Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-03

The curious and convenient thing
Iis that dancing provides joy and &C.
stasy and the uplifting of the soul
lanl Mt the same time does positive
moral, artistic and physical good to
the dancer. 1t was practically none
of the disadvantages which accom-
pany other forms OF diversion and
excersises and discipline. You can
get ecstasy out of N bottle of cham
pagne or even a glass of beer tnot to
speak of six giasscs), but the uplift-
if.g is no finer than what dancing
affords; ii is in fact less fine. and IL
has IL grave drawbacks, some OF
which may not be noticed for years
and of which are very apt to be noticed
the next morning.
Again. dancing Is a physical exer-
else quite as efficacious as. and for
Hess tedious than, the ingenious con-
tortions prescribed by training experts.
It's effects upon the action of the skin
is excellent; IL develops the muscles;
IL renders the body lissome: and IL
| fosters gracefulness of carriage. Fur
ther. il cannot fail to teach rhythm;
highly important matter which most
citizens would remain quite ignorant
of il they did not dance. The mere
discipline OF moving accurately TO mu-
sic is very valuable; and so is the dis
cipline of co-ordinating ones move
ments with the movements of another
T, person.
No Cause For Shock.
In nearly all these respects modern
dancing is probably superior to the
| dancing Of earlier centuries, which
was much slower and which certainly
was not calculated to induce ecstasy.
Modern dancing would have shocked
the eighteenth century. and yet the
eighteenth century was more cynical
and less moral than ours.
Finally. in the catalogue Of dane
| ing's merits, there is the fact that
/ unlike golf and such crudities. IL is
practised when people are in their best
snd pretticst clothes and on their best
/ behavior. To sum up, would say that
the craze" for dancing is a truly
healthy and hopeful sign of these
times which are so rich in doubtful
and sinister signs.
I shall not let nay enthusiasm carry
me into the clouds. Public dancing has
t. evil side No, Not the evil side
xhich is perhaps in your minds, and
the existence Of which / do not for
moment credit, ] mean that it keeps
its devotees up too late.
The law ordains { certain hour for
closing public resorts and clubs. but
the law makes frequent exceptions,
and moreover there are well known
devices for evading the law. am
not an advocate Of early dancing:
have no use for afternoon dancing,
and sssuredly do not believe in dane
ing between the courses Of dinner. But
think that people ought TO know
when TO go home. and that too many
of them. even If they do know, lack
the moral fibre 10 act on their knowl-
edge
| Dancers who go home at three a. m.
must cheat either themselves or
somebody else the next day: for there
are not and never will be twenty
seven hours in day. The disadvan-
/ tase is real: il is serious; and every
effort should be made TO minimize IT,
In regard TO the actual art of dane
| ing as exemplified today in public
and semi-public bathrooms. il may be
said TO be fun of interesting problems.
the solution of one or two of which
may ultimately split the dancing
many people-especially people with
plenty Of money in their pockets-the
really acute problem. quite unoonnect-
ed with the art of dancing. is where
&c find hall Or club that or th,. one
hand is not sc fashionahly packed
that you can't move. or. on the other
hand, is not so unfashionably and
ferlornly empty that you feel as If
service for the death of dancing.
Another problem. purely artistic and
technical, is 10 decide whether men
| should dance on their heels or their
toes. There may be serious trouble
over this. Only little while ago the
existence of the problem would have
been unthinkable. Everybody has to
dance on his toes. and on the floor
of the ballroom nobody could even
admit that he possessed heels. But
| today one may witness the finest
male dancers continually using their
heels in preference to their toes. and
defending the practice on the ground
that il gives a better balance and 4
/ quicker turn. and also that it en-
sbles the feminine feet TO get closer
/ to the masculine feet; and apparently
| the inmost secret of good dancing Is
| that the feminine and masculine feet
| should never, never leav each other
A Moral Argument.
4 great problem, of a moral or po-
iitica1 nature, now just simmering up,
is raised by the question:
Why should the man always abso-
| luteiy rule the dancer"
There is no answer to this aues-
ton, except to say that women have
ever been in subsection and there
fore must ever be; which answer is
possibly not quite satisfactory. In
any dance Of two persons, one of the
pair must of course b. autocrat, but
why should not the pair exchange
roles at interYals2
Women know as much about dane
ing as men, and numbers of them
could certainly direct the mutual
movements quite as we'll as the men
with whom they dance. i am sur
prised that our more advanced feni-
nists have not MADE a fuss about such
a Fundamental affair long since
But the problem of problems is the |
admitted monotony of modern dane /
ing. A few weeks ago ! beheld with |
amazement the program of a ball
at Buckingham Palace. With the ex-
ception of the formal opening grand /
qusdriIle and the final galop. every |
dance was a waltz.
There yxere- about twenty vyaItzaS I