The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-05-31
Social Sanity Threatened Says Our Foremost Psychologist

MOTTO state OF the whirling Dervishes and the
raptures in the savage war dances; all this in
milder form. Is involved in ever. passionate
dance. But nothing is more characteristic OF
such half-hypnotic states than TINT the indi
vidual loses control OF his will. He behaves
like drunken man who becomes the slave OF
his excitement and of every suggestion from
without No doubt many seek the dancing
element kind OF substitute for the al
cohoIic eXaltation.
THAT social injury must be feared II the
social community INDUCES In such habits OF
undscpined. passionate expression needs
explaining. The mind is unit; 1t cannot be
without self-control In one department and
under the desirable selfdiscipline of the will in
another. period in which tho mad rush OF
dancing stirs social life must be unfavorable
20 the development OF thorough training and
earnest endcavor The fate of imperial Rome
Manhattan Italy, like America took its art
and science from over the sea, hut gave to them
waited the virtuosi and In Rome, which paid
three thousand dancers. the dance its
glory until It began ingloriously to sink.
mot without inner relation to the inebriety
und yet distinctly different, is tho erotc char
icter of the dance. Lovemaking Is the most
central underlying motive of all the mimic
dances all over the globe. Among many print.
tive peoples the dance Is real pantomimic
presentation of the whole story from the first
warmer and warmer courtship to the raptures
OF sensual delight. Civilized society has moro
or less covered the naked passion, hut from the
graceful play of the minuet to the graceless
movements OF the turkey trot the sensual. not
to say the sexual. element easily be
ognized by the sociologis..
Here again cause and effect move in
circle. Love excitement expresses itself In the
dance and tho dance heightens the love OK
element. This erotic appeal to the senses Is
the chief reason why tho church has generally
taken hostile attitude. For long while the
dance was denounced irreligious and sinful
OH account of Salomes blasphemous dancing.
Certainly the rigid guardians OF morality al.
ways look askance on the contact of the sexes
In the ballroom"
The professor shows a profound knowledge
OF the dance and throws much new light upon
the causes of the sensual dangers that are as
scented with it.
1.-THE dance has still another psychological
effect" he continues, (which must not be dis
regarded from social point OF view. 1t awakes
to an unusual degree the impulse to imitation.
The seeing of rhythmic movements starts siml.
lar motor impulses In the mind OF the onlooker.
1t Is we'll known that from the eleventh to tho
sixteenth century Europe suffered from dancing
epidemcs They started from path oiogical cases
Of st. Vitus dance and released IN the cxcitable
crowds cramplike impulses to initiative move
mcnts But hear tho same story Of In
stinctlve limitations on occasions OF less tragic
character. 1t is reported that in the eighteenth
century papal Rome was indignant over tho
passionate Spanish fandango.
"lt was decided solomnly to put this wild
dance under the ban. The lights OF tho church
were assembled for the formal Judgment when
1t proposed tc call n pair Of Spanish
IT. 1914, by the Star Company. Groat Britain RIEl