ECCENTRICITIES OF PARIS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15459, 2 March 1921, Page 5

ECCENTRICITIES OF PARIS.

’ NEW FUTURIST DANCING. . , EMOTION FROM BARE FEET. LONDON, Jan. 21.—A message from Paris states that M. Marinetti, the leader of. the French “Futurist” movement, has issued a manifesto condemning all dances from the aqdient to the jazz as sentimental or erotic, and urging the substitution of futuristic dances which, by “our innovating genius we know, conceive, and create.’’ “We have evolved a dance,” says M. Marinetti, “in geometrical.- shapes i'rojn Cubist It is to be an autonomous ;art independent- of music, , and imitating the mdviements of machinery, wheels .and pistons. It will be accompanied by an orchestra of din producers, and will be inharmonious, ungraceful and dynamic.” M. Marinetti deserjbes the "Shrapnel Dance,” in which the movements are accompanied by tho exposure .of cards '. reading, “Short,” “To the right,” “Exposed to enemy’s fire,” “Wind up,” “In No Man’s Land,” “Seeing red,’,’ and , “Peace.” He is lecturing to packed audiences of society' Parisians on - “Tactilism the Art of Touch.” He argues (hat the other senses'have provided arts, but touch has been left; to the Futurists, and ho. is, at present consulting blind men regarding their sensations, and preparing to weave a carpet from which dancers will glean co-ordinated emotion by dancing barefoot. *He contends that different touches indicate definite ideas. For instgnce, something rough, spiky, and hot'vwould represent the Sahara. The sea is conjured up by a thing cold and smooth, and Paris by a mixture of silk and velvet. The lectures were interrupted by rival sects of Futurists, some of whom denounced the Marinetti heresy, while others showed lukewarmness. Feeling was running very high, and gendarmes entered to prevent violence to the Tactilists, eventually ejecting the critics, who loudly advised the apostle, in the Gallic equivalent, to “get worlc.” A fierce controversy, is raging at present in France, Eicabia accusing Marinetti of plagirism, and contending that Miss Clifford Williams, at New York, in 1916, made sculpture intended for touch without sight, and the literary Cubist Apollinaire brought the idea to Paris in 1918 as propaganda. Marinetti retorts that the Italian Boccioni first presented tactile statues in 1912. The publicity is making Marinetti the lion of society. He is unable to accept all his invitations, but hopes to stage dances beforo his departure'. , Marinetti before the war fought a sword duel with d’Annunzio. As no death occurred, presumably it was a decision on points.