"THE MORALITY OF MOTION."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 37, 8 January 1886, Page 5

"THE MORALITY OF MOTION."

(Nero York Freeman.) Young people who are fond of the waltz are always ready to defend their favourite exercise by saying that those who object most to it do not know " round " from " square " dancing. And in some cases the glib and flippant young person of the period has been known to reduce the censor to silence by a series of skilful questions involving Terpsichorean technicalities. Now, however, the censor of a serious turn may make himself master of all varieties of the dance in a serious and dignified way, by simply reading Mr. Allan Dodworth's " Dancing and Its Relations to Education and Social Life." Mr. Dodworth is no frivolous danc-ing-master. He is quite another thing. He is a professor of " morality in motion." Mr. Dodworth would be insulted if anyone in his presence were to confound a mere teacher of dancing with a master of motion. Mr. Dodworth pays much attention to the Minuet de la Cow, for which be gives explicit direction, but, although he regards this dance as refining and elevating, he gives most space to the waits, which is the moat fashionable of the " round dances " — " the culmination," he says, "of modern society dancing." He bursts into a grand gush of prose. Osaian could hardly have done better on the same theme. " Suddenly," he cries, " the major supplants the minor — forte-crescendo-poco-a-poco-crescendo-fortissimo. The] music is full of electricity ; this reaches the dancers ; they spring about, as if \hn previous gentleness had renewed their vigour for the rapture of thin strain, when both music and dancer i seem to be overflowing with vitality and joy." This is what Mr. Dodworth calls the " morality of motion." He than gives an example of what we may call the immorality of motion. This is a very common phase of the waltz : " A man approaches a woman ; tucks his arm under her shoulder ; she seises that arm above the elbow, with fingers well under as if to tickle him. She will then perhaps lay her anointed locks upon hii snowy sbirt-fron f ,— mingling her crisp frizzles with his flowing whiskers. He extends his left hand, palm upward, as though catching rain. (She seems to plaster hers on top of it, both arms extended in imitation of a pump-handle. Or, perhaps, he may take her hand, and place it behind, in close proximity to the two buttons at the top of his swallow-tails. They are now ready, and commence with a simultaneous kick sideways ; then there is a slide, and a tremendous sway in the opposite direction ; then the kick is delivered on that side; another slide and sway sends them back again ; and so they continue to kick and sway." Mr. Dodworth is shocked by the utter depravity of these two persons. He holds up to view a tableau of the moral performers : " The right hand of the gentleman should rest very gently upon the lady's back, as near the waist as possible, so as not to remove the upward pressure of the elbow directly under the lady's shoulder, as this is the lady's support, and must be held with sure, but gentle firmness. . . In this position each will be looking over the other's right shoulder, and by the lady turning her head slightly to the left the effect of the group will be greatly improved, and prevent all possibility of taking each other's breath, which is rarely pleasant, and in the case of a young man directly from the use of a meerschaum is " positively horrid," as many ladies have remarked. . . . Both persons should be slightly beut forward, from the hips upward, so that the shoulders may be only three or four inches apart, the distance increasing downward ; this leaves both parties free in their limbs, so that any contact of person or knees may be avoided, and should be avoided, as a serious mistake." This mean*, of course, that the performers embrace each other as gently as they can, and whirl with as much decorum as is possible under the circumstances. But from Mr. Dodworth'a own admonitions, we gather that decorum is the exception rather than the rule. And in the romping dance called the g<>rman, to which he gives m my pages, it would be almost impossible for young pjople to follow Mr. Dodworth's careful directions as to the manner of preserving outward propriety. It is understood that in the german— which is probably the most fashionable of all dances— the woman fchall dance with all the men in the room. She changes partners frequently in a great hurry ; she is tossed from man to man in the rapidity of the dance, until decorum becomes the very last thing thought of. Mr. Dodworth makes au urgent plea for dancing as a part of education, and takes high ground on the subject. Unfortunately for his argument, he holds that skilful dancing must be moral, while inartistic dancing is immoral. His theory brings to mind a remark attributed to Margaret Fuller— one of the seeresses of the transcendental school. She and Umerion were looking at the gyrations of Fanny Ellsler : "That is art," he said. " Art. Kalph ? ' she echoed ; " that is religion 1" Mr. Dodworth has mixed things up in a similar way. If the grace and s^lf- restraint of tbi minuet could be taught by the professors of ■* morality in motion," dancing would again become, as it once was, an important means of drilling young people in the way they should walk, stand, and carry themselves. As it is — to quote Mr. Dodworth on the time when waltzing was first introduced •• Ifoni toit gui mal y pease " is repeated until modesty becomes a shame. In the meantime, the waltz holds possession of the social floor. There are those who follow Mr. Dodworth's maxims, but many more who do not, even in the refined regions of " society." As to the whirl of the average picnic and " sociable," it is scandalous— a sign of retrogression to the pagan dances in honour of Venus. In spite of the disapproval of the Church, Catholics often surprise Protestants^-unaware bow elastic consciences may be on some

points— bj indalging in public in the promiscuous romp of the german. It would be a decent thing for Catholics of social standing to show their respect for the voice of the Church by omitting from their entertainments all dances in which close embracing and voluptuous music can form part. Fashion rules the fifty -cent picnic as well as the most exclusive ' reception." A move for modesty at the top of the line will be felt in time at the end.