The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-07
DANCES HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT BY THE. MASTERS THIS YEAR.
Gathering in New York Pass on New Steps, and the Public Will Continue
 the Old Ones
By ROBERT C. BENCHLEY
 Associate Editor of Life special Correspondent of The Age Herald Copyright, 1921, by The Age-HePald)

Copyright, 1921. by The Age -Heraldl
 New York. August 6.-The dancing teachers assembled In New York dur
 ing the past week have worked upl
 some new ones. Every year they assemble and work up some new
 ones. And then everyone continues
 to dance the old ones during the fol-
 lowing year.
 We may read that >the latest stop from the dancing teachers conven- i tion is called the pin wheel It isl very spectable-soundfng Gall the convention's innovations are respec-
 table sounding) and involves the
 gentlemans grasping the lady lightly by the shoulder with the right hand, holding up her chin with the left. and taking three steps forward. three steps backward one to right ard one on her instep. The music is that of the gavotte.
 Well" we think, tits lucky that
 I saw this notice in the paper. Now 1 shall know what's what the next l time I go over to the country club to dance l would have been imorti- fled to death to get out on the floor and try to pull an old-fashioned fox trot with everyone else doing this new pin wheel So we practice the pin wheel before the mirror, hold ing an imaginary lady by an equally | imaginary shoulder and looking ter rifically foolish during >the process. But by the time of the next dance at
 the club we have mastered the theory of the pin wheel
 Everyone Dancing
 And then when we get there, we find everyone dancing the fox tFot
 and the one step, and the only time we ask any one if he has ever tried this new dance "the pin wheel" we
 are looked at as if we had asked if he had ever tried these enw mall
 order suits with the nifty slashed pockets.
 Somebody must dance the new dances that the teachers evolve at this convention. They themselves
 must go home and dance them just little, simply out of loyalty to the
 organization. But not one ever sees them being danced.
 No, this is probably because they
 lack popular appeal. They are, in the first place, not simple enough.
 It takes a simple minded man or woman to go out on 8 hot night and
 steam around a room full of other
 simple minded people, pumping and apologizing. or pumping and not apologizlng; and a dance step in or der to be popular with them must be
 simple step. That is why the fox
 trot and the one-step arc so popular. There Is only one simpler way of getting hot on summer night and that is by putting on a sweater and running around board track. Run ming around the track is simpler be- cause you don't have to two-stepl
 at the corners; you just keep going right ahead.
 Now if this simplicity in our pop ular dancing could only be utilized | since all it amounts to is a rather | jaunty walk step--a great many | (well. perhaps not a great many,
 but at least one) of our national l problems could be solved. The prop | lem of transportation, for instance. ,
 Ten years ago people were danc- | ing the Boston" If only some danc- l ing teachers convention could evolve
 a new dance to be called the Boston and Albany"
 1 Boston to Albany l Tn this dance, all people wishing | to go from Boston to Albany or in- termediate points would assemble at the South Station, Boston, where an l orchestra would be provided to roll along the track at a moderate rate | of speed on a flat car. In cleared | space along each side of the track | l ing, just as they now do in the fox trot Cor. if they were in hurry,
 the one-step) only they would walk straight ahead in time to the music
 and not turn any corners. Soon they would be at Worcester and before | they had walked as many steps as most dancers do now before the supp | per dance, they would be in Spring field.
 Here light supper could be served | for those bound for Pfttsfield and | Albany and a new jazz orchestra | rushed in Then on again. In this way the public craze for simple danc- | ing would be satisfied, our national 1 transportation problems solved until the railroads could get on their feet again, and what is now great waste of precious energy in foot | pounds, saved for really usefui l purpose.
 l This suggestion is respectfully suo-
 mitted to the next convention or dancing teachers for considerations before they think up any more piazza steps" or fantasia polkas' which no one will ever dance. |