SKIRT DANCING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9028, 5 November 1892, Page 10 (Supplement)

SKIRT DANCING.

If any lady thinks skirt dancing an advisable accomplishment for private life, this is what she has to go through to begin with. We are invited to " imagine a large room with a waxed floor and no furniture save a piano and a hammock." This is Madame Kruger's school, presumably chosen for description because it is the beat. "Along one side of the room is a wooden pole supported by brackets. To this pole the pupil clings while learning the first movements. She grasps the pole with the ri'.'hb hand, stretches out the left arm straight from the side, and then, as the teacher counts, raises her left leg and kicks deliberately and with great precision. Now most women can kick. There will, I presume, be little dispute on that point; but do they kick with a perfectly stiff knee? Then the pupil is taught to bend the body to the floor, bub only to bend from the waist. The hips and knees , must be held immovable. The outward and visible signs of a natural dancer are the stiff knees and hips, the foot held with the toes pointing out and the instep curved like the beak of a parrot. • After the sidebar practice there comes what is known in skirt dancing parlance as side and centre practice. The pupils stand in a row, and to music furnished by Madame Kruger's pretty daughter, move the feet forward and . back, right and left sideways, then forward, jumping at the same time, then {i back iin.