A history of dancing

la

A HISTORY OF DANCING.

STHAKERS'.

8 & 9 Hayne Street, West SmithBeld,
London, B.C.

A

History of Dancing.

n

BY

REGINALD ST-JOHNSTON.

M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.,

Author of " The Dream Face," etc.
W

1906.

LONDON.
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & Co.

CONTENTS.

jr

— •-_-..

CHAP. PAGE.

I. The Muse of Dancing in Ancient Mytho-
logy, and her alliance with the kindred
arts ' ... 9

II. Dancing as a Religious Ceremony ... 17

III. Ancient Forms of Dancing in Greece,

Italy, and the East 26

IV. Some Early Forms of English Dancing ... 40

V. Allegorical Dances among Primitive

Nations 62

VI. Quaint Dances in Civilized Countries ... 77

VII. The Ballet, its origin and development ... * 93

VIII. The Stage Dancing of to-day 116

IX. Dancing as a Social Pastime 132

X A Short History of the World's Dancers 159

Literature on the subject of Dancing ... 194

Miss ADELINE GKNEE.
(Hana).

Miss KATK VAUGHAN.

SOME MODERN STAGE DANCERS.

MR. EUGENE STRATTON. Miss TOI-SY SINDEN.

(Langfier). (Hllis).

Miss ALICE LETHBRIDGE.
(Chancellor).

Miss LETTY LINO. Miss MAHEL LOVE.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

A Group of Modern Dancers Frontispiece.

* t

Dance of Joy at the Overthrow of Doubting Castle 51
(From an early copy of " The Pilgrim's Progress ").

A Dance in Otaheite 70

(From a first edition Capt. Cook's " Voyages ").

•

* 9 41 ' •-
Signor Vestris 102

(London Magazine, April, 1781.)

PREFACE.

HERE was a time in England, in the far-off
past, when dancing was considered as an
accomplishment to be acquired by every true
knight ; has not Chaucer himself given as the
quartet of courtly graces, Valour at Arms, Dancing,
Drawing, and Writing ? Since those days dancing has
both gained much and lost much, but grace is still
the keynote of the art, an Art that is as true a one
as that of Music or of Painting. Let dancing be but
graceful and it will always be a thing of beauty.

Of late years there has been a tendency, not only
on the stage, but also' in the ball-rooms, to wander
from " the polished graces of our ancestors," and to
introduce, in the former, certain styles of dancing
that are far from graceful, such as " cake-walks,"
high-kicking, and other extravagant forms which can
only debase the art; and in the latter, a wild and
irresponsible romping, which has made such expres-
sions as " Kitchen Lancers " a bye-word.

In this book I have endeavoured to show from what
beautiful origins many of our dances have sprung,
and how the great dancers of the past were wont to
associate with their dances the poetry and noble
thoughts that were the theme round which their skill
revolved.

In tracing the history of the subject I have found
an almost entirely new field to work upon, for with
the exception of two books, one by a Frenchman,

M. Vuillier, and the other, written more from a tech-
nical than a historical point of view, by Edward Scott,
there have been practically no works on the subject
since the year 1712, when Weaver published his
" History of Dancing."

It is a subject full of never-failing interest, and the
deeper I have gone into it the more curious, and to
me hitherto unknown, facts I have been able to bring
to light.

I have throughout been careful to avoid technical
details, for my object has been not so much to point
out how the various dances should be performed, as
to trace their gradual development from their origins,
and to show how beautiful and picturesque a thing a
dance well done may be.

REGINALD ST. JOHNSTON.
Cheltenham, 1905.

Hark ! The speaking strings invite ;
Music calls us to delight ;
See the maids in measure move,
Winding like the maze of love.
As they mingle madly gay
Sporting Hebe leads the way.
Love, and active Youth advance
Foremost in the sprightly dance.
As the magic numbers rise
Thro' my veins the poison flies,
Raptures not to be expressed
Revel in my throbbing breast.
Jocund as we beat the ground
Love and Harmony go round."

CUNNINGHAM, " The Dance" 1766.

CHAPTER I.

THE MUSE OF DANCING IN
ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY,

AND HER ALLIANCE WITH THE KINDRED ARTS.

" Come and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe.11

MILTON. — " L' ALLEGRO."

D

ANCING — A little word, and yet so
full of meaning. What true lovers
of dancing are there whose blood
does not rush tingling through all
their veins, and whose feet do not start an
involuntary tap, tapping on the floor, when
they hear the word, and its meaning flashes
upon them ?

To be moving, nay, rather floating through
the air, to the sounds of distant music; to
be madly rushing, now here, now there
with a thrill of delicious intoxication, yet
all the while in perfect harmony with the
tune ; to be now whirling round at an

10 A History of Dancing.

almost incredible speed, now apparently
standing still, yet with the brain afire the
whole time ; and to hear throughout,
mingled with the music, the ripple of merry
laughter, — for happiness is the reflex action
of dancing, — such are the thoughts and
memories conjured up at the sound of the
word.

And not merely thoughts and memories
of our own making, but thoughts and
memories of a long stream of other happy
and merry dancers, stretching back as
through a long, mirror-lined room, far, far
away into the distant ages of the past ;
other dancers from whom we have inherited
these feelings, other dancers who Jin their
turn had the memories borne upon them
out of the far-off past, right away back to
the earliest ideas of primitive man ; for
dancing and music were the first pleasures
of mankind.

One can almost imagine the Earliest
Man walking one morning and finding the
sun shining, the air bright and cheerful,
the birds singing, and everything good to
see. And then, through very joy of life

A History of Dancing. 11

he started dancing, and laughing at the
pleasure of this new sensation, he would
start singing and clapping his hands to
keep time, and thus there — out in the grey
wilderness of Ancient Earth — were the
two great arts of Dancing and Music first
brought to life.

Dancing was prevalent among all the
early races of the earth, and it is from the
Ancient Greek Mythology of thousands of
years ago, that we claim her who is known
as the present goddess of dancing, the one
whom, though we may not actually worship
her, as did the ancient Greeks, we yet hold
in reverence, and for whom we erect a
pedestal in our inmost hearts — Terpsichore.

Terpsichore, how often have you been in-
voked in picture and song, how often have
the painter and the poet had good cause to
thank the old Greeks for creating you and
placing you, perhaps the first, among the
Sacred Nine ? O, Terpsichore ! what a
boon you have been to mankind ! Poetry,
Music, even Art, may sometimes be sorrow-
ful and sad, but you — never. You were sent
into the world to cheer up our hearts, to

12 A History of Dancing.

bring back the roses to the maiden's cheeks,
to send the warm blood coursing through the
bodies of all your votaries. You, with your
handmaids Laughter and Lyric Song, came
along, and lo 1 all the world was again
cheerful and full of smiles. Keep with us,
Terpsichore, and may the flame on your
altars never die out.

