Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-01
The American Movement in Dancing
ny
BY MRS. RICHARD HOvEY

IN HREE American girls have revolu-
tionized the art of dancing in all
IL Europe and America-Maud Al
Ian, whose name was first associated
with the "Salome Dance" and whose
fame began in England; Isadora Dun
can, who made her greatest early sue
cess in Germany in Greek dances, and
Ruth St Denis, whose oriental relig
ious dances have made world fame.
Maud Allan, who is a California girl,
wishes to ultimate in motion the desire
she has, in common with many, to
move as the emotion caused by the
music suggests. Isadora Duncan, from
New York. studied the attitudes of
figures on Greek vases, and at first had
her dances accompanied by a lecture
on Greek art given by learned pro-
fessor. Ruth st. Denis, a New Jersey
girl, reports herself as having studied
the movements of the animals kept in
the mark in New York. These three
American girls. Just now at the top
of a wave of publicity with the eyes
of the world upon them, are, by conse-
ouence leaders in a great movement
in which many others are doing dane
ing that is akin, equally good and
often in some respects better. Mary
King is now leCturing in New York
and Illustrating her lectures by dances
done by girls of selected talent who
illustrate sometimes poems, sometimes
music, sometimes a theme. Ladies of
society on both sides of the Atlantic
are dancing as beautifully in less pub
lie places.
All these dancers, unless they have
been deaf dumb and blind. have been
Influenced bv the Delsartian movement
which has carried the study of grace
tn ,ough most of the schools of this
country and through the drawing rooms
of the great cities. American and Eng
lish. The whole great movement
toward the study of grace and express
sion began in the discovery of a few
laws by one Delsarte in Paris IN the
middle of the last century
The rediscoverY by Puritan America
of the value of a strong, active body,
ir the revival of gymnastics and
games, prepared the way, and the
grace study brought us to the new
dancing" which the New York critics
have wisely called dramatic dancing.
Some of it might be called poetic
dancing. Certainly Los Angeles has Oh
late seen some most poetic dancing.
This. however. is only a beginning of
what may be done in a comparatively
new realm and what will be done.
There was a few years ago in Ger
many a dancer called Marie. who held
the eve of all Germany. Her dances
were more humanity expressive, ana
hence, in one sense. greater than the
dances mentioned above. She, by the
wav. was said to be hypnotized by the
professor who accompanied her KIND
of Svengali iTrilby r m a n e.
Whether or not this was so, the same
thing can be and has been done with
ont hvpnOtism by others. III this dt-
rection the growth of the new art will
advance in future. Any emotion,
thought or passion can be made the
theme upon which poetlcal arailldtlc ara
nature can improvise the most ex-
uuisite things. A little eonVentionaliza-
ton. Just as decorative art conventions
alizes a flower, can develop dance
from any theme. An artist can invent
these dances a dozen day.
A trained organism becomes sensi- |
tive to the emotional imagination, as
that of the genius sometimes is with |
out training, and only art knowledge !
Of the laws of conventionalization are
needed to supplement the dramatic i'm
pulses.
Previous to this new movement dane |
ing had been so er-conventionaliZed
that it had mostly lost human interest, !
or it had been so exclusively confined
to foot action as to be unpleasantly !
sensual in its expression. In America, !
terest in dancing was less than in any
other country. Even these three Amer |
lean girls had to find their first great !
success abroad. From London, Berlin
and St Petersburg they came back to
NeW York and Los Angeles-Dunean
first, Allan next; ST. Denis probably is
still abroad. She was already engaged
in Berlin when a theater manager went
abroad last year to engage her for
New York, where she had previously
begun in clubs or by hiring a theater
herself in which to give her trial matt
nees.
The new dancing has only begun.
Folk dancing is already beginning in
the schools. In fact the Greek dances
of Miss Allan would be mere folk
dancing if they were not improvisa-
tions. AS it is, they are Greek in cos
tune chiefly. It is really American
dancing: it is Allan dancing. If some
of the attitudes are copied from Greek
picturing or statuary. so much the
worse for the dancer and for the art.
for imitation is the least wholesome
and productive of methods.
1t was almost the charm of Maud
Allans dance that it was so little hui
man, that it was so remote. was so