The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-30

modern clothes. Some of the girls
wear the voluminous peasant dress
with embroidered skirt and apron and
sleeveless coat, and some of the men
wear the full white skirts and tight
leggings of the national costume.
They swing along in a simple step,
keeping time to slow music. The
leader waves a handkerchief, and the
rest of the line follows along, dane
ing the same rather monotonous step,
around and around. These folk
dances are said to bear a faint re-
semblance to the classic dances of
Athens and Sparta, but the resemb-
lance is vague and not easy TO trace.
The dances in honor of Athens, Di-
ana, Hera, Dionysius and Aphrodite
were performed as expressions of a
deep religious feeling. In the highest
period of Hellenic culture the dances
were graceful. dignified. and altogeth-
er artistic. 1t was only as Greece de-
generated that the dances became
abandoned.
The Greek folk dances are a far
cry from the wild Bacchanales that
are associated with the last stage of
the classic dance. If the folk dances
can be traced back at all it would be
to the dignified professionals in the
groves of some calm and stately deity.
Ancient Dances Described
Though diagrams and complete de-
scriptions of steps have not come
down to us, we can be fairly certain
of some facts about the dances per
| formed by the dance-loying Greeks.
Homer, Plato, Hesiod and other writ
ers described the dances, and the
rhythms of Greek poetry were occa-
sionally employed to indicate the
rhythms of dance In statues,
| paintings and bias reliefs, Greek art
| lists depicted dancers in all sorts of
/ poses.
| Dancing naturally played a large
/ part in the art of that time because
| it played a prominent part in every
/ day life. The religious feeling of the
| Greeks was largely so expressed
| Births and marriages were celebrated
by dances, and at funerals grief was
customarily shown by suitable panto
/ mime.
Sculptured figures graphically show
us the sort of dancing approved by
the Greeks, and it is mainly to the
work of the sculptors that modern
naturalistic dancers have gone fol-
1 Iuelr INSPIRATION
Studying the figures carefully they
have discovered secrets of poise, mus
cular tension, balance and grace tina
characterized the Greeks when the,
were at the height of physical perfec
ton. A figure on tiptoe, with draper
les swinging to one side and arm
swung to the opposite side, nigh
suggest to some of US only a mode
posed by an artist in a graceful att
tude. One student of dancing, Maur
ice Emmanuel finds that such pos
: represents the end of a twirl not un
like the pirouette of the ballet dancer
By analyzing thousands of figure
: of Greek art, Monsieur Emmanue
found that much of the ballet tech
: nique was known to the Greeks, a
though they performed the steps in
freer and far less technical style thai
the ballerina.
The dance experts agree that tn
Greeks danced with the entire body
using the head, hands, arms and tors
to express their meaning. At frs
we are told, the dancers enacted thei
pantomimes very definitely.
They depicted their emotions an
: thoughts so perfectly that the dance
often finds the highest possible sell
expression in the poses that please
PhidiaS 2,400 years ago