There was once upon a time — (I will
start in the old, old way, for it is not all
Mythology like a beautiful old fairy tale,
and all the better for telling in the estab-
lished way ?) — an infant called Zeus, who
was the son of Kronos, the god of Time,
and Rhea, who was the daughter of Father
Heaven and Mother Earth. That, I always
think, was a pretty fancy that only the
artistic Greeks could have thought of-
Time marrying the daughter of Heaven and
Earth. — Now, Zeus, after many wonderful
adventures and hairbreadth escapes, grew
up and became King of the Gods.

And one day he fell in love with the
pretty goddess of Memory, whose name was
Mnemosyne, and marrying her, their child-
ren became, very naturally, the goddesses

A History of Dancing. 13

of all the beautiful arts of mankind, and
were known as the Nine Muses; and one
of the chief of these was Terpsichore, the
goddess of Dancing.

She and her sisters of Poetry, Drama,
and the kindred arts, were wont to dis-
port themselves on the gentle slopes of
Parnassus, or the rugged sides of Helicon ;
and in every town of ancient Greece, there
was an altar, however small, in honour of
sweet Terpsichore.

Not that the Greeks were necessarily the
first to imagine a goddess of Dancing, for
probably older and more barbaric nations
had worshipped some Divinity of the Dance,
who especially watched over its votaries,
but I think it is to the Greeks that the
earliest ideas of Dancing as one of the
arts, one of the refining influences on man-
kind, may be attributed. They, as it is seen,
closely associated the Muse of Dancing
with those of Music, Poetry and the
Drama, and sought to show her kinship
more especially with the two former.

And how closely is she a sister of Music
and Poetry! Just as Poetry is but Music

14 A History of Dancing.

without sound, so is Dancing, Poetry with-
out words. Plutarch was the first to really
understand this, and in his " Symposium "
he describes dancing as the " Handmaid of
Poetry." In every movement of the feet,
in every evolution of the body, there is
that true rhythm and concord which is the
mainspring, the basis, of all Poetry and
Music.

How often has dancing been described
as the "true poetry of motion," and how
appropriately ! Dancing in its poetry, out-
vies Poetry itself, if one may make use of
a seeming paradox. For poetry — as under-
stood by verses, or even the placing of
words and sentences in a rhythmical con-
currence— must, to be appreciated, have the
cool and calculating intelligence brought to
bear upon it, to be poetry it must also
have a certain meaning, a certain sequence
of ideas ; but dancing appeals purely and
simply to the imagination ; one is fascinated,
passively if watching, or actively if taking
part, by the dance, and is carried away
from oneself by the mere sensation of the
movement : the uncivilized savage, equally

A History of Dancing. 15

with the most cultured person, can take a
delight in the quick turns and swaying
motions of a dance, and it is thus we can
see that this "rhythm of motion" is the
fountain-head of the later, and more civil-
ized, art of poetry, or the " rhythm of
words."

Again, in Art, is it not the chief idea,
the one great essential, of the picture or
piece of sculpture, that it should be grace-
ful and pleasing, and here in dancing, we
have grace and beautiful motion personified,
as of a still picture suddenly brought to
life and capable of movement.

For be the picture what it may — I speak
of course in reference to the pictures por-
traying Nature — be it sea-scape or land-
scape, we have in the dance, the movement
which is the great theme of Nature, em-
bodied in the movements of living persons.
For the artist, in catching and impressing
on his canvas one of the phases of moving
Nature, whether the swaying of trees, the
floating of clouds, or the rolling of the
billows of the ocean, is merely trying to
get the general effect of movement, such

16

History of Dancing.

as we see continually in the dance. And,
could we invent some art by which we
could get the continuous idea of movement
instead of merely one phase of it, as we
see in a picture, we should be more nearly
approaching the mental picture that we
ourselves make, if only for a fraction of a
second, of the sequence of the evolution of
a dance.

CHAPTER II.

DANCING AS A RELIGIOUS
CEREMONY.

" Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns

with cloven hoof

From the glad sound would not be
absent long."

MILTON. — " LYCIDAS."

F

ROM the earliest ages* dancing has
formed an important part of the
religious ceremonies ' of many
nations, and although, in connec-
tion with religion, it is now practically
non-existent — except in remote and
primitive tribes — it was at one time almost
universal among the nations which were
pre-eminent in the world for their civiliza-
tion.

Religious fanaticism affects men's minds
as perhaps no other emotion can do ; it
fills them with a sudden rush of frenzied
thoughts and incoherent ideas, and as a

18 A History of Dancing.

result, all calm and intelligent reason is
swept aside, and all control over the
actions of the body is lost. And to work
off, as it were, this superfluous energy
created in the brain, strong muscular
action takes place, and unconsciously the
man throws himself into all sorts of par-
oxysms bf the body and wild motions of the
limbs, yet throughout, owing to a vague
directing impulse in his brain, he keeps his
balance, and consequently his frenzy de-
velops into a wild form of a dance.

So, probably, were the religious dances
of the early nations first brought about,
and though in the accounts we have of
them there was none of the absolute loss
of control — except, perhaps in some of the
Dionysia of the Greeks — that we see for
instance in the spinning Dervishes of to-
day, yet there is no doubt that they were
all of them a direct uesuli of exaltation of
the mind, produced by a constant dwelling
on religious ideas.

And these dances, once inaugurated,
become more and more organized and
methodical, till at length they gradually

A History of Dancing. 19

took their place among the regular cere-
monial observances of each particular
religion. And the dance, from a dramatic
point of view, could express so much that
was necessary in the act of worship,—
thanksgiving, praise, supplication and humili-
ation were all shewn by means of it — that
there is little suprise that it should have
become an important factor in the history
of religion. One of the earliest forms of
religious dancing that we hear about occured
in the Dionysia, or festivals to Dionysus,
of the early Greeks.

These took place chiefly in Attica and the
Grecian Archipelago, and also in Asia Minor ;
though it must be remembered that the
worship of Bacchus, which was merely the
Roman name for Dionysus, was also carried
on in Italy, though at a rather later period.
The cult of Dionysus, under both his Greek
and Roman names, rapidly spread, and
traversing the South of Europe, passed
Bactria and Media, and even reached far
off India, so that his worship became
almost universal throughout the known
world. This his votaries explained by say-

20 A History of Dancing.

ing that he himself was wont to make
pilgrimages, accompanied by a train of
Nymphs, Satyrs, and Centaurs, into distant
lands to teach mankind the cultivation of
the grape and the preparation of wine.

In Attica there were two annual festivals
in his honour, the Lesser and the Greater
Dionysia. The Lesser occurred in country
places where the vine was grown in Decem-
ber ; while the Greater took place at Athens
in March. Here great feasts were indulged
in, and a regular series of dances was per-
formed, in which a multitude of people took
part. These festivals were held to signify
the joy of the people at the departure of
Winter and the approach of Summer, for
Dionysus was said to have delivered his
people from the troubles of the cold season.
During the Dionysia the ancient image of
the god, which had been brought from Eleu-
thera to Athens, was conveyed in solemn
procession, from the sanctuary of Lenaeon
to another temporary shrine, and accom-
panying the procession were numbers of
priests, troops of dancers, and chorus of
singing boys with masks.

