DANCES FOR NEXT SEASON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1341, 19 January 1912, Page 9

DANCES FOR NEXT SEASON.

THE UNCLASP WALTZ. Of all the smaller social duties that nowadays fall to the lot of the married woman surely (says a writer in a Home paper), that of dance chaperpno is the pleasantest, for is thus not essentially the era of the vout.hful beauty who requires but little looking after? . ' : The girl of to-dav is not only often charmingly pretty of face, but she is se fposscssed, and withal so sure that all s right with tho world that she ,is prepared to enjoy to its utmost,each and every hour. It follows that when she sallies forth lo a dance, by her fine capacity to revel in the exercise and. appreciate all the elements of- the entertainment, she adds a very definite delight to the onlookers. Partners there are for her in plenty, and thus the chaperoue, relieved of all .old-time anxieties connected with the uprooting.' of wallflowers, finds herself at liberty to pass the evening pleasantly. She'has also the opportunity to note how few other chaperoncs are present, most of tho ' matrons who want to dance and enjoy themselves after, their fashion having brought a party of two of young friends to share their guardianship. Sho notes, too, that this season (the article is taken from an English society paper, the dancing season, being: now at its height) has brought with-it an unusually largo supply, of those little changes that are yet of great importance to the danoc-loving members of: the community; not so epoch-making as the advent of the barn dance, first specimen of the freer style now so general. Perhaps the PRETTIEST OF THE NEW DANCES is the Valse-Mazurka, a charming compound of tho two forms indicated by the title, and by it.*' originator dedicated to that very discriminating critic of graceful movement, tho Duchess of Westminster; and certainly one of the most distinctive is that known as the Unclasp Yalse. Tho changing positions of the dancers give much. variety, for it is done in this wise: The partners do not hold each other at all; but start standing face to face, and stretching out both arms sideways, let their fingers touch without interlacing, and thus extended to eight bars .ordinary valse. Then the man withdraws the slight support his fingers had given to hers. : He puts his hand's by liis side, and sho lets hers meet behind her back, and for eight bar.s the? valso clos-a to each other, without absolute contact, the man .having tho .privilege to lead where he will arid to reverse, while she must follow and be ready at the end of heT short period of semi-independonco to resume tho original extended position for the recurring eight bars. Plenty. of • space is. needed, of course, but it is astonishing how few disasters the human semaphores .occasion. ! All tho numerous varieties of Boston fere this autumn danced round instead of straight; and the very most up-to-date, called officially the 1911, has a most agreeable fresh feature. Having begun in the ordinary way (round, of course, to be in mode of the moment), there should be on tho reverse turn six slow, sliding steps done sideways to half tho time of tie music; then Boston round again. Tho jraiiit to remember to ensure success in the 1911 is not to take the sliding steps' until after the reverse turn. The one-step and the two-step arc still in undiminished favour, and the formd' has.acquired a vague,.: mysterious hitcrost by its application in the Ghost 'Walk —at intimate..gatherings perpetuated- inalmost complete darkness, when the lowering of the lights gives a restful charm to. tho gay sceno. This innovation is said to. have originated with a' resourceful .hostess whose party was threatened w'lth premature, disbanding.by the sudden failure of the electric supply, while hastily. . collected candles only feebly dispelled" the gloom during what happily proved to be an only temporary darkness. The general trend this year is rather towards increase in pace, .and emphatically towards increaie of smoothness; and there is never a square to be seen—gone, it seems, gone entirely, in spite of the stately quadrille that yet is do rigueur.'to open' a ball at court: *— ' —