The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-31
THE DANCE AND THE CHILD
ancing Now a Recognized Factor in Education.
 Its Popularity Growing Steadily.

dancing, and 1t Is she who Is doing most to spread abroad among teachers the realization of what she believes to be its importance. Though the ex- ternal features. the way in which 1t should and should not be taught, are an open book to her, 1t is the relation of dancing to the entire growth and development of the individual that is her particular study. If there Is need ed any proof of the seriousness with which the authorities at Teachers Col t1ege regard dancing and bodily rhythm 1t can be found in the announcements for the coming session.
 Under the head of Physical Educa- ton" three of the most important courses deal with dancing. All of them belong to Miss Crawford. 'one is de- voted to "The Dramatic Game" being six lectures with illustrations of games, songs. and dance. feRhythm and Danc- ing" is the name of another course and another. Folk Drama" consists of fif- teen lectures, with dramas. Thls last concerns itself with early forms of dra- matization as illustrated by the folk games and dances of Europe. Ring dances, fertlval dances. and national
 dancing will be viewed from fTe stand point of their original and significance
 It is almost unnecessary to say that the children for whose benefit all this study of the dance is intended are de- lighted with the Innovation. They know nothing about its origin. its signifl-
 canoe or its various psychological feat ures which interest the grown ups; all they know and all they care Is thRt 1t Is exhiliating' and altogether delight full to exercise their little bodies rhythui cally too the beat of music Recruits foe the dancing class are never lacking and there is no room for many who
 would be therein.
 X bevy of dancing graybeards from Providence, R. l., furnished the great tsensation at the Physical Culture Con
 vention. Their act, performed on the floor of the gymnasium of Columbia | University, closed the four days ses- l sion of the convention. Of It's kind | the exhibition was about the strangest thing that has happened in New York recently. One of the men was pros porous banker over seventy years old, with a flowing beard of white; anoth- | CT, nearly as old, was one of the fore most citizens of Providence; two or three had passed the sixty mark. These old men surrounded by an audience many members of which rested dizzily on parallel bars and flying rings, danc- ed figs and cut oapers which were call culated to make their stern New Eng land ancestors turn In their graves. | IntS was HOL AonE dAtcA ASA. .OHASA made the famous speech in which he
 declared. or Is supposed to have deolar- | ed that after sixty man might as we'll be chloroformed anyway, as far as his future usefulness was concerned 1 If the celebrated physician had been present Tn Columbia gymnasium that night he might have rubbed his eyes
 and wondered If sAme modern De Soto had not sought, and this time success fully. the fountain of youth The old
 men from Providence formed n class that amused itself by regular dancing, and is probably still doing SO. @in the Rhode Island capital. They seemed to take it as a matter of course and expressed surprise that any particular notice should be taken of them
 The forms of dancing practiced in society nowadays. the waltz and the
 two-step. play no part in the most
 modern and approved scheme of edu- cational dancing. though they may bs