3 History of Dancing. 21

Of a more essentially religious nature, was
the dancing ceremony in connection with the
worship of Mars at Rome.

Here, in his two shrines, the Quirinal and
the Palatine, were stationed twenty-four
priests, the twelve from the Palatine being
specially called the Salii or dancers ; and for
a number of days from March the First in
each year, these made a solemn dancing pro-
cession through the city, in full armour,
clashing their lances on the sacred ancillae
or shields, and singing votive songs to Mars.

Now it is curious to notice that, like so
many other heathen customs, this practice —
only in a modified form, — re-appeared at a
later date in our early Christian churches,
and though many deny that the church-danc-
ing had any connection with the Roman salii,
there seems no reason to doubt that they
originally arose from them.

Be as it may, the fact that dancing took
place as one of the religious observances of
the early Christian church is indisputable,
and special provision in the choir of the
building was made for it. Moreover, so
component a part of the religion did dancing

22 A History of Dancing.

become, that, according to the early fathers,
the angels were continually dancing to the
sound of music, and the company of the
apostles was a glorified Chorus. And Scali-
ger, the Italian scholar famous for his re-
searches into Greek and Italian literature,
and who so astonished Charles V. by his
powers of dancing, declared that the bishops
were called " prsesules " because they led the
dance on feast days.

For many years dancing flourished in the
Christian church, till it was finally discredited
with the Agape feast, and sundry other
observances, at the close of the fourth cen-
tury. After this it became so strongly dis-
approved of, that St. Augustine is said to
have remarked Melius est fodere quam
saltare. " It is better to dig than to dance,"
and some centuries later, the Albigenses and
the Waldenses, two religious sects in the
South of France, made a special point in
their tenets to rage against it, and called it
the " Devil's procession."

Yet, never-the-less, right up to the middle
of the 18th century, there were traces of
religious dancing in the cathedrals of Spain,

A History of Dancing. 23

Portugal, and Rousillon, on Saints' days and
special Feast days, and particularly in the
Mussarabian Mass of Toledo, and probably
many of our church rites — especially the
Roman Catholic ones — whose origin is now
lost, came originally from this observance

The Spinning Dervishes are a remarkable
instance of a carefully cultivated religious
frenzy, for in their case the dance is not the
result of the frenzy, but exactly the opposite
takes place. They start from a stationary
position and gradually increasing the speed
of their rotation, get quicker and quicker with
each evolution, till they actually seem not to
move, so fast do they spin.

Another extraordinary form of religious
ceremony was the devil-dance of the Veddahs,
now a practically extinct tribe of people, who
were once a leading race in Ceylon. This
dance, which was the equivalent of a spoken
incantation, was performed as follows :

A tripod, on which were offerings of eat-
ables, was placed on the ground, and before
a concourse of people, the priest or devil-
dancer proceeded to dance round it, getting
more and more violent in his movements, till

24 A history of Dancing.

he fell into a sort of paroxysm, in which state
he was supposed to receive from the gods the
information required.

In contrast to this there is a very quiet
form of religious ceremony in Fiji, which is
distinctly a dance, though the dancers do not
move from the ground. This is called the
" Hiba," or dance of seated dancers, which
takes place in the ceremony of Ava-drinking
during the preparation of that drink. The
men sit round in a circle, and to the sound of
a low chanting, move their arms and legs
about in rhythmical cadence till the drink is
ready, when, after some incantations, the
inbete or priest, passes the cup round and the
dancing ceases.

In Madagascar the women dance every day
while their husbands are absent, as a sort of
religious ceremony which is supposed to in-
spire the men with courage in battle : and
another curious custom is the funeral dance
of the Todas, an Indian Hill-tribe, who have
a peculiar dance which chiefly consists of
moving backwards and forwards a few steps
at a time, to the chanting of the wailing cry
" ha-ho." The origin of this was probably

A History of Dancing. 25

to frighten away the evil spritssfrom the
presence of the dead. This idea occurs in
many other funeral customs of primitive
tribes.

So we have, in connection with religious
ceremonies, the custom of dancing, for the
following reasons : —

(1). As a result of fanatical frenzy.

(2). To express by gesture : thanksgiving,

praise, supplication, and humiliation.
(3). To express joy at the departure of
Winter (though the Dionysian dances
were probably partly caused by wine
intoxication).

(4) In honour of Mars.

(5) As an incantation.

(6) To frighten away evil spirits.

And through all these primitive minds —
for we must remember that even among the
civilised Greeks and Romans the origins of
the dances were at an early period — we find
the one idea running, to attract the atten-
tion of the deity by violent exertions, and
to force the notice of their needs upon him
by the vigour of their dancing.

CHAPTER III.

ANCIENT FORMS OF DANCING IN
GREECE, ITALY AND THE EAST.

" Memory wakes her magic trance
And wings me lightly through the dance"
MOORE. — " ODES OF ANACREON."

LTHOUGH the dancing systems of
ancient Greece and Italy were far
more elaborate and carefully organ-
ized than those of any of the con-
temporary nations, and at one time reached
a pinnacle of perfection which has been
barely equalled by even the best endeavours
of modern times, yet in Egypt, which might
well be called the mother-country of all
civilised dancing, we must look for those first
traces of the art which, carried over into
Greece and Italy, became there polished up
and brightened till it shone forth as one of
the most refined and cultured pursuits of
the day.

The act of dancing has been divided under
three headings : Exuberant feeling, Panto-

A History of Dancing. 27

mimic, and Social, though the Social division
might more aptly be expressed as a result
of exuberant feeling, or as a deliberate cul-
tivation of it. And to these divisions a
fourth may be added, namely : Dancing as
an Art itself ; that is to say the performance
of one person (for if more are dancing, it
developed into the pantomimic division) for
the gratification of on-lookers, and to show
a complete mastery over the art.

And it was in Egypt that this fourth
division first sprang up, when the dancing
g'rl — a girl being chosen as more graceful
and agile than a man — gave what was per-
haps the first " pas seul " of the world.

It seems wonderful when we come to think
of it, that Egypt, the Egypt as we know it
now, the land of the silent Sphinx and the
stupendous Pyramids, the land of those
monuments and temples at whose greatness
and vast size even the men of our modern
times pause to regard with marvelling and
awe, should have been at one time the centre
of a busy civilization such as few can realise,
and a civilization, be it remembered, of three,
four and even five thousand years ago. Yet

28 A History of Dancing.

so it was, and it was here that dancing as a
separate art, as a resulting development
of the culture of men's minds, first was
practised.

The earliest information we can gather
concerning the development of the dance
from the spasmodic movements of exuberant
feeling, which was here, as everywhere else,
the first origin of dancing, is the mention of
the Maiwros, which was a slow rhythmical
song accompanied by the distinct movements
and phases of a regular dance.

