DANCE MANIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 January 1925, Page 2

DANCE MANIA.

jSEiW " YORK'S. HXJGE BILL. Dancing costs New Yorkers something ■'like o,600,G(Xklol. a year, borne of tne officials of the Advisory Dance Dali Committee have been wonting o-ut. statistics, and tiiey make interesting reading. They show that, taking the 786 dance halls in .New York as a basis, til© total annual attendance is slightly more than 6,060,060, but the actual number of men and women is about 100,060, which means that each dancer pays about one visit a week to a dance hall. The total cost to the dancers include about one and a half million dollars for coat checking, refreshments, and payments to “hostesses” as dancing partners, in a general report on dancing, the committee makes an interesting survey of the dance halls. It is explained that there is an institution known as the closed dance hall, where the' commercialisation of the dance has been carried ta the extreme. In these places girls ar© hired on a commission to. dance with, the men patrons. As a general rule no other women are admitted; in any case they are not welcome. Patrons spend from two to three dollars for a reasonable number of dances, and in some cases as much as five, six, or more dollars an evening. The dance hall itself pays the girls four cents a dance, and to make a. fair living—say, about 20dol a week —the girl must I dance 400 times a week, or about seventy times each evening. Of course, they j receive liberal tips from the men I patrons, which considerably increases I their earnings. j The report, iii referring to cabaret | dances, makes the following comments | —“They drew a clientele from a large j social radius. These places are primairiI ly ones in which young people can let | down the bars which restrict them in the environments in which they usually move; here they can make indiscrimI mate love, can smoke cigarettes, and absorb bootleg. They can collect fratnerity pins and telephone numbers. They* dote on giving wrong numbers when asked. “The girls include school girls, college girls, stenographers, secretaries, models, store clerks, and so 1 on. Among the men are college Jioys, j prep, boys, service men, Annapolis boys, j and West Pointers, ‘artists,’ ‘pugs,’ ; and others of that ilk. One occasionally | sees what look to be church deacons [from up-State in town ‘on business.' ” j *ln analysing the dance itself, the I committee finds that “slow Jazz” is | the cause of most of the sensual and i freakish dancing. It urges that the i more complicated dancers like the tango I should be promoted and featured by ) prize contests. It points out that the | public requires constant education to | restore artistic dancing. The one-step | and fox trot, as danced at present, re- | present the line, of least resistance, and lit is urged that steps should be. taken ! to teach more difficult dances and raise the standard of dance halls generally.

The report states that so far the police have not been able to obtain a single conviction of the persons arrested on charges of “immoral dancing” or “indecent exhibition.”