The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-08
AMERICAN DANCERS
INTEREST BRITONS
EnaIlshmen Find Great Diver
sion in Orgies of Pente-
costaI Contortionists

LONDON, Jan. T. A very strange
sect has just arrived in London from
Western America. They are known as
the Pentecostal Dancers of the Order
of the Burning Bush, and have their
headquarters at Denver, Colo. They
appear to wear no special dress, the
men and women both being clad in
ordinary modern clothes, the extraor-
dinary part of the American revival
lists programme lying in the dancing
which accompanies the singing of many
hymns. They have appeared at the
Camberwell Baths hall, and have up
to the present drawn audiences of a
very mixed character, who have come
to watch the Pentecostal dancers for
very different reasons.
Dancers Tread Strange Measure
A correspondent who visited one of
these Pentecostal meetings thus de-
scrfbes what he saw:
Apparently the greater part of Cam
berwell was already there and whist
ling it's appreciation of the proceed
ings. Upon the platform the Pente-
coStal dancers were treading a strange
measure. Five women, attired some
what after the manner of hospital
nurses. bobbed and jigged backward
and forward. Two men linked hands
and skipped away again. A sixth lady
at the piano furnished the accompani-
ment to their desultory chanting. Then
one of the five came forward and ex-
pressed her ecstasy at being privileged
to- address the meeting. just feel
q f11h o. hol
upset in my SOUL she declared.
A cynic might perhaps trace an an
alogy between the picturesque Ameri-
can phrase and the Scottish bee in the
bonnet. Then came more dancing, fol-
lowed by an address from a gentle
man with mutton chop whiskers and
an unintelligible delivery, much appre-
ciated by the irreverent youth of Cam
berwell. A lady followed with a negro
melody which became, if anything. too
popular the crowded house caught
the air with lightning rapidity and re-
heved the soloist from any further re-
sponsibility in the matter
After quartet on the same lines
another speaker addressed the. meet
Ing. His condemnation of Apostle
John Alexander struck one as being
humorous. Incidental music by the
crowd meanwhile included Bill BaiIey.'
Home, Sweet Home,' and other popu-
lar ditties.'
interesting Psychological Study
Among those who have visited the
meetings of the Pentecostal dancers
have been numbers of students of psy-
chology to whom this religious pheno-
menon is of more than usual interest.
SpaSmOd1c revivalS of the ancient dane
ing crazeS are not new. The order of
Shakers may be specially mentioned as
type OF sect in which certain con-
Vulsive movements are imagined by the
members to have some moral or spir-
1tual significance. The. Dancing Derv-
lshes are another well known case in
which the dancing mania is connected
with religious ceremonies.
In the middle ages the dancing mania
appeared at AK la Chapelle in eonnec-
ton with the wild festival of ST. John
Inc dancing craze spread to an extent
which has probably never been eoualed.
Crowds of these. dancers, who set ont
on tour, passed through many of the
German towns, through which they
danced TO the notes of an exciting type
OF music that almost invariably accom-
pan1eS the dancing craze. Numbers of
the citizens Of the various towns caught
the. mental infection and followed the
leading dancers throughout the streets.
surging into the churches. The -niser-
able conditions which then existed
doubtless assisted the spread of the
craze which was followed by period
OF great disorder and prof1igacy. The
jumping movements which have been
chronicled concerning this historic out
burst seem to suggest the movement
of the Pentecostal dancers In the be-
ginning of the tenth century Parcel
sus, the great reformer of medicine,
found that immersion in cold water
was an almost certain cure for the
cases of dancing mania which existed
in his day.