Rocky Ford enterprise., 1910-02-11

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held in two weeks.
Art Of Acquiring a Perfect Figure
Florence Smith. the agile little come
dienne who does several very difficult
dances in the Top o. The World" which
comes to the Grand on Friday. Feb. 25.
has kindly submitted very instructive
lesson in the art Of acquiring a graceful
figure. which will be Of more or less in
terest to our lady readers. inasmueh as
Miss Smith has acquired national rep
utation as the embodiment Of grace.
Following herewith Is given Miss Smiths
article verbatim:
"of course. every girl would like to be
beautiful. but the attractions of one who
is graceful is not to be belittled. For
she. who knows how to sit, stand and
move easily, may often hold attention
that merely pretty girl cannot even
evoke. And to be graceful is within the
power Of every woman. for Il consists in
training the muscles to obey each move
ment, and making al. do their work har-
moniously.
"A few Of the attitudes that make you
ungraeeful are these: To stand uneven
" with one heel tipped down. or the feet
turned out at too great an angle. In
either case it is impossible to move easily.
for the body. instead Of being poised and
'swaying" as the novels say. with each
movement, is out Of plumb and either
lurehes slightly or tips.
"A woman who has the courage Of her
wish to acquire grace will temporarily
abandon heels while she learns TO stand.
or rather to hold herself in balance. To
practice the standing balance 60 in stock
ing feet or with heelless shoes. and stand
with heels together and toes turned out
at an angle Of less than forty-fve de-
Rrees. The weight of the body is then
on the balls Of the feet. rather than the
heels.
The first sensation. when going with
out heels, is that Of tipping back. and for
this reason it is excellent physical devel-
opment to be without them. for instine-
lively. the body free Of supports. assumes
its correct line. and thus the first aid to-
ward graeefulness has been acquired.
While striving for equipoise the head
should not drop. too far forward. and to
prevent this mistake. a thin light book
should be placed upon the head in such a
way as to balance without aid of hands.
This arranged. the woman should try
to rise on her toes. The chances are
that the book will fail. for not having
achieved the art Of balancing, she tries to
make her head help incorrectly, and off
goes the book. Should this aeeiden. hap
pen. the volume must be put on again
and effort made a second time to rise on
the toes without displaeing it. When
this is easily accomplished there is no
question but that great advance toward
graceful carriage has been achieved.
Few girls use their hands and arms
well. To raise one of the latter they
make two motions, the first coming from
the shoulder and the second from the
elbow, and the result is pronounced
angularity. There can be no sweep Of
line in this way; nothing but jerks.
"lf a woman sitting down wishes to
pick up something from the table foot
or two away, the first motion should be
from the wrist. From there should come
a slow rise of the elbow. a motion that
goes gently along until it reaches the
shoulder, by which time the arms should
have been raised. To describe this in
detail makes Of it lengthy operation.
but as matter of fact the connection be-
tween the muscles is SO close that all
seem working in unison instead Of sue
cession. In this lies the secret Of per-
feetion.
"ln sitting down the same succession
should prevail. but as a rule it does not.
Usually there is a dumping down Of the
body. as it were. with no connection be-
tween the upper part Of the trunk and
the limbs.
ITO maintain balance and poise, it is
essential that the body shall bend and