The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-27
DOCTRINE OF THE DANCE.
4 Young and Lovely Philosopher
Explain. Its Use.

thing, studying the dance as an art
from a lofty, philosophical plane is quite
another species of spiritual and bodily
exercise. The Hungarian band and the
masculine presence have played no part
in the Lenten dacing class that has
held its sessions in private drawing
rooms in New York city for the past five
weeks. This new departure in art has
been under the guiding eye and voice
of n young and lovely instructress who
wears a soft flowing gown, draped in
Graeco-Roman folds. and made of dull
blue or green or rose-tinted nuns veil
ing.
The whole object of this new move
ment in the saltatory art is to teach
women how to dance with expressive
sentiment, with luminous grace and
philosGphic meaning" At least. that is
what the high priestess in the nuns
yelling toga explains to her attentive
pupils. They do not dissent when she
calls on them to admit that though
Uncle Sam is blessed in many ways, he
remains a laughing-stock of the natinos
in having no strictly national dance,
and their eyes brighten charmngly
when she explains that any woman who
will learn to dance properly is bound
to become a figure of slimness and
grace.
She breaches the gospel of the dance
as necessity of life and beauty like
| food and the bath. exercise or hospitaIi-
! ~. Her project is to renew the gracious
i Gfeclan days. when dancing was a
| precious accomplishment priced as
al
/ ished manners are today. She is going
TO teach women TO use their bodies as
they do their eyes or their tongues; to
1 express exquisite sentiments, noble ideas
and lofty aspiration. She proposes TO
render their limbs so plant their gest-
I ureS so expressive, their motions so
Ineligible that at sixty woman will be
as supple as at sixteen, and that admi-
ration will be aroused as much by her
manner OF crossing a room, stepping into
a carriage or plucking rose as by rare
+ loneliness of face.
In short, she teaches her disciples TO
/ dance philosophically guarantees to
make short or tall fat or bony, grace
/ tul or ungainly girl model of elegant
| propriaty in action, and show them. one
! ana all. how to gain health as we'll as
! beauty in progress.
Now naturally, il has not required
/ Ions for so agreeable a creed to spread
! and gather followers. and lessons in
philosophical dancing are pleasant ex-
{ Deriences. The pupil is prayed to lay
aside her heavily-bcned stays for a light
! supporting waist her feet are put into
/ soft satin slippers with the most elastic
| Soics and very fiat heels. and her gown
can be Of any material she prefers, but
! draped after the Greek fashion though
many OF the dancers take to the short
( WASTED empire style. The points of
/ shall be free to move easily. and the
| waist unconhned, and then. when the
! harp strikes up a simple melody as
for example, Believe me, but ali these
| endearing young charms an iIustra-
ton is given of what the philosophy of
! the dance really is.
Gliding to the center of the room. a
promising pupil in a Josephine gown
OF rose-coiored game over slip of vel
I low silk, begins TO tread a measure in
accompaniment to tho music She
dances all alone. there is knot of pink
roses in her hair. her arms are glove
less and are kept in motion with the
rest OF her body in delicate gestures to
portray faint outline of the meaning
of the song In one hand a rose is held
| kissed, caressed, supported aIoft in adj
Hhrlng ecstacy As the petals fail the
smiling face Of the dancer is Swallowed
with surprise. pain. grief; the light short
step, fun Of JOY and buoyancy. mo5er-
ates, the arms fall. the head droops:
! there are suggested motions of dfsmaV
ana despair. then the half-ruiued flower
Is lifted, surveyed. clasped against the
| heart. and in a measure suggestive of
| content the movements cease
This. however, is the sort of thing only
well-instructed dancer can do. Begin
ners are taken sternly in hand and taught
to sesticulate properly, to bend from the
waist, the true appropriate pastures OF
the head, and to use their arms One and
all they are recommended TO try TO re-
member and initiate Calve who dances
with her arms, in Carmen and the in
structress says that only one woman out
of fifty naturally uses her arms with any
thing like pleasing expression.
After putting the head, arms and hands
into training. the instructress takes the
long-tortured. squeezed and distorted fem
mime waist through severe course of
sprouts. and she drills and redrills her pu-
pills in the simple action of slackening
their joints. When a woman has been re
duced to the extreme point of artistic col
lapse, that is when she can sit on stool!
clasp her hands across her ankles and
lay her head on her knees without the
least effort, then. like the small girl who
knows her notes, her scales and her
chords, she is given piece to interpret
The piece is bit of poetry. read slowly
to music. while the pupil dances her in.
terpretaton Of it. or the pupil dances
without words or music, having her audi
tors 10 gather from her motions what her
meaning is Now. if the auditors are the
| class to which the woman belongs they
can quickly catch at the motions she is
trying 10 depict for to them are quite
I comprehensive all the gestures and steps
| that interpret the most important human
sentiments
IN the research made by competent
authorities 10 discover wherein lay the
/ philosophy Of the dance the waltz step
has been found to represent serene love
since the time of Herodotus; the glide
sidewise from foot to foot even among
the Corybantis. meant "ecstatic hope
the prouettes true meaning is "crownei
pleasure, or ultimate satisfaction" the
skip stands for Joyous confidence
hasty advance on the toes. loves APP
peal; a haSty retreat on the toes love
rebuked: q slow retreat. love scorned. 81
There are a score and more definitions
beside these. and the arms. body and
! head emphasize the meaning, and puz-
zliug q il may sound at first to a tyrO.
ii only requires about ten minutes OBJ
servation for the most ignorant onlook II
to discover what a dancer Is saying
, through these delicate movements that
ripple from her lips to her tiptoes.
, 1T also only requires a few moments
for a clever woman to prove to YOU
without words she is dancing the poem
Of Fair Inez" and when a woman
past middle life got up TO entertain her
luncheon guests the other day with a
dance, as she might have offered to sing
Il song or play a sonata, not one OF
them failed to see that without a word
the whole of Browning's Evelyn Hope