The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-11

Evening World.
you maxixe? If you don't, it's
II about time you learned how to do
it-for the maxixe has been in
New York a whole week. 1t was import
ed from Brazil via Europe by Maurice and
Florence Walton, his dancing partner. But
unless you have supped at Resenweber's,
where these dancers appear every even
ing in this latest and most exotic fam
tasia for the feet, you don't know how
archaic the tango is and how prehistoric
the turkey trot has become
What is the maxixe2 Maurice says it is
easy, that he could teach the most stupid
person to dance it in an hour-he doesn't
add $40 an hour-but that's what he got
on the last westward trip of the Impera-
tor, when Mr.. and Mrs. Spreckels of san
Francisco, who We're fellow passengers,
decided that they positively must learn TO
maxixe right away. In San Francisco,
and elsewhere, Spreckels rhymes with
shelels, but ordinary mortals on dry land
pay Maurice s25 an hour The extra, Sl5,
of course, was for asking him to maxixe
on his sea legs.
One afternoon recently Maurice and
Miss Walton gave special performance
of the new dance at No 46 West Sixty
ninth street SO that everyone might get
an idea what the maxixe is like.
Maurice says the dance is not shocking;
Miss Walton says it is shocking if you
dance it that way.
+, 1 can't say positively whether it is or
not. Nevertheless, l should advise all
persons who are easily upset to have a
shock absorber somewhere about when
they see the maxixe for the first time.
| The maxixe begins with the man and
woman dancing side by side in a forward
heeI-and-toe movement, like modified
buck and wing.
| In the second position they face each
other and swing into the old fashioned
two step, revolving about till they have
made complete circle and accompanying
| the rhythm of the music with a slow,
swaying motion of the shoulders not the
djscredited shoulder movement of the old
turkey trot, but 1anguid, graceful mo-
| tion).
In the third position the girl is in from
of the man Chat is. her back is toward
him, though he clasps her hands,, and the
step is one-two-three, one-two-dip.
The girl dips way down to the ground.
Miss Walton described the figure as a
Russian step.
The fourth position of the maxixe is, lit
orally and figuratively-the kick 1t is also
the one which stern moralists will view
with a dubious eye-and they, too, may
make kick. Miss Walton described II
this way.
.'The step is the five step Of the tango
do the mans step with my foot in the
air and Maurice comes forward with the
woman's step, SO that his knee touches
mine as my other knee recedes.
"As Maurice comes forward with the
woman's step he literally raises me from
the floor with his knee. For this reason
a fat woman cannot dance the maxixe
though it would reduce her more than any
other dance If she could. But no mar
could lift such weight as would be re.
quired of him if he danced the maxixe
with stout woman.
FOR this reason every woman in New
York who weighs more than 1870 pounds
may consider herSelf sa1e from the temp
tations of the maxixe."
Maurice--sponsor of the new dance ir
New YorlS--does not view it with a crit
les or bishops eye.
'Tt. is the national dance of Brazil" III
said. "and succeeds the tango-the ma
tional dance of Argentina. 1t is proper
when properly danced, just as the waltz
isAproper or improper according to thu
people who dance it. As they do it II
Rio de Janeiro sometimes, where men ant
. women whirl around for an hour till they
become dizzy and senseess, 1t is wha
you would call risque. 1t Is the rag,
in Paris, but the French do not dane,
it properly.
'"They don't dance anything properly
It's only in America that you see clean
fine dancing. Why, the amateurs in New
York--the men and women who get III
and dance at Reisenweber's every night
are far better dancers than half the pro
fessionals in Europe that people pay
real money to see. French women can
not dance without the wiggles and wag
giles that make a dance suggestive. The.
} are all right for slow, languishing music
But when it comes to rag they're {
joke. and risque joke at that. Rag
time. after all. means good time. clear