Not much is known about this, but con-
cerning another dance, that of the panto-
mimic mourner who accompanied funerals,
and by his dancing set forth in gesture all the
accomplishments and deeds of the dead man,
we have ample evidence from a great number
of sculptures and pictured papyri.

Then came the wild dances of Osiris, who
was the Egyptian equivalent of Bacchus and
Dionysus ; and co-eval with them was the
Astronomic dance, a dance which was one of
a marvellous age, and about which more per-
haps has been written, than about any other
dance of the early ages.

A History of Dancing. 29

Sir John Davies, the great Elizabethan
lawyer, has well described the Astronomic
dance in his long poem, the " Orchestra,"
written in 1596. It was an intricate and
cleverly-executed dance, meant to represent
the courses of the stars, and performed by a
large number of dancers. Not only in Egypt,
but in Assyria and even Greece was this
dance known, and respectively around the
fire-surmounted altars of Ra, Baal-peor, and
Jove, — who were the three chief, or sun-gods,
of these nations — did the dance revolve.

I have often wondered whether this danc-
ing round the sun-altars might not have been
a possible origin of the old English myth of
the sun dancing at Eastertide (mentioned in
Suckling's " Ballade upon a Wedding) per-
haps brought to us by the Phoenician traders,
and afterwards, like the hot cross bun and so
many other myths, appropriated by the early
Christian priests.

We have also evidences from the ancient
hieroglyphics and paintings, that it was
customary to have professional dancers at
feasts. These were called " Almehs," and
they are generally depicted waving small

30 A History of Dancing.

branches or beating tambourines while they
danced, singing the refrain, "Make a good
day, make a good day. Life only lasts for a
moment. Make a good day." Which is the
same idea, it will be noticed, as that of the
feasters in the Bible, who said, " Eat, drink,
and be merry, for to-morrow we die."

One thing is noticeable in reviewing the
customs of the ancient Egyptians, and that is,
that the higher classes themselves never
seemed to have indulged in dancing, but
always employed others to dance before
them, so that social dancing, as we under-
stand it now, was practically non-existent.
And therefore, the dancing of Miriam, the
sister of Moses, at the passage of the Red
Sea, might have been one more instance of
the complete subjugation that the Israelites
had undergone whilst with the Egyptians,
inasmuch as it showed an intimate acquain-
tance with the manners and customs of the
lower classes ; or else, and this seems more
probable, it is simply a case of exuberance of
feeling.

It has been suggested that the dancing on
this occasion, may have been a survival of

A History of Dancing. 31

one of the ancient rites of the passover, but
there seems little ground for such a theory.

And here it may not be out of place to
briefly sketch what little is known about the
custom of dancing among the Jews, because,
for many generations after their captivity
among the Egyptians, they were so impreg-
nated with the ideas of Egypt, that a number
of their most important customs and habits
were practically of Egyptian origin.

Thus we gather from the Bible, and from
the writings of contemporary nations, that,
as in Egypt, no social dancing was practised,
though the solo or figure dancing, such as
carried on in Egypt, appears to have also
been unknown to them. Yet that dancing of
a kind was indulged in we have abundant
proof from the numerous instances in which
the word occurs in the sacred writings.
Principally, however, it seems to have been
connected with religious ceremonies, some to
us now obscure and meaningless, such as the
dancing of David, when the Ark was brought
into Zion ; others of which we have a m6re
or less complete knowledge, such as the danc-
ing in the orchards on the occasions of the
*

32 A History of Dancing.

Feast of Tabernacles, and the Day of Atone-
ment, ceremonies which were carried on for
many years.

The only reference to what may be termed
" figure dancing " in the whole Bible, is the
dancing of Herodias' daughter before the
guests assembled for Herod's birthday, and
this due to the influx of Greek fashons which
began about that period.

Turning now to the art as practised among
the Greeks, we cannot do better than start
with an axiom from the lips of the great
master of poetry, Homer himself, who
speaks of dancing as the " Sweetest and
most perfect of human enjoyments," and
who particulary praises the grace and pro-
ficiency of the Phaiakian youths in it. Thus
even in his time, it must have arrived at a
certain standard of excellence.

The chief dances of the Phaiakians of whom
he speaks, were of two kinds ; the dance of a
number of men in slow measured time around
a singer stationed in the centre, and the dance
of two skilled dancers, who kept time with
each other ; a dance, in fact, which was the
precursor of our modern " pas de deux."

A History of Dancing. 33

One of the earliest known dances among
the Greeks, was that of the " men in
armour," a very popular dance among the
Doric states. This was called the Hlvppl^
and was essentially a mimetic dance, the per-
formers imitating the attack and defence of
armed warriors.*

At about this period, too, the Dionysia, to
which reference has been made in the pre-
ceding chapter, first began to be performed.
And then the country festivals to the differ-
ent gods became common, and the dance
began to be an important part of the cere-
monies.

In all the festivals it was practically the
same, and consisted of a series of measured
movements around the altar, generally ac-
companed by singing. In connection with
these semi-sacred dances, we have records
of a dance performed by noble Spartan
maidens to the goddess Artemis Karyatis,
but little is known about the mode of pro-
cedure.

*In a somewhat altered form this dance survived right down
to the time of Byron, — it may exist still, — when he wrote, " You
have the Pyrrhic dance as yet. Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx
gone ? "

34 A History of Dancing.

A dance, however, of which we have
numerous records, both in the books of well-
known writers, and the drawings on vases
and friezes, was the op/u.os or Chain Dance,
performed by a band of young men and girls
placed alternately in a ring, and with hands
clasped. They then danced round, at the
same time twisting in and out, much in the
manner of our English Maypole Dance, and
a very pretty sight it must have been.

Various pantomimic dances or ballets were
carried on by the Greeks, such as the K<ynraq
and the Gymnastic dances. The former
represented the surprise by robbers of a
warrior ploughing a field, his rush for his
weapons, and the subsequent fight ; while the
gymnopaedic dances were imitations of the
sports of the Palastra, such as the gymnastic
exercises, wrestling, and leaping, and were
accompanied by a series of graceful rhymes
specially composed for the occasion, and also
by singing.

These ballets led to the drama, and thus we
find that theatrical representations had their
origin in the dance, and this remark applies
equally to the most intricate and well-staged

A History of Dancing* 35

plays of the present time, for by means of
the connecting link of the plays of Milton, who
founded his dramas on the Greek model, our
modern English play is really a descendant
of the old Greek drama.

With the drama came the elaborate stage
dances, which served as interludes to the
play, and of which the best known were the
Delian dance of the Labyrinth, ascribed to
Theseus, and said to be one of the first stage
dances ever performed, and the dance of the
Eumenides or Fates, a very powerful and
vigorous dance, representing the Fates in
their different capacities. The dance of the
Labyrinth was also called Tepavo?, as the
movements resembled the flight of a flock of
Cranes.

These stage dances were entirely confined
to the Chorus, though the chorus were in
those days important members of the cast,
and not mere adjuncts as they are now ; and
the choric dancing resembled the modern
ballet, both in the rhythmical movement of
the feet, and in the pantomimic motions of the
arms and the whole body, in order to give a
more realistic meaning to the theme portrayed.

