The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-04
FANCY DANCES FOR YALE MEN.
A mo CLASS PRACTISE STEPS or.
VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS.
Thereby They Hope 10 Acquire Ease OF
Manner and Bodily Graee-This Years
Dancing Glass at Yale the Biggest Yet
No Ballet ExeTClRes Are Taught,

Manner and Bodily Graee-This Years
Dancing Glass at Yale the Biggest Yet
No Ballet Exercises Are Taught.
NEW HAVEN, March 3.-The Yale dancing
class in the gymnasium, under direction Of
DR.. William G. Anderson. has begun work
for the season Of 1900. More students than
ever we're this year anxious to learn stage
dancing. Prof. Anderson, who is director
Of the Yale gymnasium, promises to turn
out q class that will be ready at the close OF
the season to do all the fancy dances Of
the vaudeville artists.
Dancing has been one Of DR.. Anderson's
pet forms Of exercise for many years, and
before he came to Yale he formed various
dancing classes in Adelphi College in Brook
lyn, where he was on the teaching force.
He was the pioneer among the gymnastic
instructors to advocate dancing as a desir-
able form Of exercise.
When he introduced II in his Brooklyn
a good deal of doubt. There were LOO
pupils there at the time and they took to 1t
enthusiastically. Then half d dozen years
or more ago he came to Yale.
The puritanio atmosphere at Yale even
in those days did not encourage any such
frivolity, and no proposition was made to
the corporation or the faculty by DR.. Ander-
son looking TOWARD opening a dancing
department In connection with the uniTer-
sity. Two or three years ago, however,
without any 1ourishes that might arouse
the a~ntagonism Of the members Of Yale'e
council, who still looked with disfavor on
such worldly diversions, DR.. Anderson
started his first class in dancing.
There we're only about c score of men
who took the course, and they had almost
finished their work for the season before it
was known generally that such a class had
been started. 1t Immediately met with
favor among the students, and each year
since more Yale men have taken the exercise
and have got a good deal Of fun as well as
benefit out Of the course.
AS the classes grow more advanced DR..
Anderson carries his pupils along through
the various Irish lifts, buck and wing and
clog dances up to the ballet. There he
calls a halt. The ballet couid be taught in
connection with this course, according to
DR.. Anderson. out few of the students care
to tax work so advanced as that and very
few men anywhere learn the ballet, as it is
essentially a woman dance.
The muscles and ligaments of the aver
age man." said DR.. Anderson to-day, ARE
not suited for the ballet, and if the students
want to learn that they have to go to a
school Of professional dancing"
In his beginners class DR.. Anderson
teaches his pupils the straight jig. Music
accompanies al the lessons, and Il the stu
dents find that they do not have any sense
Of time or rhythm or can't leo IN plain So
oiety dancing they do not go any further.
A good many students every year begin
the course, regarding IL in the light of a
lark. but when they find that bard work
Is required they drop out and lose their en-
thusiasm. The e Gaping dance is the second
dance taught, and then come the various
clog dances.
The final steps learned are those of the
soft shoe dances, the buck and wing va
rieties. When the Yale men have mas
tered the last branch they are ready for
their diploma or to appear on the stage.
Vale is the only college in the country
that has taken up dancing in this way,
but so much interest has been shown in
this experiment that leaders Of gvmnGsiums
and physical training schools all over the
country are following the example set here
In New Ha ven.
At the last meeting Of the American
Physical Educational Association several
days were given TO the discussion Of dane
ing, Twenty of Yale's best dancers were
exhibited at the meeting and danced for the
benefit Of the members Of the association
to show what had been done in the Yale
gymnasium.
The aim of DR.. Anderson in teaching this
form OF exercise il not merely to acquaint
the students with the various sters in these
dances. He holds that the various dances
develop in the students ease Of manner,
bodily control and muscular coordination
that make them invaluable. Critics of
dancing who hold that this form Of exer-
else flattens the arch of the instep and
frequently breaks it are wrong, according
to DIR. Anderson,
FLAT footed people of all people" said
DR.. Anderson to-day, -shoud learn to
dance. Instead Of flattening the instep, it
arches it and gives strength to the foot,
making it graceful.
"A professional Grncer invariably has a
well formed foot, the muscles are strong
and the foot h perfect in form. Whenever
a case is found of a broken arch it comes
from overwork, and not from the exercise
OF dancing itself"
To ascertain to Just what extent educators
and others, at the present day. were OPP
posed TO dancing DR.. Anderson recently
wrote to almost all the leading educational
institutions Of the country asking opinions
on the matter. Dancing won by an over
whelming majority as a desirable form Of
exercise. In only very rare instances was
there any dissenting voice. Occasionally
some one was found who objected to the
word dance but did not axe exception to
the exercise itself,