The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-05-11
Frederic Haslkin's Letter


wasAiaston, D. C.. Nay io.--~rhs
Dance q the NacAtas Gan" was re-
Gently Enacted By young man u
. local psrformAncs beeore . highly
edited audience. In this artistic
effort the young man took some
thing distinctly modern and tried to
interpret the emotions which it
would arouse In . sensitive be-
holder. Just - the early Greeks.
the early Egyptians. the American
Indians and many other ancient
and primitive peoples have tnter-
preted the familiar and striking
features Of their lives In dance.
Opinion was divided - TO the
merits OF the young mans par
formance II was in fact rated all
the way from the sublime to the
ridiculous. But 1t had to b con-
coded that he was an artistic pi-
oneer Of . high order. Ever since
certain stage stars popularixed IN
terpretative dancing In thls coun-
try some years ago. the vogue 81
it as an art has been spreading.
There are schools Of interpreta-
tive dancing in nearly al Of our
cities. Plump ladies' dance to get
thin and thin ladies dance to get
tat, and all Of them danca. OF
course. to express their souls. In
addition to tho women. there Ia .
small and courageous band Of male
dancers. These are the real mar
tyrs Of the cause, for although
among most : primitive peoples
dancing has been more Of . male
than a female art Although David
in the Bible danced for the glory
Of Jehovah. IN the face of his wffs's
disapproval, solo dancing has now
come to b regarded - primarily a
feminine art Social dancing BY
couples. of course. 10 an entirely
different thing, being a form OF
communal counting. and . lineal
desccndsnt Of tho social orgies
Of savage tribes, and not an artistic
effort at all
But the important point IL that
this brave young man Of the ma
chine gun dance was trying to in
vent an American and modern in
terpretative dance, and SO get away
from the initiative character of all
our dances. Just - our architect
ure in this country Is a groteeQue
mixture Of Greek, Gothic, English
and Italian with dAbs OF Oriental,
so our ilterpretative dancing has
been initiative Of Greek, Egyptian
and Hindoo efforts. In neither il
there anything original, anything
zone hundred per cent American.
Now our literature Just recently 10
showing strong signs Of indegen-
GUS originality, and our architsc-
ture. dancing and other arts should
be able to follow suit.
II the young mans mechanical
motion was followed out we should
have likewise the dance Of the
steam drill. tho dance Of the steam
shovel, and above all the dance Of
the steam roller, which would af-
ford opportunities for the heavy
talent which is so abundant in
dancing circles. But the new Ameri-
can school of dance should express
the soul of the great American
people father than the mere me-
chanical externals Of its industri-
al technology. For example, op-
posed to the famous bacchanal Of
the ancient Romans We should have
the prohibition dance. The imagin-
alton fairly riots with possible de-
tails. Likewise the dance of the
blue laws would surely be one of
our masterpieces. enbodying the
very soul of our traditional pufi-
tanism. Imagine also dances which
interpreted tho spirit OF . great
American amusement park, AMI
think of the effects which could be
wrought in . dance OF election
night, or . dance OF the Red
Peril.
Does 1t strike you - ridiculous?
It is by just such Interpretations
Of their national and racial life
that the ancient race raised the
dance to . plane Of equality with
music and painting - an art. And
it IL BY our failure TO interpret our
selves tat We have let It degen-
crate into jigging and closgin9.
We are a = disadvantage In crc-
ating . dance form typical of our
period. because dancing has held
almost no place in our lives az a
rite or for salf-exprossion. In the
beginning OF the race, the primitive
man began spontaneously to imi-
tate the attractive rhythm of the
waves or grass In the wind. Then
rythm became IN accessory to wor-
ship, and for centuries, savaxes,
Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews
danced before their affairs. But in
the early times religious dancing
began to lose favor, until now only
in Spain, among civilised nations,
is thers any religious dancing,