36 A History of Dancing.

The Social dancing among the Greeks, was
confined to dancing of a pantomimic nature,
or else to the dancing of professionals at
feasts, though at times the guests seem to
have taken part in the dances, and Socrates
himself, so high was his opinion of dancing
as an art, is said to have taken lessons in it at
an advanced age.:::

The Greek banquets were divided into two
chief stages, the feast proper, and the Sym-
posium, or wine concert afterwards, and it
was at these symposia that the dancing took
place. This was often of an artistic and
dramatic nature, and in " The Banquet " of
Xenophon there is an excellent description of
one of these dances, a representation of the
meeting of Ariadne and Dionysius.

Greece and Rome have always been closely
allied in both philosophy and art, and it is
therefore only to be expected that Rome
should have derived most of her ideas con-
cerning the art of dancing, from the older
and sister nation, Greece. The very earliest
forms of dancing in Rome were, however, of

*When he was sixty years old, and from one called Aspasia
Aspasia thus becomes probably the first known dancing-master
in history.

A History of Dancing. 37

Etruscan origin, and were said to have
formed part of what was perhaps the first
scenic performance in Rome, when, in
364 B.C., a theatrical representation accom-
panied by mimic dances was given by cer-
tain Etruscan actors as a means of appeas-
ing divine wrath during a plague.

This performance took the public fancy,
and soon became popular, and later on, reci-
tative verses in changing metre, were added,
—this being an idea taken from the Greek
model — and the result was the satirical drama.

Then came, about the time of Hannibal,
the famous Fabulae Atellanas called after the
city of Atella. These were farcical burles-
ques, accompained by dancing, and formed
interludes to the regular drama, much as
some forty or fifty years ago, our English
pantomimes were often wedged in between
two serious plays. They were performed by
young citizens of good name and standing,
who were dressed up in various kinds of
hideous and grotesque masks, and who
carried out the theme of the play, generally a
rough rendering of episodes in the lives of
mythical gods and heroes.

38 A History of Dancing.

The Pantomimus was an outgrowth of the
Canticum, or singing portion of the comedies,
and the Fabulae Atellanae ; and in this an
actor indicated by dramatic dancing or ges-
ture the subject of the song. In later repub-
lican times this dancing became a separate
branch of the art, and the pantomimic dance
may be said to have reached its climax when
performed and taught by Pylades of Cilicia
and Bathyllos of Alexandria, in the time of
the early empire. The subjects of the pan-
tomimus were again the myths of the gods
and heroes, favourite ones being "The
Labours of Hercules," and " The Suprising
of Venus and Mars by Vulcan," Vulcan being
always a comic part.

As a rule, when there were both male and
female characters in the cast, one actor
would double a part, taking up the female
character as well as his own, but occasionally
both male and female dancers appeared in
the pantomimus, especially in later times,
and it then became a regular dramatic ballet.

What may be considered the golden age of
theatrical dancing in Rome, was in the time
of Augustus, in whose reign so many other

A History of Dancing. 39

things attained their golden epochs. At this
period, the stage became an imperial concern,
and the Italic dance of the Imperial theatre,
with its good music and brilliant dresses,
completely supplanted the older dramas.

The great aim of Augustus was to gain the
favour of the people, and also to drive all
thoughts of politics from them, so he gave
special attention to the theatres and other
means of popular amusement, and passed
laws for the protection of the pantomimists.
They were given many advantages and
privileges, amongst these being exemption
from the "Jus Virgarum," but it was not
long before they used this freedom against
the peace of the city, so that, in the times
of Tiberius and Domitian they were severely
oppressed and finally banished.

However, the reigns of Trajan and
Aurelius saw them once more reinstated, and
with increased honour, for they were now
made decurians, and had the title of
" Priests of Apollo," given to them. But
from this time they began to degenerate, and
finally sank into insignificance with the
general corruption of the city.

CHAPTER IV.

SOME EARLY FORMS OF ENGLISH
DANCING.

" You jig, you amble, and you lisp.1'

SHAKESPEARE.—" HAMLET."

W

E in England have, in times past,
been scoffed at in respect of our
dancing ; we have been told, a little
unjustly perhaps, that we were far
inferior to such nations as France, in grace,
style, and deportment, and it is entirely true
that for many years we had to employ foreign
dancing-masters to give that polish and touch
so necessary in the courtly dance ; yet in the
earlier periods of our history, when agility
abandon, and skill, — combined, nevertheless,
with a certain amount of grace and finish-
were the chief essentials of the dance, we
could, I venture to say, hold our own with
anybody. And as to happiness and merri-
ment, which, after all, are but the origin, aim

A History of Dancing. 41

and result of dancing, right worthily did the
little island acquire and retain its title of
" Merrie England."

Dancing as a means of entertainment,
seems to have been brought over with the
Saxons, and though they appear to have
practised it but little among themselves, yet
the " Glee-men " or professional singers and
entertainers who went about from place to
place were noted for their skill in it.

The Mummers, too, who seem to have now
altogether died out, were a distinct survival
of Saxon times, and though they did not do
much dancing, yet in some parts of their per-
formance a dance was sure to take place.

The last time I saw the mummers, and
probably the last time that mumming was
ever done, at all events in that part of Eng-
land, was in 1888 at Leckhampton, now a
suburb of Cheltenham, at the foot of the
Cotswold Hills. It was Christmas time, and
a band of some seven or eight youths,
evidently villagers from the Cotswolds, came
to the house where I was living, and asked if
they might perform the old play of "St.
George." They were all dressed up in fancy

42 A History of Dancing.

costumes representing St. George, the
Dragon, the Faire Maiden, the Doctour of
Physike, and other characters, and with some
awkwardness they managed to get through
the performance. At intervals there was a
little dancing of rather a cumbersome kind,
but the most interesting part of the whole
performance was the use of many words and
phrases which we could none of us under-
stand, and which I doubt if they understood
themselves. These were evidently bits of
the pure Anglo-Saxon phraseology of the
play, which had been handed down unaltered
from father to son through all those cen-
turies in this little out-of-the-way spot in the
Severn Valley.

Coming to later times, the times of Nor-
man chivalry and knight-errantry, we find
that dancing began to be more of a refined
and social amusement of the upper classes,
and in the old romances so important a place
did it assume, that no hero seemed complete
unless he accounted it as one of his accom-
plishments. Thus Chaucer, in the Canterbury
Tales, gives as one of the courtly attributes
of the Squire that he could

A History of Dancing. 43

" Juste and eke dance, and well pourtraie and
write."

Yet it was by no means absent as a pursuit
of the lower and middle classes, and we know
of many dances, some now altogether lost
sight of, some that were still existing up to
not many years ago, and some still carried on,
which they were wont to indulge in.

