FOXTROTTING

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 17

FOXTROTTING

QUICKER TIME, SHORTER STEPS

Fox trots are quicker. lu almost every big ballroom where a star dance band makes the .music you notice Uns now, says an linglisli writer, ihree years ago the lox trot speed was about J 6 bars a minute. Now it is nearer 54, and sometimes as high as üb. There are three main reasons for tins quicker time ; the crowded state of the ballrooms, the impatience of to-day s bauds, and the demand ot dancers for variety. The melodious lox trot of yesterday, smooth, rhythmic, quiet, flowing, was divine in the large ballroom where there was plenty of space to glide in and out- Bnt that dance is imposible in a crush. If a couple trv it, trodden-on toes and awkward jerkincss—due to sudden stops to avoid other dancers —and bumps result. , Tlie dance of the moment demands quickened time, bringing in a shorter step and a totally different style. Music with the melody sacrificed for a marked rhythm may not be so delightful as the old waltz-like lilting fox trot music, but it is infinitely easier to dance to when the sudden pause, the arrested step, and a dozen varieties of “standstill” and side steps aic necessarily introduced. The “crush” is an od prenomenon that cannot easily be explained. One would have thought that space appealed to dancers, and that they would not willingly patronise a place where the crowd prevented anything like easy dancing night after night. And yet the reverse is .the <?ase. Perhaps it is because jammed together j>-ople forget thcmselvts and are Music alwavs follows ballroom fashions. The new four-step progressive tango was forced in by the growing crowds on the dance floor. At the same time the new congestion rendered a change in the speed of the tango music—it is twice as quick now as it was in the old days—essential. One celebrated dance band leader, who is “Charleston-itig” most of bis fox trots, told me that he preferred quick time, because it is easier to play, and his team liked the greater license it gave them. Also the taste to-day is for change and liveliness, a sort of cocktail music, short, snappy spells, each one giving a distinctive taste.

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