The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1914-02-19

of religious expression. Among all the primitive
peoples and among the less developed living peo-
pies, religious fervor instinctively speaks through
the motions of the dance. Primitive man doesn't
talk sing, or preach or pray to his god, he
dances to it. In all Of the more elementary
forms of religion, the experiences are of such
fervent character the man cannot restrain from
motion. Oftentimes with us, religion moves on
ly the tongue but with our forefather it moved
his whole body. Until comparatively recent
date dancing held an important place in the
Christian church ritual. OF this Ellis gives a
number of examples.
Of course, dancing has always been intimate
ly related to love- Social customs over the whole
world and throughout all our history show how
natural it has always been for love to move peo-
pie to dance. Even among the animals and birds
we find numerous examples of the love dance.
Reasoning from the universally of the per-
manence of the habit of dancing, Ellis believes it
to be an instructive expression in human action
of that same habit of rhythm which is found ev-
erywhere in nature and the universe. His utter
ances in this connection recall to mind Herbert
Spencer's great chapter "The Rhythm of
Notion"
The philosopher-scientist there calls our at
tention to the fact that motion in it's very nature
is rhythmica. The taut cord in the wind vi
like the movement of a pennant; dry corn-stalks
before a wind move up and down in regular
measure; the stream that flows breaks into rip
pies; the grass blades in it's current wave to and
fro; the stick drawn suddenly through the water
curves it moves; the cannon-ball never flies
in a straight line, but rcochets from side to
side; the heaviest steam engine falls into
rhythmic throb under it's flying wheels.
Light, heat, color and sound are caused by the
impact on our nerves of vibrations in the ether.
The waves on the sea move rhythmically; the
tides advance and retreat in kind of hesitation
waltz the earth courtesies and bows to it's part
ner the it whirls round its orbit; the
seasons dance in and out from spring to winter.
All life falls into the rhythm of birth and
death and of waking and sleeping. Sorrow fol-
lows upon JOY and restlessness upon rest. Even
the blood does not flow in steady streams, but
pulsates like the tides.
Rhy hm is built into the BRAIN Note how
speaker falls into a sing-song when he loses con-
troll of himself. Music itself is nothing but
dance of sound.
Even the evolution of life, science is begin
ming to show to us, does not advance soberly and
steadily in line, but rather goes forward in
spiral of gains and losses of retreats and ad-
vances. Life itself is a rhythmic thing and dane
es into the world, and the more alive it is, the
more rhythmic. "The significance of dancing"
says Ellis, Gin the wide sense, to us lies in the fact
that it is simply an intimate concrete appeal of
that general rhythm which marks all the physi-
cal and spiritual manifestations of life"
/ One of the most interesting parts of his study
is that in which he speaks of the place the dance
has held in the evolution of human society. 1t
has undoubtedly been Of the chief methods
through which man has learned to cooperate
with man and to subordinate his own impulses to
the movements of his fellows. Among the
Greeks of the classic period it held in high
est esteem. "A good education,' says Plato in
his last book, consists in knowing how to sing
we'll and dance we'll" While Stanley Hail. mod
ern authority on education declares that re-
birth of the dance is imperatively needed if our
education is to include the whole of mans life.
Of course, like all instructive acts of human
nature, the dance is frequently perverted and de-
based. Just as the stage which is used tonight
to exhibit "The Servant in the House" may to-
morrow night produce vile buresque, just as a
singer may in one hour appeal to our souls with
! The Holy City" and in the next shock us with
some salacious street song, also does the dance
E sometimes become the agency of evil.
But those who seek to abolish it do not un-
3 derstand the instructive and necessary place it
plays and has always played in human exper-
ience. The destruction of dancing "has never
proved in the end matter for rejoicing even tc
morality while art which has been init
, mately mixed with all the finest and deepest
springs of life has always asserted itself afresh.
Il And if it perishes in form today, dancing as
an art, you may be sure, cannot die out but will
- always be undergoing a re-birth."
y