Among the amusements of the lower
classes which are now lost sight of, were the
" egg-dance " ; and another dance whose
name I am unable to find out which appeared
to be a sort of figure dance performed by two
girls who danced to the sound of music, now
side to side, now back to back, ever casting
glances over their shoulders at each other,
so that, as it is graphically described in the
" Roman de la Rose,"

" They threw yfere

Ther mouthes, so that, through ther play
It seemed as they kyste alway."

The Egg-dance, or hop-egg, as it was also
called, was a dance generally performed by
women, who, in much the same manner as
that of the present Scottish sword-dance,
performed their figures about eggs placed

44 A History of Dancing.

on the floor. This also has been described
by Chaucer, who says the performers are
called " hoppesteres " ; and Strutt, the emin-
ent antiquarian, in his " Sports and Pastimes,"
written about 1790, mentions that the so-
called slang phrase, " Going to the hop to-
night ? " (which appears to have been old
even in his time) evidently came from this
dance !

Among the many old institutions which
we must now regretfully place among the
class of " bye-gone customs " — regretfully,
by reason of their picturesque beauty and
quaintness, apart from the memory of old
associations which had gathered round them
— as around all old customs — are the May-
pole Dance and the Morris.

The Maypole is still, I believe, existing in
some parts of the country, and is the oldest
dance we have in England, possibly in
Europe. For it is undoubtedly of Roman
origin, and came from some ceremonies con-
nected with the worship of Maia, the mother
of Mercury, and the presiding goddess of
that month. For many centuries it was the
chief dance of rustic England, and much im-

A History of Dancing. 45

portance was attached to it by all classes of
people ; but the milk-maids, the rosy-cheeked
Phoebes and Phyllises of the idealist, the
type which now one only sees on the stage
of light opera, considered it their own special
festival, and were the most enthusiastic in
the keeping of it.

Tall maypoles were erected everywhere,
with many-coloured streamers hanging down
from them ; and, grasping these, a number
of young men and girls ranged themselves
alternately in a circle and commenced to
dance round in one direction, to the merry
strains of a fiddler and a piper. Intricate
movements were then performed, the girls
twisting under the arms of the men, some
going forward, some backward, till all the
streamers were wound tightly round the
pole. This was the signal for a change in
the music, and then gradually the reverse of
the previous figures took place, till all the
ribbons were unwound.

There were many other customs connected
with May-day, and the whole affair was con-
ducted with much mock ceremony ; two girls
were chosen by vote to preside over the

46 A History of Dancing.

festivities, one being called Lady Flora,
queen of the flowers, and the other Lady
May, but in later times only one sovereign
was elected, the Queen of the May.

So universal was the Maypole at one time,
that in every village, in every community
almost, was one to be seen ; and actually in
the Strand — then, as now, the heart of busy
London — the Maypole was a noted landmark.
Thus Pope remarks :—

" Amid the area wide they took their stand
Where once the Maypole overlooked the Strand."

Another quaint and equally English cus-
tom, and one that perhaps more than any
other gained for this country the title of
Merrie England, was the Morris Dance.

Coming originally from Spain, where it
is said to have derived its name from the
Moriscoes or Moors who then dwelt there,
it soon became altered and improved, and
twining around the hearts and affections of
the people, became a naturalised English
dance.

It is said to have been brought over in
the reign of Edward III. by John of Gaunt,
after one of his missions to Spain ; and

A History of Dancing. 47

though in some slight details it differed
from the original Spanish Morris, it retained
most of the important characteristics. Thus
the castanets, the dancing accompaniment so
typical of Spain, were changed for the clash-
ing of swords and wooden staves, which
sound distinctly resembled the clicking of
the castanets, and also more persons were
introduced into the dance, showing the
developing tendency of its pantomimic
nature.

In the early forms of our English Morris,
five men (one being known as the " foreman
of the Morris "), and a boy who was dressed
up to represent Maid Marian, were the only
performers. Accompanying these were a
piper and tabourer ; and to the sound of
this music, the clashing of staves, and the
jingle of small bells fastened to their cos-
tumes, they danced their lively measures.

Later on, the characters of the " Merry
Men of Sherwood " were introduced, and
Robin Hood, Friar Tuck and Little John
became conspicuous figures of the dance.
By the reign of Henry VIII. it had become
widespread and universal, and representa-

48 A History of Dancing.

tions of it appeared even in the stained glass
windows of churches ; and at Betley, in
Staffordshire, there is still to be seen an
excellent picture of it, with all the characters
of the Sherwood Foresters. In Beverley
Minster, too, there is a stone carving of a
Morris, but only one or two performers are
shown. About the time of Henry VIII. the
hobby-horse, that strange monstrosity that
so delighted our ancestors, seems to have
been introduced into the Morris, and mock
tournaments were held; though this, of
course, detracted from the care that had
hitherto been solely devoted to the dancing.
A special representation of the Morris was
given before James I. when on a visit in
Hertfordshire, and we are told that the per-
formers evinced great skill in their art ; and
from this time, right through the reign of
Charles I. up to the commencement of the
Commonwealth, it was enjoying the zenith
of its popularity; but on the accession of
the Puritans to power it was sternly put
down as an ungodly performance, and not
until the Restoration was it revived in the
slightest way.

A history of Dancing. 49

With the reign of Charles II. it was resus-
citated, but only in a mild way ; and as the
gradual development of the theatres and
masques began to do away with the need of
it, many of its chief characteristics died out.
Thus, Maid Marian became converted into
a clown called Malkin, from which we pro-
bably get the later Grimalkin, and the other
personages began to gradually disappear.
However, as a dance, it was kept up in full
swing in country places for nearly two hun-
dred years more, being recognised as an
especial Whitsuntide and May-time cere-
mony, and not until some forty years ago
did it finally die out.

Like the mummers and many other old
customs, it died hard in the district of the
Cotswold Hills, and I was not long ago given
an account, by an eye-witness, of the last
time it was apparently danced in the town
of Cheltenham, about forty years ago.

He told me that the performers appeared
in knee-breeches, tall or " box " hats, as he
called them, and short jackets with white
sleeves. They were about twenty in number,
and formed up in two lines facing each other.

50 A History of Dancing.

The music was supplied by two men with
long tin whistles, and also by the clashing
of the two Wooden sticks of the dancers, the
last remnants of the pipes and sword-staves
of the earlier Morris. The Sherwood fores-
ters had been reduced to two clowns or
fools, who, armed with inflated bladders,
cut capers and went about among the on-
lookers demanding contributions. Yet, with
all these differences, it was still the old
morris, the morris of centuries ago, and it
is only with regret that we can watch all
these quaint and interesting old customs
slowly dying away.

Two more curious old dances of the
Middle Ages were the Roundel and the Hay.
The former, synonymous with the Rondelay
or song written for accompaniment to this
dance, was chiefly a measure for the country
people, and was danced in two ways, either
all joining hands in a ring and revolving, now
in one direction, now in another, and chang-
ing steps to the music ; or else all following
one person, and varying the step as he com-
manded, in much the same way as the school-
boy game of " follow-my-leader."

