Arizona republican., 1919-02-09

You may learn the one-step, or the , foX-trot, but that doesn't make you a good dancer; learn the waltz properly and faithfully, and you are a good dancer remaining a good dancer no matter what steps you may do.
 The great majority of our people are dancers. but not all of them are good dancers. In fact, it may be truthfully said that only a small minority are good dancers. Very few dance in time 10 the music. They are doing a two- step to waltz time, or one-stepto fox trot music. It is a sad thing to say, but true, and that is that the majority of our ballroom dancers have little conception of time and rhythm.
 From this fundamental defect in rhythm flow a number of other evils. It is the cause of shoddy dancing, of stilff and awkward movements of the absence of that brace and strength of movement whicn are the charm of the dance. Simply going around the floor is not dsncing. Many persons come to believe that there is very lit tie pleasure in dancing, but that is because they don't dance. They simply jump and move. The joy in dancing comes from dancing well, in time to the music and with perfect control of ones | the music and the dance.
 All this is why ballroom floor is such dispiriting sight It makes one l savage to see people murdering the waltz of any of the modern dances. l sight to see people dancing across each other out of time to the music. | To see them pumping the arms and ] shuffling the feet. It isn't conducive | toward creating finer appreciation of | dancing to see dancers mutilating the | steps of a dance or completely ignor-
 ing the witching strains of the musi- cal rhythm.
 There are any number Of reasons l for this state of affairs One is that
 our dancing floors are usually crowded, 1 too small for the people to really ex-
 press the movements and the spirit of
 the dance. Another is that they are
 satisfied if they can circle the floor
 regardless of how it is done. They
 don't look upon dancing as something
 artistic, something beautiful, some
 thing that if it is worth while doing at
 all should be worth while doing we'll
 But perhaps the most important req
 son for this terrible insufficiency of
 good dancing is the lack of training
 among dancers. The custom is alto gether too common of men and women
 without the least knowledge getting on a floor and attempting to dance Qearning on the floor). This is not
 only vicious imposition, but brutally
 inartistic. It is imposing upon the good nature of partner. It is making
 a floor of dancers look cheap and anna
 teurish, and spelling the fun of it all.
 But, moreover, even when they take
 lessons they do not receive the proper
 training, either because of the ignor-
 ance of the teachers, which sometimes
 happens, or because, as is more often
 the case, the pupil is impatient to get
 results and not desirious of learning
 thoroughly and faithfully. The average
 pupil simply wants to learn enough to
 be able to get on the floor and dance
 with a partner just good enough to
 "get away with it" They don't wish
 to take the thing seriously. They
 haven't the patience to acquire the
 fundamentals of dancing.
 And these fundamentals are not
 many or difficult to acquire. First of
 al comes rhythm adapting the move
 ments of the body to the music of the
 dance; expressing the music in proper
 time through physical movements.
 Rhythm and good dancing are inseper-
 able. It is precisely this dancing to the | dancer.
 A corrolary of rhythm is graceful ac- tion of the body. Too many dancers are stiff, dancing as if they were made of glass or as if they were incapable of the least delicacy of movement. The finest quality of the modern dances is their combined vigor and delicacy of movement, which few dancers express because they lack the necessary rhythmical and physical control of their bodies. This is perhaps the most important problem confronting the dancer and the teacher fdancing to- day. And it can in large measure be solved by emphasizing the waltz and by every dancer learning to waltz properly before acquiring other dances The waltz is the basis of good dane ing. and is in itself beautiful dance It may be said that in the majority O coses no one can be a good dancer without having mastered the waltz The beginner should always start witt the waltz: and if he doesn't it become! more difficult to acquire graceful modes of dancing.
 The waltz has certain peculiar char acteristics which make it the basi of acquiring grace. It is a dance 0 curves, of rhythm and grace. Tn tn waltz the body has to swing in a sym 6 metria lcurve from one measure to an S other, slowly and in perfect time to tn music; swing that trans the body ii grace and rhythm, while in othe dances the swing is shorp and angular \ easier to acquire and do but almos fatal to grace and rhythmical eXpres sion unless the dancer is already mas ter of these attributes.
 The curved swing and movement of the waltz demand and develoD