A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 16

A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST.

WHEN THE WALTZ WAS PROSCRIBED. Now that we take our dances from America in spite of die strong disapproval some of them win for themselves on first exhibition, it is amusing to turn back to the day when Europe imported the graces of the waltz into a suspicious New World A correspondent of the Glasgow Herald who has been going over old volumes in the search for something rather more significant came across a description of the first appearance of the French ballet in New York. It is quoted in Murat's NortnAmerica, from the Morning Chronicle of 1833. Here it is; Some years ago the waltz was entirely proscribed ' from society; people only danced quadrilles and Scotch reels. Tne waltz was considered at the time of its introduction as a dance of unheard-of indecency. The pulpit held forth against the abomination of permitting a man who was neither your lover nor your husband to encircle you with his arm s and slightly press the contour of your waist. VV hat, then, was the effect when a corps de bailee from Paris arrived at New York? 1 was at the first representation; the appearance ot the dancers in short dresses created an astonishment 1 know not how to describe, but at the first pirouette it was quite another matter. The women screamed aloud, and the greater part left the thcarc: the men remained, for the most part, roaring and sobbing with ecstasy, the sole idea which struck them being that of the ndicu10To judge by the comparatively placid reception of the more extravagant of the new dances, one might say that the sense o- the ridiculous is not what it was.