BEAUTY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 96, 24 April 1926, Page 26

BEAUTY NOTES.

<BY A PARIS BEATJTX EXPERT.)

Dance to Prolong Your Life.

I would advise every woman and girl to study aesthetic dancing. Not for a profession, but for a tonic. And you are never too old, nor too young, to begin. I knew a woman past middle-age, who after a serious illness, was threatened with becoming a cripple. She determined that she would make a fight to retain the power of her limbs. She studied aesthetic dancing, under the trying condition of a stiff and painful body and jagged nerves, but she won. She is now nearly sixty, and is as straight, and wellformed as her daughter. It is also a splendid, treatment for—people inclined to have rheumatism. Rhythm is yet another healthful phase of dancing. It puts you in time with things—there is no pulling against Nature, no antagonism. When you are a dancer, you move along with Nature, it is like swimming with the tide, instead of against it. If I.do not dance for at least one period a day, I am neither graceful nor poseful, nor happy, I am restless and moody. When I dance, my whole moral attitude changes, everything looks cheerful. I am entirely happy, and my body seems to float and ' soar without effort; The girl who is a dancer, is ajso the girl who is happy, because of the pleasure of the dance. Dancing is a men: tal as well as a physical tonic. Dancing not only induces health, but also-induces beauty, for the strict routine of diet, long hours. of sleep and regular exercise, make firm muscles, a clear complexion and sparkling eyes, while the music atmosphere of the story that •you-tell, while you-.-dance makes your face expressive and intelligent. So the specific "thing that dancing does for us is to bring into action our big muscles, which in turn-; quicken our circulation. The heart, then, sends more blood to the * lungs,, thus supplying them with a greater amount of oxygen. This again, makes the blood: more pure, and helps the liver and other vital organs. With a healthy body secured, beauty, rhythrri", relaxation will be the natural outcome. The-welfare of the body, the contentment of mind and heart, —there are no

two greater aids-to a long life, than these two states of being, that can be created by dancing. Famous beauties, again and again, have attributed their physical and mental attitudes to daily dancing. Sallow skin and lustreless eyes, consuming fatigue, and headaches, know ii" place*" with she,- who dances often. There have never been so many students of the aesthetic dance as there are to-day, and they range in age from tiny children,: with their little above-the-knees skirts, to grandmothers, with their skirts comfortably cut, to the pace of the fox-trot,for the evening. They know that they ,f eel well and happy when they.dance. So they dance, and dance and dance, and while they dance, they are unconsciously aiding Nature'with the automatic workings of their Vital organs. The fox-trot, the tango," the blues, are all very "well, bu£ if you want to do a drawing room "stunt" or merely learn classical dancing for health's sake you should ,follow a regular course of dancing; and choose a good teacher and let her select the dance best suited to you. Take the Cossack danoe, for instance. In this dance the performer drops to a sitting position unsupported, and in this position races vigorously about, extending first one foot, then the other, sometimes with folded arms, sometimes with arm movements,as well-T----in other words, he sits.down on nothing, as it were—-and thus balanced, on air, runs swiftly about'the stage, kicking out each foot alternately. In this activity his vital organs get a healthful jolting that no ordinary exercise could give them; Add to these physical movements the pleasure caused by the inspiring music that accompanies the dance, and I think you will have to acknowledge that the dancer has become completely and healthily exhilarated. In the Scotch Reel, the movements are' not violent, but they tend to make you very supple. Tt is a graceful dance, and one that you can dance alone, to the sound of your gramophone, Without anyone 6eeing you, or anyone being any the wiser.-. Then there isi'the Czardas, the Hungarian peasant dance, the movements of which are not so violent as the Cossack dance. The twistings from-the waist up, the shakings of the whole body, and the weight that your legs are forced to bear, strongly stimulate the internal organs. Learn the dances, if can,- hut if that is impossible begin just the movements given here in a moderate- manner erexy