The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-17
THE CUBAN WALTZ.
Typical Dance of the COuntry-Its
LungUor and Beauty.
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post
To see a half-dozen Cuban women at
their best is to see them dancing The Gu
ban waltz, at one of those small social
gatherings at a friends house, which oc-
cupy, in so quiet an sensible a fashion,
the evenings of many Spanish-speaklng
people in both hemlspheres. If 1T did not
seem rather derogatory, as uggesting
scant potentialities for excellence in more
important directions. one would be in
clned to say that the same occasion is
a good one for seeing a group of young
Cuban men, likewise, al their best To
begin with, the Cuban waltz is what every
other dance nowadays INDUCED i'll by
civilized society has ceased to be, but
what every dance was, infalhbly, before
the world became 50 sophisticated-it Is cX-
pressive. 1t has besides dignity and grace
and il is poetic.
More than that, it is of local and in
digenous character Anybody could learn
10 dance the Cuban waltz, which IS mere
ly three-step so abnormally slow that II
is more a walk than waltz. But no
alien could chance it with the idlgenous
air. All these are traits which may still
be found in some few national dances
danced by European peasants in out-of-
the-Way corners; the conventional dane
ing of civilization scarcely deserves the
name of dancing at all, having come to
be regarded either as an celebrating
form of corporal exercise, or as a mere
excuse for bringing people together. With
the one possible exception Of Viennese
waltzing which is, to be sure, neither dig
pified, graceful, poetic, nor in any sense
expressive of inner thoughts and feelings,
but which when danced 10 Viennese
orchestra, and by people in the line of the
true terpsichorean Wiener tradition, af-
a aH.f an in
stinct Of rhythm with this one possible
exception, the Cubans may claim that
they possess the only interesting dance;
the only dance that says something TO the
Imagination and that fulillls some Of the
requirements, On the aesthetic side, of
what dancing should be. which has been
left to that section Of modern mankind that
wears dress suits and evening gowns.
II is essentially the dance of tropical and
sub-tropical climates. It has the air OF
having been organized partly on the basis
of allowing people 70 keep as cool as dane
ing in any form, can possibly admit OF;
and partly on that Of affording surrep-
titious opportunity for the unfodings OF
romance Ia countries where the impulses
are ardent, and youth is surrounded with
ket-fences Of propriety and conyenances
unknown in northerly lattudes. The
charm of the Cuban waltz lies In the
yelled eloquence which a group OF young
men ana girls VINO SPEAK lhe spanish
tongue, and have been fed on the poetry
Of Espronceda, Campoamor, Camprodon,
and Becquer, can contriye 20 throw into
eyes, movements and bearing, while
dancing il.
Our own Straightforward golf-playing
and bicycle-riding American girls and un-
romantic young men with an aptitude for
business and taste for sport would find
the Cuban waltz terribly dead-and-aliye
affair II they consented at all to foot
it'' to anything so tame, they would as
suredly make Il suggestive Of nothing
whatever to the fancy. But to see II
danced Ia a native setting and by native
talent is different matter. Provided
you are not very unresponsive, you viii
then get some Of that artistic suggestion