Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-04-13
DANCING FOR EXERCISE.
Introduced at the Yale Gymnasium
for Physical Training.

The odd spectacle of more than
forty Yale undergraduates jigging up
and down TO the cheerful notes of a
piano manipulated by one of their
own number is now a weekly sight in
the Yale gymnasium. DR.. Anderson,
director of the gymnasium, is a close
student of old and new methods of
training the body, and for some time
has been considering the advisability
of introducing dancing exercises in
gym" work to aid men in acquiring
ease and grace of bodily movement.
Il believe" said DR.. Anderson, in
talking about the novel experiment,
that there is no form of physical
exercise that will give quicker re.
suits in grace of movement and
control of muscles man dancing.
Dancers are always graceful, stage
dancers particularly, though they
may not, perhaps, be muscular. In
what we are trying to do at Yale
believe lies a future for physical edu-
cation. We are starting in slowly,
with simple movements, taking up
the Jig and leaping dance first Later
we expect to try some more advanced
dances. These, of course, will not
aim to give a man special advantages
as a Walter, but they will help the
student to learn how to make a gooo
appearance on a stage, should he be
a public speaker, and to carry him
self well generally.
The enthusiasm with which the new
course at the gymnasium has been
received by the undergraduates was
entirely unlocked for. A class of
from thirty to forty freshmen now
meets every Thursday evening, while
a class of upper class men and
graduate students has been formed
for another evening. More classes
will be formed later, and dancing
made a regular part of the physical
development of many Yale students.
1t will not, however, be made com.
pulsory, a fact which has thus far
made it the more popular.
1T is a curious fact" said DR..
Anderson, but hardly any men are
naturally graceful in dancing" A
glance in at one of the dancing class
meets would prove this at once.
Laughable things occur with men
who thy the simpled dances prescribed
in the course for the first time. II
seems simple enough to stand easily
and Zig" up and down, or lean for
ward on one foot, with the arms ex-
tended, in the "leaping dance" hut
few men do 1t naturally or without
practice. A row of men will take 4
position, when a youngster at one
end will lose his balance, fall up
against another man, and the whole
row lose its balance, like a set of ten
pins. Some of the newcomers i'm this
branch of exercise come prepared t.
exert all of their muscular strength
in the simple hops or leaps, and, in
spite of the most frantic efforts of the
instructors, will make their legs
rigid, hold their arms as If made of
wood, or, asked to assume a graceful
posture, will rigidly extend their
fingers at wide angles or throw their
bodies into the most tiresome of posi-
tins. A first exercise of this kind for
some men is a most unconsciously
amusing spectacle. Instead of taking
easy and graceful attitudes the
lneophytes will turn themselves into
figures resembling wooden Indians.
The first necessity, therefore, in
taking such a class is to try to make
the freshmen relax their muscles.
This is harder to do than at first
would be imagined possible. "Con-
servatism of energy is one of the
first requisites to ease of carriage
DR.. Anderson says in speaking of
this natural tendency of most of the
men who are learning grace of move
ment. cit is most difficult to teach
the men this. When they have
learned it, however, it will be easy
sailing.
"Just why we are starting this
novel method of teaching physical
! ease at Yale" DR.. Anderson con-
tinued. lis perhaps not at once an
swered by most people. There is the
/ esthetic reason. 1t teaches ease and
grace, control Of muscles, easy move
ments, and approaches that con-
iservatism of physical energy that is
really the basis of grace. Ply
siologically it develops the heart and
| lungs, just as we set a man to leap
ing and lighting running TO develop
those organs in our regular classes.
Anatomically it develops the ma
chinery of the body, gives spring to
the instep, gives pliability to the
knee, ankle, and hip joints, and in
creases the muscular development OF