Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-05
DANGERS HAPPY
IN HAVING NO NEW
STEPS TO LEARN
Season Seems Untroubled
With Needs of Study.
Still, There's That
"Knockabout Trot'' They
Talk Of.

The winter dancing season is now wei
| under way and as the general trend tn,
! fad will take during the coming few
| months becomes apparent that vast body
! termed merely average dancers" Is
! breathing sigh of relief.
! And the reason? For the first time
since the dancing craze started three
| years ago the unceasing hood-tide of new
| steps has been stemmed. No longer is II
| necessary for the devotees to hasten
through meals and shorten their quota
OF nights sleep in order that time may
| be had for the relentless pursuit of some
puzzling new pedal agility.
Popular approval has, for the present
at least, sanctioned a very humble reper-
toire. Does one one-step, fox trot and
lame duck" one can dance from dusk
to dawn among the best without the
faintest blush that tinEes the cheek with
the realization of terpsichorean inferior
ity.
The sigh of relief. of course, docs not
extend to the superlatlvely good dancers
nor to the superlatively bad ones. Those
two classes rather lament the absence of
ultra opportunities. In the former case,
because, denied the chance to demon
strate with blase (and assumed) bashful-
ness. their ability to dance everything,
in the latter case because. denied the
chance 10 demonstrate with confident
boldness their inability unrealzed, how
ever) to dance anything.
SO. even If the sigh of relief is con-
fined to the ''only average" dancers they
constitute so vast a majority that the
dancing populace as whole is very
happy indeed.
NO IMPORTED STEPS NOW
The dearth of new varieties of dance
steps can be attributed to that much
blamed bugaboo "warineurope." The
number of dance steps that have been
originated in the salons of the Paris
teachers are too numerous to mention.
The tango and the maxlXe are excellent
examples. With the vast majority of
the one-time experts in the "cortez" and
the flying Mercury" fighting for their
country In trenches. there Is not much
room left in their heads for thoughts of
any kind-and IL any not OF dancing.
As a consequence, the crop of steps
this winter is confined largely to the
Made in America" variety. And while
the native brand is just as good as the
imported. the American creative dane
ing mind Is not, 1t must be admitted.
nearly so versatile. So 1t is that there
are only three dances being done this
winter, and they are distinctly American.
To be sure, having brlbed the musicians
to play the proper music, a couple now
ana then WIND throuSh the steps or the
'lu lu fado" or the "roule roule," or
the like, but such performances are only
incidents and hardly ever features, as
formerly.
STILL, THERE'S THE KNOCK
ABOUT"
Nearly everybody can fox trot, waltz
and one-step. Moreover. nearly every
one who lays pretense to being any sort
of dancer has mastered them. BY which
token. relieved from the anxiety and dis
comfort OF the endless struggle to have
something new, the dancing world is en-
joying itself thoroughly.
But the period OF rest may not be for
long. A black, sinister cloud Is appear
Ing on the horizon. In New York re-
Gently there was introduced the knock
about trot." II one can chin oneself
six times. stand ON ones head and do
a black flip-hop they say it is easy.