A WEIRD DANCE CREATION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 21

A WEIRD DANCE CREATION

LEARNT IN THE PARISIAN UNDER-

WORLD.

Gloria Swanson does an apache dance in' her newest Paramount picture, "The Humming Bird." For weeks she has been , practising .the. weird dance crea-; tion with Aurello Coccia, who introduced the dance into the United States,,'and who, for the last ten;years, has been' dancing i£ on various variety stages throughout the United States..The style,, manner, and music for the dance were brought from.Paris by Coccia fourteen years ago, when apache dances Were all the rage in America, states the "San Francisco Chronicle.",,.-The steps, are the same. that Coccia saw and learned on many visits to the Paris underworld, where such queens of the apaches as Casque dOr, Chiffpnetfce, and Pepe held" jsway. . .'. . ' , .v~i . •-. •; -. . .'

"The apache dance is cruel, fierce, and wild," explained Coccia. "Many people believe that it has been exaggerated by dancers, but that is not so. One night in Paris, while making the rounds of the cafes in the Montmartre district in search of colour for my dance, I was fortunate enough to witness a little'triangle.; drama .between two apache men and a girl.. One of the apaches, seeing, the woman with his rival, picked up a bottle^ and smashed it'to fragments on the floor. He deliberately, cut his hand with apiece, of glass, advanced, tp the defiant girl, seized her with his bloody hand, and began to dance 'to the strains of the notorious, Mattischiche, "jit was a fascinating, sight." ■-".-' .- .... In staging, the dance in America, Coccia substituted the music of Offenbach's "Papillon" for the~ more common melody, .and made a sensation with th'ef dance on the' Keith time. He will do a portion of, this dance with Miss-Swan-son.in the picture. ' -.- . ' „ ■■ .'' .•'