FASHIONABLE DANCE.

Bruce Herald, Volume XX, Issue 2072, 14 June 1889, Page 4

FASHIONABLE DANCE.

» The cotillion, which is the favorite dance in France, has never become thoroughly popular in England. Nor is the reason far to seek. An Englishman's temperament is nob ot the kind, to sea auy fan in making liirnself look ridiculous, or an. englishwoman's to eujoy being declined as a partner or unnecessarily declining others. To call the cotillion an idiotic dance may be to err on the side of strong language, and yet many who have joined in it have bestowed upon it this uncomplimentary epithet. Where is the charm that makes Continental hostesses delight in it and Continental guests devote three or four hours to it at the end of every great sauterie, as the French graphically call daucing ? The study of a few of the figures may perhaps lend us to discover the secret of its popularity. One deals wivh colored aprons made of tissue paper. These are brought into the room on a large tray. The gentleman who succeeds in unfolding his apron and putting it on befoie the rest is entitled to first choice among the ladies. A large frame, like that for an ordinary screen, measuring some six feet in height, and with half a dozen pauels, has each p-inel covered with tissue paper. The gentlemen stand behind the screen, and each puts one finger through a panel. On the other side staud the ladies, each, of whom catches, hold of a protruding finger, and, drawing it towards her, brings her ptrtner through the paper screen. Each o tuple then waltzes for a few miuuLe.t, ;md then another figure is introduced. Th-. j feather figure is amusing. The ladits stand in a raw, and one of the meu gets a long feather and tickles them with it under the chin. The one who laughs must dance with him. In the looking glasa figure it is the lady who selects her partner. She sits down in the centre of the room with a small looking-glass in her hand. The candidates come behind her and look into her glass so that she can see their reflection in fche mirror. She jerks her handkerchief rejectingly at them until the chosen suitor arrives. With him she dances " Paper bags " is considered a good figure. Can anyone imagine the average serious Englishman enjoying it? Paper bags about five feet high are provided, with the names of groceries printed upon them such as tea sugar, jam, starch, rice, &c, Each man draws one uf these, over his head, and they all sand awaiting results. The ladies then approach with nothing to guide them as to the identity of the inhabitants of the bags further than their varnished aboes. In another figure, the man who is to make his choice of a partner puts on a huge cardboard head, of some animal, as seeu in pantomimes. He may be a bear, perhaps in semblance, and as each lady approaches he growls at her until the one of his choice arrives. The bonbon figure is one of these that make the men look rather foolish. Boubous are tied up in different colored paper bags and fastened to the end of fishing rods. The ladies daugle these about tho men's heads, and the latter opr n their mouths wide and try to catch the little bags in them. They must not use their hands. When they succeed in catching the bonbon they may dance with the wielder of the rud to which it wan attached. Another figure in which men may, or may not. look idiotic is that known as the baby doll. Each lady is given a large doll, dressed as »» baby, and then selects two men, She dances with one of them

aud hands the other the doll. He must dance with it for his partner, for the few regulation minutes that each turn lasts. Souiu of the sporting figures necessitate a certain Hinonnt of agility on the part of the male dancers. Two chalk lines are drawn upon the floor, at a dist mcc of five or six feet from each other. The names of horses entered in some impending race are printed on cards, two of them bearing similar names. Each lady has one card and each gentleman has one of the duplicates. When the leader of the cotiilion calls out the name of any of the horses, the man who has it on his card is to jump from one chalk line to another, in order to claim the lady who has the same horse's name on her card. If he cannot accomplish the jump, he must not have her, but must pass on his card. Sometimes a low wall made of matchwood and tissue paper has to be cleared in this figure. Some hostesses give very pretty presents in the cotillion, and at large and important balJs these presents are often valuable. They may consist of some personal ornament tied with colored ribbons, eacli tail differing from the other. .Ribbons are then distributed among the men, each of these claiming as partner the lady whose ribbon is of the color of his own.