The Perfect Dancer

Southland Times, Issue 20792, 5 June 1929, Page 12

The Perfect Dancer

WHAT ARE THEY DANCIN’

(By

Phyllis Monkman).

The dancing season is in full swing, and everyone is wondering which dances will emerge from the ranks of new claimants and win a permanent place in our dance list. . . A word of warning! It isn’t wise to accept every new dance which comes along, because there are usually more failures than successes among the innovations. On the other hand, it ie disappointing to be “behind the times” and so I am going to devote this article to the dances which, in my opinion, .will survive the season. The Sugar Step, invented last year by a famous dancing master (an Englishman, too!) is, to my mind, a very likely candidate. It is easy to learn, most of the steps are short ones, it has a pleasant rhythm, and it entails no fantastic poses or movements. As it is danced to foxtrot music, it has no drawback on that score, for there are dozens of attractive tunes written to this adaptable tempo. Yes, by all inpans go ahead and learn the Sugar Step. It is being taught and danced very widely, and I will deal with it in more detail next week.

One point to be noted is that dances depend very largely on bands; and bands, even in these “radio-active” days, depend much upon local taste, so that the available dance music counts at least as much as the suitability of the new steps themselves. Wehaven’t much tango music; therefore, the Tango and also the ‘Tile trot” are somewhat handicapped.

Another point is our conservatism! We are unwilling to break away entirely from the older dances which have stood the test of time. The Waltz—charming, swaying relic of a past civilization—has come through with only a few changes; the Foxtrot, once condemned as ‘not quite the thing,’ now definitely holds.,premier place on our programmes; the Charleston, recently condemned as immoral and degrading, is danced to-day by all the best people in its final ‘flat’ form. These three dances still remain sufficient to enable an occas-

ional dancer to enjoy an evening in an or dinary hall or ballroom.

For the keener amateur, there are, in addition, the Quickstep, Yale Blues, Baltimore, Tango (if well done), and perhaps the Blackbottom. They were all fairly easy to learn; all possess attractive rhythmic music, and all can be performed on a crowded floor without danger to other dancers and without rendering the performer conspicuous. Therefore they will last. •This year a rather promising novice claims attention —a sort of -mixture of Charleston and the old Lancers. It sounds rather curious, doesn’t it; yet its figures, similar to the old Lancers, patterns but executed to include some flat Charleston steps, are so novel as to command attention and probably some degree of popularity. The reason for this dance’s presence is just that —its novelty! We are getting tired of the conventional turning and twisting and stamping and posing, with our partners always in exactly the same positions opposite us. We want a change—a relaxation from the eternal holding and moving; and because of a lack of inventiveness, or because such ‘breakaway’ dances ae have been tried have possessed literally no other attractions whatever, we have to go-back to the Lancers of Grandmamma’s time, with a spice ofnewness introduced. It is a pity someone can’t give us a nice' new dance “made in England,’’ which combines rhythm and just a little dignity with a workmanlike pattern and an occasional change or departure from the hold of our partners during the actual dance. For if such a measure could be invented, always supposing it to be of a nature which could be employed in an ordinary crowded hall | or room, I’m convinced it would receive an- ovation more emphatic than even that which welcomes the incoming Charleston!