The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-09-05
THE DANCE AS AN INTERFERE
TER.


be restored, at least in more or
less restricted sense, to something
like It's ancient popularity, says the
Dallas News THE poetry of mo-
ton has been practically a lost
art for two thousand years or more,
and what was once a refining d.
version became almost a by-word
and q reproach. That the dance fell
from its high estate as practiced by
the Greeks and the other Orientals
of advanced culture was due, doubt
less to it's debasements by the Ro-
man sensualists who made it vul-
gar and debauched it for gain. The
dance became a sort of depravity
against which the early christians
set their heroic faces and the apos-
ties Numbered their objections
While 1t has long been contended by
many that the dances against which
the Scriptures inveigh, at least by
implication, we're not of piece with
the steps practiced by the social de-
voices of later days, the church new
lertheless has frowned upon the
light fantastic toe, CHASING the
dance with the ''revelings" men
| toned in the scriptures While
dancing may, of course, be over
done; while it may be dcbasing
when engaged in by the debased,
and while it may be SO much lost
motion as viewed from the staid
standpoints of the middle-aged, it
certainly may be made vehicle for
the Interpretation Of some of the
most creditable emotions that move
! mankind.
An American girl of good station,
| fine intelligence and education. has
recently won considerable distinc-
ton in the capitals of Europe by
her advanced" dancing, which is
said by some authorities to be not
advanced at all, but merely call
back, to the shades of the classic
past when village maidens gamboled
upon the green's in the shadow of
Olympus, and with their supple
| limbs portrayed the inspirations
| that moved the musicians to assem-
BILE harmonies and pour sweet con-
cords into the souls Of men.
This young lady, Miss Duncan,
gave recently in New York an exhi-
bition of her ideas as to what a
dance may be made to convey to its
witnesses. She translated the sew
enth symphony of Beethoven and a
number of the shorter pieces of
Chopin, depicting, with an orches-
trail accompaniment, her conception
of the impulses that governed the
composers when their souls gave
birth to the music which has en-
riched a world. Necessarily her in
depreciation, by giving visual assist
ance to the auditory faculties of her
audience, impressed those in attend
ance more deeply than the music
alone would have done, her poses
and physical moods passing from
grave to gay, from repose to action,
from tears to joyousness, along all
the byways and through all the
shades and sunny spaces with the
poets themes. Such an art, safe
guarded from improprieties as it
must be in the keeping of proper
people. can not but be one worthy
of cultivation and admiration. That
there can be wickedness in dancing
as dancing seems illogical, and sure
ly any artist who adds aught to
the pleasures and education of the
people ssentitled to the public's en-
enlargement
There are, to be sure, numerous
other poetical dancers than the one
cited who have won merited praise
for their labors. They all e. deserve
commentator, we may we'll believe,
for their efforts to take from the
dance its unmerited obloquy.