, 1888-09-15
TRAINING BALLET DANCERS.
A Premiere D~anseuse Recalls Her Own
Bitter Experience.

A Premiere Danseuse Recalls Her Own
Bitter Experience.
Mile. Dorst, the premiere, sat In the
parlor of the Laclede the other day recall
ing the trials she had to undergo as an
unfedged ballet lancer and prospective
premiere. People little know" she said,
chow much labor and misery go to make
up the p~irouette of q dancing girl. A
child should not begin to study dancing
after she is 10; Z is the best age. The
limbs then are at the right degree of sup
pleness to take a pupil over the first diff
fculties and help her on to the lower
'quadrille,' which she may not hope to
win before she is 16. The form then has
gained the roundness and the flesh and
muscles the firmness requisite to the
artistic poses which create such fu-
rore. In my case the daily torture COM
menced at 8 o'clock. Every morning my
feet were imprisoned in n groove box, heel
against heel and knees turned outwards.
By this process my feet accustomed them
selves naturally at last to fall into a par
allel line. This is what is called Sc
tourner. After half an hour of the
groove | was subjected to another variety
of torment. This time / had to raise my
foot and place it on q bar level with my
head, which bar l was obliged to hold in
a horizontal line with the hand opposite
the foot. | was exercising. This they
term Sc casser. After these preliminary
labors we were obliged to go through a
variety of steps and movements.
The teaching is necessarily long and
painful, the primary object being to bring
by sheer exercise extreme agility and
strength to the joints of the limbs and
feet. Even in the education of the two
great toes, SO as to make us capable of
standing and pirouetting on them, a vast
amount of care and lime is expended.
And not only must the power be acquired,
but it must be kept up, for which pur-
pose constant exercise is required. Other
wise the joints become stiff and relapse
to an ordinary degree of strength. A
week of repose must be redeemed by
two months of %redoubled, incessant toll
On this condition only can the dancer pre-
serve her suppleness and lightness. To
acquire, later, skill and grace in the
movements of the dance is q subordinate
object. One of the most difficult parts
of a dancing girls education is, for in
stance, to make her smile with the rest
of her companions and look gracefully at
the public.
There is no rest for a great dancer at
any time of her career. l have seen the
time when, after a our hours lesson, /
have fallen exhausted on the carpet of my
room, where | WIS undressed, sponged
and resuscitated. totally unconscious of
my situation. H. ngflity and marvel
GUS bounds of the evening were obtained
only at a price like this. But there are,
nevertheless, some dancers who, having
by nature greater difficulties to surmount,
martyrize themselves with u willingness
scarcely credible. Nathalie Fitziames was
an example of this. She invented a new
method, dc Sc tourner ct de SO casser, at
one and the same time. The art of dane
ing has two branches-en balloune and en-
tacquette. The balloune is the school of
Taglioni; it is the lightness combined
with grace, the dance which seems to de
light in and float in the air. The tao
quette is vivacity and rapidity; it is the
little sparkling steps and measures on the
point of the feet; in a word, it is what
Fanny Ellsler made it."-St. Louis Re
nnhlic-