PAID TO DANCE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 14

PAID TO DANCE

HOW PARTNERS ARE PROVIDED

IN FRANCE.

"I wish I had a large acquaintance here with all my heart, and then I should be ablo to get you a partner.'" Baid lire. Allen to Catherine Morlan'd, as they sat in the Upper Assemblyrooms at Bath. But Mrs. Allen lad uo acquaintances there, so Catherine was compelled to sit and watch the dancers longingly, with no hope of finding a partner, till Mr. Allen came ' from the card-room and took them home. And as she was a well-brought-up young lady of Jane Austen's day, Catherine Morland, of Northanger Abbey, hid her disappointment as best she , could, and hoped for better luck another day. Twentieth century Catherine Morland, seated with Mrs. Allen, of 1923, at the dansant in Monte Carlo, manages things much more agreeably fpr herself (writes Marjqrie Harland in the . "Evening Standard")'. Hardly; have they sat down than the band strikes up, and before the first half-dozen notes of the saxophone have crooned through the brightly-lighted room before' Mrs. Allen had finished her sentence of regret that they knew no one there, an elegantly dressed young man is bowing before Catherine, hoping that he may have the pleasure. She accepts calmly, without surprise. Beyond a guiding word on the intricacies of the "winter's step, he does not speak to her, and the dance—or, rather, the final encore—ended, ho returns her to the table, and, bowing ceremoniously, leaves her with a deferential "Merci, mademoiselle." The professional dancing partner, or, as the French call him, the gigolo, is not confined to France alone, and he is to be found in ever-increasing numbers in England. Young Russian aristocrats exiled from their own country are sudposed to supply- a number of'the French gigolos, but here they are mainly recruited from amongst the very large number of young men who for five years learnt little else but to' fight for their country, and to dance when they could escape from that pecupation. Now the fighting has finished, and the days of short leaves, when money had to be spent quickly, in case there never was another opportunity of spending it, are over. If they would dance to-day it must no longer Jje for pleasure alone. So they have fallen back on their accomplishments to take the place of the job non-existent for so many of them. A few weeks ago a professional dancer advertised himself. and two tickets for one of the great balls, and it is said thai an agency even exists in London to supply expert partners for young women who despisa the amaieuv efforts of their men dancing friends—or who do not wish to risk a wallflower evening.