St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-08
TALK ON DANCING.
BARNEY PAGAN TELLS HOW THE
ART is RETROGRADING.
DEPRAvED TASTE TO BLAME
The People Prefer High Kick
ing Ballet Girls to Graceful
Dancers.

Barney Pagan, undoubtedly the best
general dancer in this country, and
now playing at the Grand, gave last
evening some sound and interesting
opinions on the subject of his art. For
the past thirty years, in fact, ever
since he was little Boston boy of five,
Mr.. Pagan has been executing and
teaching all varieties of legitimate
dancing. Among his pupils are count
ed such excellent artists as Helen
Dauvray. Lucy DAILY, Lizzie Daily, An
ME PiXley and others.
THE chief trouble with the dancers
OF the present time in America" said
Mr.. Pagan, lis that they don't dance
Out of LOCO female dancers, in all the
various lines, not more than ten could
be criticised according to the rules of
legitimate dancing. The art of the
dance is the art of graceful motion.
so 1t was understood and practised by
the anc1ents; so 1t is still taught by the
great masters of the foreign schools.
indeed, it's only of late years that the
pupllc nave failed to appreciate genu-
Inc dancing in the United States. Tn
oouptedly, We'll return to the legiti-
mate held after a little while, but
just now the eye of the people is more
uelghted with contortion acts and
mover, sensational and risque accessor-
les than 1t is with the beauties of mere
graceful notion
mo one pays any attention TO the
dancers feet, to the character or accu-
racy of her steps; but if she can twist
herself into double bow knot, if she
can KICK like an ostrich, or if she can
invent new method of shocking the
conventional sense of propriety and
modesty, she is sure to be STYLED n
graceful and artistic dancer. Tn MAX
ing this last observation. of course
I'm not setting myself ND for a censor
or morals. These are usually very
,short-sighted and rather tiresome n.o.
pie. The world, as the Irishman said
Is always the same, except that if is
growing better The same weakness
used to show itself before in other
ways, out It's useless to disguise the
Iact that the more shocking and reck-
iss d female dancer is now, so long as
ehe retains thin veneer of being uu
conscious OF 1mmodest behavior, the
public. mart
The men can make the most noise
III theater, If they are pleased. and
'iieii' you know, the women are not all
aVerse to joining in the applause: FIRST
because they often like to agree with
the men, but, above all, because thew
imagine that this sort of thing is tho
proper caper-quite Partisan. Besides
the progressive woman likes to STIFF
iier natural instincts and harden her.
ser 10 what she believes is art for arg
lx a
sake. wouldn't for minute. Won mr.
derstand, think that women in oen-
erai' elther in the audience or ON the
stage, prefer this blush-raising exnos-
ure The women down in front con
slder that to object would be To sbou,
themselves unfamiliar with society
and foreign ways, and the girls who
10 these turns are forced into the nre-
Valllng fashion by the pressure of cir
fumstances and competition
None have more CONTEMPT than tbe,,
Tor the spirit which renders If naoas.
sary for them to turn sonersa,,lts
IN evening dress, or to lift I'm their
skirts as if they were about to nm
dress on the stage. One of our ladies'
asked me not long after I Joined
the company, whether she had better
90 little contortion dance turn that
she has, with long or short skirts
Long Skirts l said, every time. If
you want it to go we'll, YOU must
uress as properly and act as improp-
erly as your conscience will let YOU
although popular enough here. all
tnese sensational effects have been
introduced from France. THEY'VE a
natural genius there for being inno-
Gently horrifying. Many of the, ia
nous dancers, let me say, that have
delighted America in the last decade
are the happy victims of a little news
paper conspiracy. Carmencita, for in
stance, has been described as a IA
nous foreign dancer before she came
over here. She was nothing of the
sort. She was only a little obscure
girl in the second line of the ballet
when she fortunately had a row with
her manager. She got the sympathy
OF the press-most newspaper men
sympathize with the ballet, YOU know
ana pretty soon her story came out
In sensational form. Then a cut of
her shoe was published, picture of
the buckles on her carriers, and a
WIG, weird account of her marvellous
abilities. Roster and Bal took her
up, and her good figure, pretty face.
and natural Spanish-French sensu-
BUSINESS did the rest. Other knowing
managers came out with the only rival
OF Carmencita. These were 'on to- all
her Midway Plaisance tricks, and DOS.
sessed, perhaps, just as much real art,
Tor she was never more than a fairly
good dancer
Loie Fuller doesn't dance. She
does some pretty sort of Deisarte
movements with her arms. and she
was a cute enough little American
girl to catch right on to the mar
Vicious mastery of colored stage lights
which they have over in Paris. I my
self first introduced, in one of Cor
lnne's performances, the white costume
under a brilliant white light and
against dead black background.
Two or three years later Loie took
up the idea, and when she went
abroad she improved and varied the
scheme by employing colored and
blended lights. By the way, 1 also
originated the 'pickaninny' scheme. I
taught the original Pickaninnies in the
Passing Show composed Miss Da-
ly's song, and arranged all her bust
ness.
Another reason, I may add for the
temporary neglect of artistic dancing
on this side of the water, is, that
while a poor girl in England may take
lesson of a good teacher for four
shillings-$1-here I would charge 81
or s., and the prices of all competent
teachers are about the same Very
few girls can afford to master the
art thoroughly at that rate Again,
there is scarcely any genuine, first
class ballet-dancing to be seen on the
American stage, which might serve
as examples. The so-called pre-
mieres' are merely chorus girls with
foreign make-ups and assumed for
eign names. They dance badly, and
they use their muscles SO awkwardly
that their calves are as gnarled as an
oak tree.
Eyes, sir, when the great public has
at last been shocked into insensibility
by an artistic young woman who can