The Washington times., 1914-03-15
Says There Are 10000 Dances in Japan, and
All But One Too Difficult for Americans

ficult to hold some Of the poses. to
slowly execute some of the movements.
than it is to change quickly from one
pose to the other"
but the most important trouble that
| the American will encounter, here le
| thought deeply for a few moments. is
the TACT that very, very lew OF our
dances allow for the men and the wom-
| en- to dance with one another. We have
nothing like your tango or waltz. There
are dances danced by men alone, dances
| danced by girls alone, and dances
danced by women alone"
Sometimes the dance applies to the
season, and is done only at that time
and by certain classes OF people. There
| is a fall dance by the farmers in the
fall celebrating the taking in OF their
crops. Then there is a dance that the
beggars do in the streets on New Year
Day. You can see very easily why the
young man or woman Of Japan would
not care to do these dances"
Does not your dance mean more to
! you than it does to us:'' l asked, with
wild twirling and useless bending that
l had undergone.
"Oh, yes; it does, indeed. That sets
up another difficulty. The spirit of the
dance must be deep in the heart Of the
auts
understand why You dance them" He
smiled very politely. But you could
very easily see why we do. Ours Is SO
very closely allied to the drama that
Is action. movement, and meaning
therefore, almost drama itself-incorpo-
rated in every one Of our ten thousand
dances.
More often than not, the meaning
underlying the particular movements
and steps is ineXtricably associated with
the customs or tae history Of the ccun-
try. The American could scarcely un-
derstand the illusions, and could un-
therefore, get the spirit"
us. so 1 boldly asked. Have the tango
and the Maxixe and other modern
dances struck Japan yet"
Now had said something very funny.
and he laughed SO heartily that he had
trouble finding words with which to re-
They. surely have. We have regular
American dancing schools and teachers
there and they teach cae very latest
sseps we wa waltz maa ana tsT to d
ut was one Of the new and necessary
points. But here he became solemn
again-'we do not dance these dances
among ourselves. We learned them only
for the benefit of the American hostess.
When we go to an American or English
function it is fitting that We are able to
conduct ourselves in the proper manner.
We must be Cosmopolitan. But 1t Is
very Ql1ncult 10 get the young Japanese
girls of standing to dance, and many
of their elders look upon the American
invasion with disapproval"
I'VE had our dancing done for US for
SO many years that it is hard to con-
vince the japanese gentleman that It Is
pleasure. The Japanese dancing girl.
is a ge sha girl, and a geisha-well-"
He stopped abruptly:
''Old Japan may have invaded New
York. but IL is going to be very difficult
for ii to stay. New York will have an
even harder time making an impression
on Old Japan"
Not that we cannot learn your
dances" he supplemented hastily. "Oh
they are so easy-siX lessons once twice
around and we have her. They are
too easy but 1t is the prejudice that the
Japanese have against mixed dancing
that will have to be overcome.
Going back to the difficulty of learn
ing the dance itself. a few exp!ana-
tions may help 20 show you. Amer
lean dancing Is done with the feet.
mostly, while we dance with the arms,
most'y. Ours is an art. Is classic,
yours is''-another smile that was
an epic of diplomacy-"not.
perhaps / can tell you the dance OF
one of our most famous poems. It Is
like this: II is dusk. The yellow light
from the sky comes from over the
water, a few birds fly across. and
above is a cherry tree. A little boy Is
seen alone. in the distance. The lady