The Washington herald., 1911-05-28
- TOW is the witching time Of year
III when "the road" gives up its
hosts of travelling players and
dear old Broadway receives

III when ''the road" gives up 1t:
hosts Of travelling players and
dear old Broadway receives
them to its bosom. At an average OF
three or four times a day some train
or ferryboat arrives in New York with a
company of "disengaged'' sons and
daughters of the art Thespian. With a
few hasty words of good-by and good
wishes the little groups disseminate to
swell the guest lists Of the hotels and
boarding houses that line the side streets
off upper Broadway.
Many Of the players have already beer
;fe-engaged for next season, and with
wisely guarded savings are looking for
ward to a full summer of rest and rec
freation. Every outbound steamer carries
a goodly representation of footligh,
stars a portion of whose generous
earnings of the past winter will fatten
the purses of Continental landlords.
But for the lesser lights of the pro-
fession-those who have not yet attained
the distinction of having their names
'blazoned forth in electric fire over the
ater portals-Europe will not be the
destination. Resorts nearer the Great
White Way are more TO their liking.
And the most thrifty of these will not
linger long in rural surroundings If for
tunate enough to obtain a berth in sum-
mer stock-the last hope of many a
Thespan whose period of employment
during the winter season has been all
too brief
Vaudeville. with its seaside music halls,
summer parks, and urban roof gardens,
keeps its cohorts more continually en-
gagged than the Legitimate" and most
of the prominent performers in the two
a day" combine business and pleasure
by making a tour of the foreign circuits
serve as their annual outing
But the smaller fry of theaterdom-
the vast ranks of melodramatic person
ages, chorus girls. and the like-wiIl
have the most active and entertaining
summer thanks to the ever-increasing
moving-picture industry that is enlisting
more and more actors to pose for the
silent plays that will be the subject of
countless new films next fall
Hardly will the last of the army of
actors secure summer engagement
when the new season Will be at hand,
for, with the spread of amusementS in
America August, instead of October, as
formerly, is the time for the wholesale
renewal of activities in the mimic world.
More freely than in most other walks
of life does hope spring eternal in the
actors heart, and that their brief period
of summer relaxation will be followed
by a more auspicious season than the
one on which the curtain has just de-
scended is annually their most ardent
wish. May all their wishes come true.
The American musical season Of
1910-1911 was notable in many ways,
but one feature stands out unique,
strange and remarka ble-the Russian
invasion
1t has become fixed mental habit
in this country to regard Russia as a
land of SHOWS and horrors. Yet, al
ways there is a suggestion of a wealth
of artistic treasures behind the frown-
ing front that guards quaint, little
understood Russia
This season has given US a glimpse
of these treasures the land of the
Rornanoffs has to offer the musical and
artistic world. First, we were given a
peep at the Imperial Ballet, concerning
which we had heard much and really
had but faint idea. Dancing, as we
use the term, takes on a new signif-
canoe in the hands of such artists IS
Mile. Anna Pavlowa and NJ. Mikail
Mordkin, who made a tour of the prin-
cipal American cities. Their perform
anceS came as a revelation of poetry,
music. grace. and technique, a message
of loveliness in a form totally unknown
to U.S.
Dancing is an art almost as old as
the rock-ribbed hills. Its origin is
Ehrouded in the mysteries of ancient and
forgotten religions and dead civiliza-
tions. As the play of the winds through
the fiower-laden. swaying primeval for
ests first suggested music to mans
mind, so also the serene beauty of sil-
yer moonbeams dancing on the waters
of lake or river, or the ruddier reflec- |
tions of the morning sun, may have in |
spired within primitive man the love Of |
the dance. |
All nature danced long before man |
claimed physical poetry as his own. |
The ripping stream, the tempest-tossed |
sea, the storm-lashed forest-each was /
an expression through motion of ma
ture's varying moods. -
"OHueT, lnen, that man seized L
upon that method of expression early /
in his development, and accorded it an
importance long since forgotten. 1t is
hardly to be expected that we should
have dancers at this period to compare
with those of an epoch when Joy, grief,
pleasure. pain, and indeed the devo-
tions to Deity, found most complete |
and eloquent expression in the dance.
And now, when the dance has degener-
ated into an instrument for occasioal en-
tertainment, Russia filings open the door
and we behold the. dance primitive and
the dance ideal-the thing we could only
dream exists, the dance as a medium of
expression of all things-love. hate, fear,
Joy. grief, exultation, intoxication, sad
ness.
All these emotions Pavlowa and Mcrd-
kin have given us to see in their wonder
ful dancing. Our art has been enriched |
by their feeting visit and We ourselves
expanded. Our perspective has been i'm
proved and broadened, and we should
sreJoice that so unusual an opportunity
has presented itself In our times.
It is doubtful that any other land or
the conditions obtaining elsewhere than
in Russia would make possible such art
Iistry. And now we are told that the
Metropolitan Opera Company. which
made possible Paylowa and Mordkin's |