Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-06-17

novelty could be asked than the outcry.
against the new dance i'm Paris and
in which even Lord Byron--all round
sport and man about towr--ioined
against its supposed improperly.
For months the fate of the waltz
trembled in the balance, when
Gentle Genlis in her strife with Stael
Would cen prescribe 1t from Paris ball,
Which owadays seems absurd and
scarcely understandable: yet here WAS
Byron obviously impressed
So do not despse history. You sec
how its study cnlargcs the mind and
stecls the soul against hasty impress
sion.
byron had not seer the bunny hug.
Parisians and the Centenary.
Parisians desired to celebrate the waltz
centenary.
Time passes,
The year 1909 slipped by, then 1910 and
1911.
Continually there has been talk OF
Messengers ,'fWaltz story which Is not
finished. There were to be memorapie
ballet nights at the Opera, when Won
Weber's Invitation to the Dance" would
have almost religious honors done to II
i'm the elimination of the second act,
where the Waltz reborn humbly among
German peasants. frightened by wars,
yet gently conquering the lnvadins
French troops. finds her way to the court
of Wurttemberg, to be recognized
goddess.
Messengers alleged commemorative
ballet while honoring all great waltz
composers, would be admittedly built up
upon the idea of the TAM Maerchen'
and the "Wienef- W alter" baliets. Just
as the former is the story of the dance
in general. personified by a lovely young
ballerina reborn in many epochs as the
spirit of the dance, so the latter Is the
chronological history of Vienna waitzing
from its supposed conception In the
brain of an old dancing master century
ago UP to the Last Cotillion' OF our
shown him through dream.
Something like the famous dream
scenewould be given entire, but only as
as an episode.
The old German dancing master mas
fallen asleep. after thankless lessons IN
minuet and eontredanse to pretenuous
country nobility The scene darkens,
gilded mirror becomes door as gauze
films rise. aud 20 pretty coryphees tiptoe
round the sombre room in silence 1hen
one sits at spnet, playing softiy d
Strauss waltz while the great orchestra
softly accompanies unkling splnet ana
shadow danseuses. They are a dream,
not of the past. but of the future.
Be sure that "a French Waltz story
would get the waltz spirit into action
earlier.
We are in Provence of the Middle
Ages. Peasants in the village place be-
Meath the plane trees dance the volta
the old. lost singing waltz before the
waltz that was forgotten.
Now we are at the Nalos court in
Paris. where the volta has arrived. Even
the pompous manners of the age could
not quite walk through it. Lively young
maids of honor as if moved by pro-
phetie joy. tempt their brisk partners to
shorten the step and press the move
ment The orchestra, electrified, plays
faster The ballada singers let them
selves loose but cannot follow. Rou..>
aud round they whirl, and round and
round at the court of the Naois in a
pandemonium of gayety to horns and
violins the waltz. the waltz.
Crash, Darkness. And two centuries
are supposed to pass before the waltz Is
born again among common folks, TINS
time in Germany. In between there are
poetic glimpses of its supposed evolution.
Gypsies take its vague beginnings across
Europe To the Hungarians and Poles.
where they develop the mazourka. III
Bohemia are shown the variations lead
ing to the polka. But the Lovely waltz
spirit supple. undulating. melting. must
soon be reborn. perfect. among the Ger
mans to go laughing hand in hand with
the Grand Armee to Paris.
her fdirest freight.
Delightful waltz. on tiptoe for mate.
The welcome vessel reached the genial
strand.
And round her focked the daughters of
the land.
So the scene shifts to Bagatelle. white
villa. restaurants of Napoleonic aristo-
Gratis. in moonlight in the Bots de Bou-
logne. yellow fairy lamps of supper
parties shine inside. i'ark and forest
trees twinkle with rosy Venetian lam
terms. The first waltz orchestra strikes
up in Paris. Young officers teach daugh-
tiers and mammas the step, and soon the
stage fills again with revolving couples.
Rumor does not tell the rest of the
waltz Story" though one hears of
laughahle scene in London society, when