A Lost Art.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue III, 18 July 1903, Page 191

A Lost Art.

The observant person who goes to many dances nowadays cannot help noticing how the style of dancing has degenerated. Simply because people do not practise it enough. Not one man in a dozen knows how to hold his partner. and few women know how to hold themselves and dance with grace. Everybody has a particular style of their own. and a waltz, onee the most fascinating and graceful of dances, is now a mixture

of polka, gallop, sehottisehe, and general go-as-you-please in which every individual backs his or her own fancy in steps. Dancing classes are not half popular enough. It is a mistake to imagine because you once took lessons you are finished in the art. It wants continued practice, just as music or anything else does. Everybody should take a few lessons at least onee a year. Not so many years ago it was tne fashion to hold small classes at private houses, the class b ing held at a different member's house one evening in

every fortnight. Coffee and sandwiches were served at ten o’clock, and those cheery informal little affairs served to brighten the winter months as well as to improve the style of ballroom dancing. The time is now ripe for their revival.