The morning call., 1891-11-15
DANCING ON TIE STAGE
ROSina YOkes DiscOurses Enter.
tainingIy on That Subject.

When a representative of the CALL pre-
scented himself yesterday at the rooms in
the Palace occupied by Miss RoSina Vokes,
he found the lady, who had just returned
from rehearsal at the Baldwin, engaged in
some dom este work, and when the visitor
made himself known she said in most
naive manner, 81 am always busy at some
thing or another, for 1 cannot bear to be
idle one moment"
The lady, who is pleasing and entertain
ing converSationalist, when the conversation
turned to the subject of stage dancing said:
stage dancing, why, there is in fact but
little real dancing on the stage at present
Occasionally we see some good dancing in
the ballet, or in opera, but nowhere else
The skirt dance, which is having a run in
America and in my own country, is modest
aud sometimes pretty, but it is not real
dancing. Most of it IS merely practice steps,
and many Of the dancers show that they do
not even know them.
Now | may disarm criticism of my views
by telling you that do not consider myself
a real dancer. l never studied the art,
though ! have seen much OF Ii since | VI as
little girl, ami have had the advantage of
! copying after the best school of the dance.
| My brother Fred was most sldlllul dancer
| He 1t was who introduced the fashion of
| high kicking that is all the rage now.
! " He did new style of dancing that was
| made up largely of high kicks. He did it
| legitimately, however, from the side, and
| not in front 1t seems to be tie idea now
| that it shows skill 10 kick as high as posi-
| Bile without reference to the position of the
| limb aud the toe. Now there is nothing in
| brilliant work IF this kind unless it is grace
full Abatts IS the ballet-maS-
! ter's name for kickS-should always be from
| the side, and the toe should be taught to
| point in n graceful position. The ankle
| must be as supple as the wrist and be able 10
| point III any direction.
- 1t was the advantage Of the old school
| OF dancing that 1t made the body perfectly
| pliable, and the woman who was well
drilled in the five positions in dancing and
who had learned her steps and been gwen
thorough side practice could in five min
! utes' time do any new dance that was
| brought to her GU cannot conceive any
! thing more totally unlike than an Italian
| ballet and the eccenlrir dance of my brother
| with the tilnglng of his limbs over the head
/ OF another person. and yet | remember an
| Italian dancer, PitteTi, who saw him and
! Immediately did the dance over after him
with perfect ease. His muscles were SO
we'll trained that it was no strain on them to
| do anything.
ut was formerly the custom to require the
members of the ballet To come to the Iheater
every day and practice two hours in the d'f-
fereut steps. They learned all the charac-
teristic national dances aud after they had
been thoroughly prepared and their bodies
made lsS0me and their limbs supple b. this
practice Of the groundwork of the art they
did the brilliant things they were eX-
! pected to repeat at night Now the dancers
are satisfied If they can do the practice steps
| well.
Then they learned to carry the arms and
| the head and TO take graceful positions
| The management of the arms is at least
| forty per cent of tile art of dancing, yet you
| scarcely see stage-daucer now who knows
! what To do with her hands and arms, or
! who appears to care about them.
After all the fault IS more that of the
| pubic than OF the performers. Ii the peO-
! pie Will applaud the person who does a lit
| lie thing well, or il they go wild over
! woman who kicks high, no matter how
! awkward, or who dances until she appears
! to be ready to drop, what incentive is there
! 10 work for years to learn grace and skill
! that are not appreciated? Themos. charm
! ing feature a dance can have is perfect ease.
| l WoIld rather see a simple dance done
| without any apparent effort, than to see
| brilliant dances done with their difficultie;
| made manifest.
" 1t was formerly part of the training Of
! the actress to he taught to dance IA little ard
do 1t gracefully, Just as il was part of her
training 10 be taught 10 fence and do many
other things That has passed out with the
stock companies, and we are not training
actor and actresses now. The stock COM
panies must come hack, however, and so |
believe must the true school of the dance"
The lady then turned IL the subject Of
| physical training for women and said ::
When in the East | became much inter-
ested in the physical trainiog OF women,
| which has become quite fad there, and |
told the ladies who called on me thar | knew
! of no phySlca. trimming of women like th0ss
| afforded by the fine points Of dancing. Be
! ginning with them is like making the hands
| of the pianist nimbie by practicing scales,
! it gives the body litheness a ID grace. At
Wellesley College they are doing good work
| in this line and at the Chicago Consrrva-
tory. became very gre9tiy interested in
the work at the latter place, which | visited
during my Chicago engagement. am sure
that using the early training Of the Italian
school Of the dance the bodies of girls would
be better developed than by tennis or row.
ing or more violent exercise. 1t is part of
the natural ACCOMPLISHMENT OF women to
dance, for she should be graceful. and moth
Ing is more so than good dancing. Then it
expands the chest, brings all tbs muscles
into play and improves the whole body. 1t
is absolutely necessary for singers"