The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1908-10-29
ART OF DANCING LOST.
choregraphle Congress to Discuss
Question and Provide Remedy.

choregraPhie Congress to Discuss
Question and Provide Remedy.
Is dancing degenerating? Next
month, in Berlin, will be held an in
ternational choregraphic congress
which will have to answer that grave
question. NJ. Lefort, secretary Of the
French Choregraphic Ass ociatlon,
gives a forecast of the task waich Will
lie before the meeting.
"The art OF dancing" he said
threatens to lose all its charm IL
something be not done in time Either
dancers turn like teetotums with stiff
tened joints or they make violent eff
forts to look graceful, with still more
dire results, leaping about, comforting
themselves and gesticulating gro
tesquely. This, sir is lamentable
state OF things. Dancing should,
above all, have grace, and elegance,
and should impart distinction to the
bearing. The dancer should study to
acquire elasticity and suppleness Of
movement not the habit of dsartic
ulating his or her limbs-a most dis.
astrous practice.
Department is the first thing to be
learned, and it will be useful to the
proficient pupil in all walks of life.
1t was thus in the olden times, in the
day of Prevot of Gallant du Desart
and of Guillaumme Raynal, who were
dancing masters at the court of King
Louis XIV, who founded the Academy
of Dancing Then the minuet the
gaVotte, the pavane, the passepied, the
forlane were danced. What could be
more exquisite? But in 1860 the pol.
ka was introduced in France. That
was the beginning of the end. To
dance the polka the men held his part
ner around the waist. The novelty
of the thing pleased the popular i'm.
agination. Goodbye, then, to the
beautiful old dances in which partners
just touched the tips of each others
fingers. The mazurka, the sChottiscne
followed. and the waltz, imported by
Desart from Russia.
Nowadays, when a man comes to
us to learn dancing, he generally slip.
ulates that he is to be taught only
those dances in which he holds the
girl round the waist; What have we
come to? STILL there are hopes, af-
ter all. In the last few years some
little has been done to restore to the
art Of dancing its pristine nobleness.
Setting aside the ineXplicable vogue,
now happily past, of the Negro cake,
walk, we observe that the Boston is
increasingly popular in drawing rooms
The Boston comes from America.
Let US thank the Americans, not
for the step, which they did not in.
vent, as it is none other than our own
old-fashioned redowa, but for the de.
velopment which they have given it,
and which makes it an admirable
physical exercise. The Boston gives
breadth Of movement and expands
chest and lungs. This year we start.
ed with considerable success a new
dance, "the wave" a kind of more un.
dulating and gliding Boston, recall
ing the rhythm of the sea, hence its
name. Next winter we intend to re.
vive the old dances of France, the pa.
vane and the gavotte, for instance,
and we shall require our pupils to
sing while dancing, a most graceful
practice, and one calculated to devel.
op the chest. That will be the chief
article of our program at the Berlin
congress. Paris Cor, Philadelphia
North American.