every toe, and
massive silver anklets, with tiny bells
attached, made music When they walked
or danced. They wore O prOfusion of
bracelets, necklaces of rubies, head orna-
ments, ear rings and pedants, and a
massive gold or brass ring in the left
nostril. The nostril was relieved of its
burden by string that descended from
head ornament and took up the
weight.
The Nautch girls arronged themselves
into hall. circle, their scarlet costumes
forming a bright crescent terminating at
either end in mass of spectators, whose
hall. liked bodies, varying in color from
pale olive to mahogany, were arrayed
in costumes scarcely less snowy than the
dancers. The chaperone tom.toms an
appropriate Nautch accompaniment on a
drum with his fingers, and four pretty
girls advance from the half.circle, and,
favoring me with quartet of killing
smiles and quartet of coGuettish
glances from their bright, dark eyes,
they commence to dance. An idea
seems to prevail in Occidental minds
that the Indian Nautch dance is a very
naughty thing, but nothing is farther
from the truth. Of course it can be
made naughty, and, no doubt, often is,
but then SO can many another form OF
innocent amusement. The proper
Nautch dance is decorous and artistic
performance when properly danced; the
graceful motions and elegant proportions
Of the human form, as revealed by 1.-the
and graceful dancers, are viewed with
an eye as purely artistic and critical as a
Venus or other production of the sculp.
tors studio. Only the british matron"
would consider Nautch dance in any
degree indecorous. The four dancers
take the hem of their red garment be-
tween the thumb and finger OF the right
hand, spreading its ample folds into the
figure of an open fan by bringing the
outstretched arm almost on. level to
the shoulder. A mantle of transparent
muslin, fringed with silver spangles, is
worn about the head and shoulders in
the same indescribably graceful manner
as the mantilla of the Spanish sefiorita.
Raising portion of this aloft in the left
hand, and keeping the 'fan" intact with
the right, the dancers twirl around and
change positions with each other, their
supple figures meanwhile assuming
variety of graceful motions and postures
from time to time. Now they initiate
the spiral movements of serpent, climb.
ing around and upward on an imaginary
pole; again they assume a charming
posture, their dusky countenances half
hidden in seeming coquetry behind the
muslin mantle, the large red fan waved
gently to and fro, the feet unmoving
but the undulating motions of the body
and the tremor of the limbs sutficing to
Jingle the tiny ankle bells.
Imagine bashful young man seated
in chair trying to maintain purely
judicial expression, while four dusky
c harmers bring to bear on him the bat
terry of their united charms, and all the
arts and wiles of the Nautch girls grace.
full profession. Imagine them looking
as naughty as possible without really
the proprieties. smiling at him
through single fold OF the
muslin and all the time 60
ing through the most garceful motion.
Imagine the prettiest and most roguish-
looking dancer near the finish of the
dance making doll baby of her mantle
and for an instant holding it in the left
arm. Only for an instant was this doll
baby in existence, but its object was to
relax the severely critical expression on
the countenance of the bashfnl young
man and force from him an involuntary
smile and a consequent softening Of the
heart in the matter of baksheesh.
On the whole the Nautch dance would
be disappointing to most people Witness
ing it; its fame leads one to expect more
than it really amounts to. 1t is to be
seen at its best nowadays in TIM zennan-
as of the native princes, where the
dancers are arrayed in costumes more
fitted to display the artistic gracefulness
of the dancers than could bs permissible
in public performance. The oglish
smiles and glances, and the doll baby
are, of course, infringements Of the
strictly artistic aspect of the Nautch