href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@50056@[email protected]#CHAPTER_VIII" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">VIII. European Folk-Dancing in General

Folk-dancing an expression of social conditions. Scotch nationalism. The Sword Dance; the Highland Fling; the Scotch Reel. Motives, basic steps. Reel of Tulloch. The Shean Treuse. England: Sailor’s Hornpipe. Morris Dances. Recent revival of old dances. Ireland: Jig, Reel and Hornpipe. Intent, steps, devices of tempo. Irish festivals; Gaelic League. Sweden: recent revival of old dances. The Skralât; Kadriljs. The Vafva Vadna; the Daldans. Holland: the Mâtelot. France: la Bourrée, la Farandole. Specimen freak dances: the Perchtentanz, the Bacchu-ber. The Schuhplatteltanz of Bavaria. Balkan region: the Kolo. Degeneration of dancing in Greece. Russia: Cossack Dance, Court Dance. Slavonic character and steps: the Czardás; the Mazurka; the Szoló; the Obertass. Temperament.

Symbolism, decoration, pantomime, story in the dance. Sensational mismanagement in Occidental countries. Mimetic dancing a substitute for newspapers. The Dance of Greeting; welcome, blessings, etc. Structure of Arabic choreography. Handkerchief Dance of Cafés; candour. Flour Dance. Popular narrative dances. Fantasia of Bedoui; religious outbreaks. Dancing for tourists; the Almées. Dance, Awakening of the Soul. Animate sculpture. Oriental technique. Sword Dance of Turkey. Dervishes. Lezginkà of the Caucasus. Ruth St. Denis; Nautch; Spirit of Incense; the Temple; the Five Senses. Antiquity; carvings in India and Java. Hula-Hula of Hawaii. Priestesses trained for religious dancing. Japan: dancing for all occasions. Abstractness of symbols. Dances of war.

Sterilisation of ballet by struggle for technical virtuosity. Ballet in opera. Vulgarisms and counterfeits: the Can-Can; contortion; high kicking; skirt-dancing; insipid prettiness. A revival of good work; falsifications of it. Loie Fuller, silk scarf, electric lights. Serpentine and Fire dances. Imitators. World’s Fair of 1893; stigma on Oriental dancing. One class of managers. Obscure preparation of a new force.

Isadora Duncan, complete idealist. Her metier. Russia: dissatisfaction with ballet. Duncan in St. Petersburg. Secession from Imperial Academy. The romantic idea; choreography, music, painting united in a radical new school. The Russian ballet. Paris, United States, England. Influence and reception. Management in America.

Selection of pupils. Consecration to work. Contract, obligations after graduation. Advantages to the government. General education. Technical training: Italian ballet technique, music, drawing, acting, pantomime, plastic gymnastics, fencing. Care of health. Age of Academy. Russian ballet as distinguished from French-Italian; law-governed freedom. Addition to emotional scope. Recent ballet pantomimes.

Revived interest in dancing. New forms of dance suited to the present freedom of individual expression. Rapid changes. The Turkey Trot. New names for slightly altered dances already familiar. The Argentine Tango; significance. Detailed instruction for performance of the One-Step, the Boston, the Hesitation Waltz, the Tango, the Brazilian Maxixe. Tendencies toward revival of old court dances.

Re-establishment of great dancing in the United States; will it take and keep a high plane? Loose standards of judgment. Dependence upon commercial management. Managers; their varied influences. Need of endowed ballet and academy. Difficulties of ballet organisation in the United States. Insufficient training of American ballet dancers. Ballet in operas; unimportance under old traditions, changing standards. Metropolitan and Russian ballet; ground gained and partly lost. Russians under other auspices. Ballet school; impositions upon it. Need of academy with dancing as primary purpose. General organisation; departures from scheme of Russian Academy.

ILLUSTRATIONS