DANCE OF JOY AT THK OVERTHROW OF DOUBTING CASTLE.
From an eurly copy of " The Pilgrim's Progress."

A History of Dancing. 53

The Hay is said to be the same as the
older Chaucerian " Reye," and was also
danced in a ring. Little is known about
this dance now, but it seems probable, mainly
from the evidence of Shakespeare in " Love's
Labour Lost," that it was either a dance for
the upper classes, or else one of a more in-
tricate nature than the Roundel; for Dull,
the constable, is made to say : —

" I'll make one in a dance or so, or
I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and
let them dance the Hay."

In those times the dance formed a great
part of the festivities at weddings, and
dancing nearly always took place in the in-
terval between the wedding breakfast and
supper, though it must be remembered that
the breakfast was a very late meal, and the
supper a very early one. Numerous dances
were indulged in — the Jig, the Brawl or
Brantle, the Galliard, and the Cushion
Dance, being the favourites ; and with all
the people decked out in their best, the
gentlemen as well as the ladies clothed in
a gorgeous array of colours, it must have
been a dazzling sight ; and one can under-

54 A History of Dancing.

stand the full scorn and bitterness of
Katherine's remark in reference to her sister
in the " Taming of the Shrew "—

" 1 must dance barefoot on her wedding day."

A curious and apparently at times dis-
agreeable custom at these wedding dances
was that of the bride being compelled to
dance with everyone present ; and as open
house was often kept at the time of a wed-
ding, the result was sometimes the reverse
of pleasant.

In an old book, Christen's " State of Matri-
mony," 1543, a remarkable passage occurs
illustrating this —

" Then must the poor bryde kepe foote with a' dancers,
and refuse none, how scabbed, foule, droncken, rude, and
shameless soever he be " ;

and though the writer, being puritanically
inclined against dancing, is perhaps a little
too prone to exaggerate, yet he must have
had good grounds for such a statement.

The " Gush ion -Dance," often corrupted
into " Kissing-Dance," and also known by
the name of " Joan Sanderson," was a lively
and mirth-provoking dance, which has now
quite died out. There is an excellent de-

A History of Dancing. 55

scription of it in the " Dancing Master," an
old manual on dancing of 1698, which runs
as follows : —

" Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance. An old
Round Dance."

" This Dance is begun by a single person
(either man or Woman), who, taking a
Cushion in his hand, dances about the
Room, and at the end of the Tune, he stops
and sings, ' This Dance it will no farther
go.' ' The Musician answers, ' 1 pray you,
good Sir, why say you so ? ' Man : ' Because
Joan Sanderson will not come too.' Music. :
' She must come too, and she shall come too,
and she must come whether she will or no.'

" Then he lays down the Cushion before
a Woman, on which she kneels, and he kisses
her, singing, ' Welcom, Joan Sanderson, wel-
com, welcom.' Then she rises, taking up the
Cushion, and both dance singing, ' Prinkum-
prankum is a fine Dance, and shall we go
dance it once again, and once again, and
shall we go dance it once again ? ' Then
making a stop, the Woman sings as before,
' The Dance it will no farther go.' Music. :
' I pray you, Madam, why say you so ? '

56 A History of Dancing.

Woman : * Because Joan Sanderson will not
come too.' Music. : * He must come too,' etc.
(as before). And so she lays down the
Cushion before a Man, who, kneeling upon
it, salutes her, she singing ' Welcom, Joan
Sanderson/ etc. Then he taking up the
Cushion, they all three take hands and Dance
round singing as before, and thus they do
till the whole Company are taken into the
Ring."

All our sovereigns of the Tudor and Stuart
periods, with the exception perhaps of the
austere Mary, took a keen delight in dancing,
and were often past-masters in the art ;
while Henry VIII. in his younger days was
especially noted for it, and so keen was his
enthusiasm about it that he often wrote
dance tunes, and danced to his own
compositions. Dances, too, formed a large
part of the festivities of the " Field of the
Cloth of Gold," when Henry and Francis I.
met in a splendour the memory of which
will never die out.

The reign of Elizabeth, famous for so
many wonderful and beneficent impulses to-
wards the growth of the nation, might with-

A History of Dancing; 57

out these yet have been noted as the epoch
during which the social dance, the founder
of all our present-day society dancing, came
into existence.

In this reign, dancing was a special feature
at court functions, and the stately Pavane
and Cinq Pace, the lively Coranto and La
Volta, and Trenchmores, Fancies, and Mea-
sures of all sorts were the order of the day.
Elizabeth took a special delight in dancing,
and was apt to rather pose her courtiers by
asking them point-blank whether her dancing
was not better than that of Mary of Scot-
land, who was her great rival, and also a
very good dancer.

The Pavane, the most recent innovation of
all these figures, was a slow and dignified
dance, and is sometimes considered to be
the progenitor of the 18th century Minuet ;
while the " La Volta " seems to have been
a much more spirited and lively affair, and
one also requiring no little dexterity and
skill.

For, as its name implies, it consisted of
a remarkable progression of leaps and entre-
chats, in which the man, holding his partner's

58 A History of Dancing.

hands, assisted her to spring into the air, and
at the same time revolved on his own axis,
thus bringing her round to the other side,
and then he himself gave a spring in the
same manner, and after one or two steps
the process was repeated, all being, of course,
in time to the music. We can get some idea
of its leaping motion from the words of
the Duke of Bourbon in Shakespeare's
" Henry V. " :-

" They bid us to the English dancing schools,
And teach la voltas high, and swift corantos ;"

and again, Sir John Davies, in the " Orches-
tra," calls it

"A lofty jumping or a leaping round,
Where arm in arm two dancers are entwined,
And whirl themselves with strict embracements

bound,
And still their feet an anapest do sound."

James I. was a great patron of the dance,
though this was probably due to the influence
of his queen, Anne, who was one of its most
enthusiastic votaries.

This reign, too, saw the creation of those
masques and acting dances, about whose
splendour and magnificence even now we
marvel. The first masque ever written by

3 History of Dancing. 59

Ben Jonson was performed at Court, and
we are told that the queen herself, together
with other noble ladies, came out of a huge
shell and " danced the Coranto."

These masques might well be wonderful
and beautiful productions, with Ben Jonson
as author, Inigo Jones as scenic artist, and,
in later times, Henry Lawes as composer of
the music. Surely no such three men will
ever again be gathered together in the colla-
boration of one single piece.

It was a very necessary thing for a cour-
tier in those days to be an expert and grace-
ful dancer, if he wished to keep in favour
with the king. An amusing illustration of
this is given in a letter written by the chap-
lain of the Venetian ambassador in the time
of James I., who describes a scene that took
place at a masque got up by Prince Charles
in 1617, as follows :—

" the dancers were now getting tired, when

the King shouted out, ' Why don't you dance ? What
did you make me come here for? Devil take you — dance ! '
Whereupon Buckingham sprang forward and cut a
score of lofty and very minute capers with so much
grace and agility that the King was delighted. '

60 3 history of Dancing.

