The sun., 1916-09-24
Gift OF Song Came Suddenly to Lillian Patison a Few
Days After Divas Death, and Students of Super
natural Are Wondering at Coincidence
DAVID BELASCO.

were II known Its publication wouli
he %prcjudicial To the career Of tho
child. The testimony OF one Of the
witnesses described in tho Journal
as Helen Freeman Is most interesting
as showing the prccocity of the juve-
nile dancer and singer. She had lived
In the same house with Lillian and her
mother for two years and was con-
stantly In contact with them. There
was n victrola in the parlor and Mrs.
Freeman drew the attention Of the
mother to the fact that. regardless II
what selection was played upon It..
The baby. for she was then about 4
years old. would rise and dance. as
though the melody hal become part OF
her. She could. without the slightest
suggestion from any source, interpret
Mendelssohn's Spring Song" or shc
could gather INTO the posirgs n
rhythm OF the waltz the Humorcsaue
OF Dvorak as transmitted iato the
golden chords OF Kreisicr, She caught
tho weird suggestions of the 'Danse
Macabre" of Saint-Sacns. or again she
felt the religious impulse OF such
works az The Jewels Of the Ma
DONNA The effect. considering that
this was the performance OF an infant
scarcely out Of arms, was positively
uncanny.
AT FIRST testifies Mrs. Freeman.
the mother did not seem to pay much
attention To It. simply saying. on. yes.
she has always done that But as
soon as she grew to realize that other
children did not always do that she de-
cidcd to take her to an instructor. She
called upon Prof. y. a ballet master.
He refused to take the child because
he said that she was too young. and
that il would be a waste OF time To at
tempt To instruct a girl Of her age. as
the sense OF rhythm and her ear were
not developed. Mrs. patison. however,
asked him to see tlrc baby dance. He
did so. and promptly changed his mine
| and offered to take her at a ridiculously
low figure. lie was. however, en-
tremely busy at this time, and after he
had shown her a few exercises to pre-
vent the arches OF the feet from break
ing down. which she has since kept up
for practice, Mrs. Patison decided to
discontinue any attempt at work with
him. lie tried to give the baby a dance
which the child refused to do. saying
that she preferred to feel her " way
about the music and to let the music
tell her what III do instead OF Mr.. y.
Sin the summer she spent some time
in the country and in the mountains
alone. but dancing all the time, both
outside and indoors. When she re-
turned in the fall Mr.. y. saw her
again. lie said that her Improvement
was so great that he would like to ex-
ploit her publicly, which. of course. her
mother would not permit. From that
time on she continued to dance. giving
her own Interpretation Of what the
music inspired her to do. Her mother
is no, a dancer. n therefore had no
idea whatever ABOUT giving her in
structions or suggestions. The baby
has. of course, seen Pavlowa and Isa-
dora Duncan dance. rav!owa is amazed
AT the child's dancing. and advised that
she should have no instruction whatso-
ever. but be allowed to follow her W
instincts. lsadora Duncan has never
seen the baby dance. From both OF
cheese dancers little Lillian has, OF
course. assimilatcd something, al
though she expressed herself in the
Greek way before she saw Isadora
Duncan.
"in her Hawaiian dancing she has
caught perfectly the spirit OF the mu-
sic, and she has seen any one
dance in any a similar to the way
that she herself does. To the en-
perienced eye that which Is artificial
in her work can easily be discerned
from that which is spontaneous and
her WI conception. That which was
her own was the true and beautiful ex-
preston. She has always had an ac-
curate sense of rhythm. and had given
to the mood Of the composition a per-
feet response.
"Enesco In Europe improvised for
her hours trying to catch her with UNI
expected and intricate rhythms, but she
uncannily seemed to anticipate every
thing that he was about TO do and
perfectly followed him."
Nine. Iavlowa said the other day
at the IIIppodrome that she was much
impressed by the dancing of the young
prodigy.
Il first saw her." she went on. "at
the home Of Mrs. otto 81. Kahn
through an arrangement which was
made by Miss Malvina hoffman,. the
sCulptrcss. The child was then only
6 OF : years old, as | r%ecollect-a slight