The Washington herald., 1911-02-05
THB LONG BOSTON,
Is NBW DANCE
CRAZE IN SOCIETY

Society is at present amusing Itself
with a new dance. At Delmonico's and
Sherry's. in New York. It is called the
Long Boston" When the Coney Island
version is being performed, you arc told
that the dancers are going through the
turkey trot''
The middle-class people are sticking to
the waits and the two-step. With an oc-
sional barn dance thrown In
The Long Boston has been formally
presented, SO to speak. for It was used
1t party Miss Helen Taft gave . few
weeks ago At the White House
1t should be danced to waltz time. The
popularity Of 1t is that at no time when
you are dancing 1t do you bring your
feet together. The sustaining weight Of
the body Is put on one foot for three
counts while you stand tip-toe on the
other foot. Then you turn. raising the
heels Of both feet from the ground to do
1t. This seems to be the simple step
At no time, you see. are both fest
brought together as they are In the
waits or two-step.
The dance itself. with no variations.
evidently is monotonous because nearly
always a fancy version Of it is used
Started 1T Old Orchard.
The summer colony at Old Orchard Is
made up of people who go abroad pretty
regularly. When few couples at an af-
fair at the best hotel there went through
one night a dance that looked Hike the
European ones-lots Of hops and turns
Old Orchard saw its chance to get onto
something that would make its social life
abroad more enjoyable. The new dance
was taken up with enthusiasm
From Old Orchard the dance went to
Newport. People amused themselves by
means Of 1t there. and then in winter.
when they came to their city homes. they
kept on dancing it. and thus introduced
it into the different cities
New dances always begin at summer
resorts. by the way. Society Is moro con-
centrated in these places Moreover, 1t
has absolutely nothing to do but to try to
amuse itself
Now the Boston Trot was very fine, in
deed. for people to whom dancing was a
diversion. Besides most Of them wanted
to get thin. Slenderness was just getting
to be the style about two years ago. To
dancing masters who had to teach all day
for their living whatever society fancied.
1t made life altogether too strenuous. 1t
was not as slow and placid thing as the
Long Boston, the variety that Is now in
vogue. A dancing master described the
Boston Trot by saying that to dance IT
you kept your feet apart and hoped
with enthusiasm. varying the process by
quick turns every three seconds. Another
referred to it as a dizzy atrocity."
Suddenly a nice thing happened. Peo-
pie at fashionable parties refused to go
through the Boston Trot any longer. 1t
was quite passe, they said The long
Boston was now 'the thing"
The new dance is very hard to learn.
For this reason it is not taught to young
children. The older ones are taking les
sons a: it.
Society women, in small classes formed
by and among themselves. come to the
dancing masters to learn II. About six
lessons are needed There are classes
both Of married women and young girls.
Men Take Lessons, Too.
Society men come to dancing masters
singly and in secret. They all come on
the quiet Some are young and some
are ~middle-aged. They are generally
rather distressed, very much embarrassed.
and painfully in earnest. Their wishes
are two First to learn the new dance
thoroughly. Second, to have nobody see
them doing it,
A leading dancing master says that he
thinks one reason why women did not
pursue their efforts in privacy was that
most of them, being on allowance, did
not feel as if they could pay the extra
charge for single lessons. An allowance
Of pocket money, he said. he had noticed.
made you scrimp more than "an in
come"