The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-17
Stately Dance Was Most Popular in an
Age when People Had Leisure.

Boston Transcript.
Count Morone has spoken in no unmis-
taxable language of this serious diversion Of
elegant leisure when he says: 1.-The eigh-
teenth century was portrayed i'm the min
net. 1t was, so to speak. the expression of
that Olympic calm, and that universal Ian
guor which were reflected in everything of
the age-even its social pleasures" 1t can
not be denied that the minuet was the effect
of a cause-it had a ''raison d'etre," and in
some sense was the revolt against the out
rageous license of the seventeenth GEN.
fury, when dancing had degenerated into
bo1sterouS romping, and society Wed with
dancers on the stage in the execution of
rapid movements and impossible steps and
poses-a mere ''twinkling of the legs" as a
quaint writer of that period pronounced
them. Yet this dance, which represented the
spirit or the revolt, found an atmosphere
so congenial that IL soon developed into an
abundant life, and not to be able to dance
the mlnuet was quite enough to brand no.
b1hty itself with social oStracism. That
there were mere lookerS-on who had no
part in its performance goes without say
ing, but even these became earnest patrons
and promoters of the fascinating amuse-
ment, and every chateau on the continent
and estate in England fostered its growth.
1t Is equally true that there is ample rea-
son for a similar revolt against much of
the dancing of the present age, and when
we recall the racket and the 'attiduniZ-
ing in the waltz SO woefully conspicuous
at some of our fashionable watering-placeS,
both good breeding and common sense might
1ustifiably join arms in putting down such
disturbers of decency, but while the POM
pous afectations and elegant attitudes of
the minuet recalled society to dignity and
morality from the excuses of a corrupt age,
they consisted with the leisure and habit of
the period which gave them welcome.
But who has time now 10 dance the
minuet? And a more pertinent question
might be, who now is willing to submit to
the minute ritual of step and d%eRortment
bear in this age Of restless activity and
unfettered liberty the tyranny of a master
like the famous Marcel, who did not hest
tate TO say 10 noble ladies and gentlemen
who fell short of his expectations in their
execution of the ceremonious dance, "Sor,
you bow lik a ploughboy!"-or-"Duchess
you make a curtsey like a fshwoman?"
And still further proof of the popular teach
erS independence is recorded in his criti-
cism of a prince of the blood royal, who
did not enter the room with a bearing
which satisfied his demands, Your high
ness approaches us with the manner of a
the heir apparent to the throne, had every
reason TO credit the possibility that he
might be, Your highness hands a lady like
or like emanations from an arbitrary in
structor be tolerated in Newport? Would
any American duchess, whose ancestry was
of the most recent, submit TO such criti-
cism with an eighteenth century grace?
We trow not. The heroic love of liberty
which so characterizes the twentieth
century, would undoubtedly assert itself.
anu NAlNN AAANA q oLA11 "O0Aa lO6t
his position. The axiom uttered by Pope
Those move best who've learned to
dance'-still holds true. but the spirit of the
age rebels against elaboration of ceremony
or a process of instruction which looks not
to a financial result, and in this country at
least there is no compelling authority. as
who has observed the awkwardness
Of some of the army officers
in a dance at which his Males
ty was present, issued a peremptory
command that no officer was to appear at
a court ball until he had learned how TO
dance
There is a story which has become ira
ditional in Europe that a renowned teacher
CT the minuet was accustomed to say to
all applicants for instruction, as he assumed
an distracted and philosophic air, and
sighed with hard on heart: "Ah, what
things there are in a minuet!" Too many
forsoOth, for the push, the hurry and the
impatience of these days. People of all
sorts and conditions are now content to
run over the floor, and there is little room
for the Pharisaic thanksgiving that one is
not as the other men are. The debutante in
the eighteenth century was compelled to
undergo a crucial test, for not until she
was "A thorough artist in dancing the min
net was she equipped for society, and too,
in that way lay fame and admiration of
no mean order. Margaret of Valois was
said to have been such a marvel of grace
in the execution OF this dance that Don
John of Austria declared 1t TO be the very
poetry of motion, and the most beautiful
sight he beheld in Paris. Queen Charlotte
exacted that no lady should be allowed TO
dance at court unless she could execute
the ntinGet without the slightest imperfec-
tion,. and at no period of English history
did England show more graceful and gra-
cious women than in the days when this
dance was the reigning fashion. But, nous
avons change tout cela-the hOydenish step
and manlike air may consist with the man
nish last. but not with the languid grace
of the eighteenth century diversion. The
Amazon of the present, as OF the past, is
a dancer; oh, yes, but she does not dance
the minuet. il is not progressive Free
dom. not elegance. is the watchword of So
ciety, and Newport in all its glory is far
from being averse TO freedom.