Year: 1873

in the Oldest times was nothing but the
assemblsge in the7public place of the
whole population of the city for the
purpose of singing songs and dancing
dances of Thanksgiving to the gods.


But as to the Greeks we owe the
origin of the drama Offspring Of the
pantomimic dance so to them was due
probably the highest conception and
development of the art of dancing. In
combination with the science of gym
nastics or the culture of the. body they
appear to have raised the dance into
system Of expression capable Of render
ing all the different passions. The IA
nous dance of the Eumenides or Flu
ries, is said to have communicated such
terror to the spectators that the effect
could scarcely have been greater had
the Furies themselves taken possession
of the stage.


When we learn further than the at
titudes of the public dancers inspired
the greatest Greek scuIptors, who
studied them for their perfect deiinea-
tion of passion, and when we look at
the works of Phidias, we begin to real
ize the extent of difference between
those dances which the Greeks witness
ed those inelegant capers which we are
accustomed to applaud.


The Spartans had a law compelling
all parents to exercise their children in
dancing from the age of five. The lit
tie creatures were led by grown men
into the public place, and there trained
for the armed dance.


The Pyrrhic dance, expressive of over
taking and overcoming an enemy, per-
formed by the young men in four parts,
must have been a kind of exciting bal
let or dramatic dance.


Aristotle places dancing and poetry
in the same rank, and says in his Poet
les that there were dancers who, by
rhythm applied to gesture, expressed
manners, passions, and actions. The
Greeks had fine poets, and therefore we
cannot say, " So much the worse for
poetry p but We cannot help seeing
how the art of dancing has fallen from
its high estate, and become a vulgar and
tasteIess exhibition of mere muscular
dexterity, actually lower down IN the
scale of art than even the war-dance of
the Oiibbeways.


Greek dancing was more than mere
feat of agility. The fire that commu-
nicated itself to the spectators came
from those who were themselves touch
ed with enthusiasm, unlike the human
marionette, the ballet-dolls-on-wires of
to-day.


But, for good or for evil, the passion
for the dance can never die; it is a real
instinct, irrepressible and universal.
We see in all children, and In animals,
and among the rudest tribes, the i'm
rhythmic movement. Children often
dance with rage as with delight.


As we grow older, and the eye be-
comes cultivated and the blood sluggish
we prefer to looking on, to dancing our
selves. And in the maturer periods of
the world among civilized nations,
dancing as a studied art, is chiefly left
to professional and trained dancers.
Yet how often when a rhythmic tune is
played do grown people beat the foot
or nod the head IN time with it A lit
tie more, and they would gesticulate-
a little more, and they would dance.


The singular power which rhythmic
motion has over the human mind, and
its contagious property, may be noticed
in the curious dancing epidemics of the
middle ages (Which seemed to end in a
kind of possession and again in the
coarse rites of one or two modern re-
Iigious seCts.


Dancing in the East Cas seen in the
Alme of Egypt and the Nautch girls of
India probably gives us a better idea
of what the ancients practised than any
thing which we have in our cold North
it is chiefly given up to professional
dancers, who are often highly gifted
and highly educated. But with Us pro-
fessional dancing has become insepara-
bly, connected with the opera stage, and
with but one subject, the tender pas
sion, and this in its conception and il
lustration is so vulgar and so vague,
that it would almost be true to say that
all who do not consider the ballet indie
cent, believe it to be Unmeaning-as it
often is.-St. P0uP8 Magazine.