STRANGE DANCES IN PARIS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19879, 21 February 1920, Page 6

STRANGE DANCES IN PARIS.

(By ANDREE VIOLLIS.) i PARIS. • No fiats, no coal, no salt, and no i money! Everyone in Paris moans, i groans and grumbles. But they dance. 5 There arc private and public dances, in i tho cabarets of tho slums and in pal- ; aces, in the big restaurants—between i tho courses—a't tea-shops and music- . halls. There is dancing at all prices and to suit any pocket- To the strains of an asthmati’oal piano or of the most select jazz band, with bells, whistles, sirens, rattles, cymbals and timbrels, there is dancing by night and dancing by day. “Hapless creatures,” sighed an old - pessimist. “Just as it was before the t Revolution—they are dancing on a volts cano!” :1 In these times of coat scarcity it is e splendd for warming up one’s feet, isn’t t it? But there is dancing on tho water , too. One of the most famous “ danc1. ings ” inaugurated a few days ago is - being held on the site of a very olci 1 and very well known Paris swimming i hath. 0 It was a most brilliant opening, with 1 curious now features. Suddenly a sine istcr red light glowed through the ims mense hall, in which were lugubriously i frisking about several hundreds of 1 couples, their necks craned forward. - their brows puckered, their eyes bulg- - ing, their arms twisted by I do not i know what inexplicable contortions. For - nothing can bo more dismal than the i various capers of these modern days. - .At one end of tho stage n celebrated i singer, in a flood of cadaverous green s light, gave vent, her month wide open t and trembling convulsively to sinister r kowls that an invisible chorus punctu-. i ated with long-drawn-out wailings. This ; vision of macabre (gruesome) j dancing r in a very warm place is the very latest 1 of the season and is called “ tango to r song” (Tango c’nante). M'hen the lights were turned up 1 r was able to admire the toilettes, which t consisted of very scanty skirts and no . bodice. Perhaps there is a prnisn- . worthy sense of economy hero? Yes, 1 but the absent sleeves arc replaced by - strings of pearls or diamonds that cei- ; tainly cost more than material, even . at its present price. I calculated that y tho greater part of these dolls hail more 1 than £3OOO worth of clothes on their 5 hacks, without counting furs and jewels. It may he noticed that the older and uglier tho women, tno more canorous the decollotagc; I still have, before my j eyes an amiable woman of fifty clad uniquely in a faded smite and a short, s bulging skirt in ostrich feathers :1 through which shone her agile fleshj. coloured silk stockingsn Fpr age has nothing to do with tho !_ feelings or (lancing. Many respectable I' women go in for it. either to got thin or .to fight rheumatic pains. It is less g tiring arid more agreeable than Swedish j drill. A dear old dowager of seventy told rno that she went In for an hour r of this sport every day. It is also practised as a cure for grief. Did 1 not j f eo. a widow with a long crape veil whirling wildly about like a dancing J Dervish? a rt is for such ancient wall-flowers that the establishment provides elegant £ partners, who are nakT for their long- , suffering devotion at the rate of from 10s to £2 an evening. 5 A precious resource for the young briefless barrister and the doctor’with- - out patients who boast a light lee and ! no income, it will also soon bo the refuge of unfortunate candidates at, the coming elections on whom the electors executed tho scalp dance. The promoters of the “dancings” ought, nevertheless, to make a good thing out of it, as each guest pays an entrance fee of 2-h to £2 nndVmorally obliged to drink, or at least to pay for, a Pottle of champagne at £3 os. However, do not run away with the idea that all of them make a fortune. If many “ dancings ” aro opened, many are shut down also. Gu tho opening day they are crowded with tho strangest pot-pourri of artists, foreigners, adven- . timers, mondames and demi-mondaincs, IMontraatro models and nouveaux nohes. The next week there is no one. I ihe birds have flown elsewhere. For I am going to let you into n secret; there is lots of dancing in Paris it is true, but it is always the same people who do the dancing.' This is why the “dancings” only live like autumn roses for the space of a morning or rather of an evening.