Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-12
JAvANESE DANCERS.
One of the Most Interesting Sights at tho
Paris Exposition.

One OF the Most Interesting Sights at the
Paris Exposition.
In larger and more decorated in
closure, rooted over, but open at the
sides, was a sort of theater, where a
troop of Javanese girls danced at inter
walls all day. They were pretty, dimin-
utive creatures. like a cross between
babies and idols, wearing helmet-shaped
head-dresses, heavy armlets, brooches
and buckles, and beautifully en-
broidered garments which swathed the
figure from the arIn-pits to the feet,
leaving the shoulders and arms bare.
The dance was curious performance
and a puzzling one, bizarre rather than
barbarous: as monotonous as the devo-
tional exercises of the Shakers, but
graceful and sinuous, it ran through
series of evolutions, each dancer advanc-
ing, retreating, siding, circling, with
out partner. punctuating the time
slightly with the head. The clothes
hid the feet, but although there was
very little action from the waist down,
the movements indicated swift sue
cession of mincing steps. The arms and
hands were necessarily in play, and
were extraordinary 1.-the and flexible;
each finger moved independently of the
turned on the wrist like the twig on q
branch, and the arm on the shoulder
like the branch on tree. There were
many pairs of slender arms, inviting,
repelling, interlacing, now arched like
bowers, now stretched out like wings
for flight, more bewildering than the
legs in ballet, for those at least follow
the same step, while each of these
no.
lent only on common idea. What
that may have been nobody could guess,
even after watching them for half an
hour through different figures, in some
of which they whisked the end of
sash from one shoulder to the other.
The steps, at times, became more rapid,
complex, and may, and either the
dancers or the musicians, 1 could not
make out which, uttered little cries like
the NEW of a cat, but the dance did not
become more exciting nor apparently
reach climax; it seemed like an Ori-
entail tale, full of trivial incident, and
ending without crisis or conclusion.
The part played by the hands and arms
is akin to the manner of Spanish gypsy
dancing, but the immobility of the
lower limbs, with constant use of the
ACO0, IOCdllSo tuS VI Our OOubn-
ern negroes, which is strange, as the
Malay race has nothing in common, and
can hardly have had communication
with the primitive tribes of Africa, from
whom both the plantation and the An
dalusian dancing come. The music was
much wilder and queerer even than the
dances; it was in two-four time, and had
the dotted notes which mark the double
shuttle of the bamboula, but recalled
no other music / ever heard, not even
Chinese. The instruments are all said
to be made of reeds, but included sort
of drum and several rude frames like
the ancient Tyre and Irish harp, from
which the players drew sounds like the
violin and viola and flute, as well as a
ringing note, like musical glasses. The
strains were rapid, plaintive, monoto-
nous and sweet, despite discords and in
sane intervals, which no musician in
his senses could catch; there was less
melody than rhythm, and repetition
which produced a not unpleasing irrita-
ton of the nerves. When musicians
and dancers both came to a pause, the
wonder still remained what it was all
ahout -At1antic