All through the early history of social
dancing, it was customary for the gentleman
to kiss his partner at the conclusion of a
dance, and he would have been considered
uncouth and gauclie had he not paid this
delicate compliment. Thus, in " Henry VIII."
the King remarks : —

" I was unmannerly to take you out and not to kiss
you";

while an old book on dancing has this verse
in it, a verse which seems to imply that the
kiss was a reward of valour for dancing,
which depends on the lady —

" But some reply, what fool would daunce

If that when daunce is doone,
He may not have at ladyes lips
That which in daunce he woon ? "

In 1634, Prynne, the notorious lawyer and
pamphleteer, had both his ears cut off- — " in
that he did write a violent book against the
masque, well knowing that the Queen and
Lords Council approved of it."

But a great reaction was to come with the
supremacy of Parliament and the rule of the
Puritan ; for all theatres were closed, and no
masques or dancing of any description were
allowed under pain of heavy penalties. No

History of Dancing.

61

sooner, however, had Charles II. ascended
the throne than dancing returned with full
force, and became as before the chief pas-
time of the Court.

At first the old dances, such as the Coranto,
the Brawl, and the Hay, were in favour ; but,
as Pepys, our accurate and minute historian
of the times, informs us, in about 1666
French dances began to be introduced, and
from that time onwards society dancing lost
its essentially English character, and could
not again be called thoroughly English till
nearly two centuries later.

CHAPTER V.

ALLEGORICAL DANCES AMONG
PRIMITIVE NATIONS.

" What do you dance ? "

(Saying among African tribes.)

LIVINGSTONE. — " TRAVELS."

D

ANCING has always played a great
part in the everyday life of primitive
peoples; and inasmuch as it is al-
ways easier, and, to a limited intel-
ligence, more natural, to express ideas by
gesture than by speech, we can hardly be
surprised by their predilection for it.

Moreover, since an appreciation of rhythm
and musical sound is a fundamental prin-
ciple of man's nature, and is as much the
inherited right of the savage as of the man
of civilization, one would naturally expect,
as music and dancing are inevitably bound
together, to find the latter also among even
the most primitive races of mankind.

3 History of Dancing. 63

And so one does ; for the Bushman and
Hottentot, the Kaffir and South Sea Islander,
alike have their national dance ; and, indeed,
dancing is a far more important — one might
almost say necessary, part of their life than
it ever has been or ever can be with us.

An illustration of the regard in which
dancing is held by many of the tribes of
Central Africa is given in the quotation at
the head of this chapter. As Livingstone
tells us in his " Travels," this is the phrase
used when any stranger from another tribe
is encountered. He is asked, " What do you
dance ? " and this is simply another way of
asking him to what tribe he belongs ; for the
different tribes are known by their different
dances, and by this question the man's
nationality is ascertained.

In practically all the primitive communities
the dance is the most important part of any
ceremony which may take place ; and at any
political meeting between two great chiefs,
at a reception of any foreign envoys,' or at
any great coronation or wedding ceremony,
a dance is sure either to commence or ter-
minate the proceedings.

64 3 History of Dancing.

And these dances, especially the great
allegorical dances that so many primitive
nations possess, dances that have been per-
formed by their ancestors from time imme-
morial and which are generally accompanied
by a chanting record of the deeds of the
nation, are of inestimable value to them, far
more than they ever dream of ; for they
form that bond of sympathy and union among
them which is replaced in more civilized
nations by the magic word " patriotism."

Take some of the peoples of the South
Sea Islands, for instance. Unread, un-
educated, and without the intellectual abili-
ties of the white races, it is only in these
great dances, when a man can feel the rhyth-
mical sway of his body moving in perfect
unison with two or three hundred of his
fellow-countrymen, and can hear recited the
deeds of his ancestors and the past glories
of his tribe, that he can fully appreciate the
idea of " L1 'Union fait La Force'' and can
understand that he is but a unit in the wel-
fare of the nation.

Most of the great dances of the primitive
nations are either allegorical in character,

A History of Dancing. 65

representing the triumph of War, Death or
Love ; or else pantomimic, imitating the
manners and customs of men and animals.
We generally find that those dances imitative
of the pursuits of man are performed by
peoples more highly developed than those
who tell of the ways of animals, just as, in
the same manner, the drama is but the result
of the intellectual growth of those races
who imitated man in their dances.

The chief forms of pantomimic dance in
which the habits of man are portrayed are
those imitating the everyday occurrences of
life, such as hunting, fighting, courtship and
marriage, funerals, labour, and harvest or
vintage ; while of the imitations of animals,
we have representations of them feeding, at
play, fighting among themselves, fighting
against or pursued by man, or wandering
about in herds.

A theory has been advanced, and with
very good foundation, that many of the
positions and figures of modern society
dances are but the remains of hunting and
war-dance movements of the early primitive
dances, movements whose origin we have

66 3 History of Dancing.

now quite forgotten, and for which there is
now no reason, but which we still go on
doing from hereditary instinct in just the
same way as a dog will walk round and
round trampling down imaginary grass on
the hearth rug before lying down, after the
manner of his ancestors when out on the
prairies.

So many of the allegorical dances are
mixed up with those representing man and
his actions, that it is difficult to pick out any
that are totally representative of abstract
ideas. The one which would have best
illustrated this form of dance is the " Astro-
nomic Dance," mentioned in a previous
chapter ; but this is now extinct, as is also
the " big dance before the Inca," which was
once one of the features of ancient Peru.

This latter was a dance representing the
idea of " Union is Strength," and, moreover,
it was given solely with a view to emphasiz-
ing that phrase, and was not an accidental
result of the movements of certain figures,
as dances representing the same idea among
other primitive nations often are. Though,
as a matter of fact, we cannot call the

3 History of Dancing. 67

ancient and now extinct races of Peru
primitive, for they appear to have been highly
developed and civilized.

On the other hand, a tribe of Lower
Bengal, called the " Coles," who really are
primitive in their ideas, have also a dance
representing this idea.

Another allegorical dance, but one about
whose origin and meaning we know very
little, is that of the Santal women. In this
all the performers join hands, and form into
a figure resembling the arc of a circle, to
and from the centre of which, with slow and
graceful movements, they alternately advance
and retire. At the same time the whole line
moves slowly round to the right, so that
the circle is completed within the hour.
The meaning of this dance has never been
satisfactorily investigated, but it seems not
improbable that it may have a common origin
with the Astronomic Dance, the idea of which
extended at one time over a great part of the
world ; and the act of revolving round a
central point in the exact space of an hour
certainly seems to point to a connection with
the movements of the heavenly bodies.

68 3 History of Dancing.

A very curious dance which may be alle-
gorical in nature, and which has a reference
to some forgotten chapter in past history, is
the public " baile " or dance of Guatemala.

Here all taking part are dressed up in
skins and wear head-dresses composed of
the horns of various animals, some savage
and fierce, some retiring and timid. A mock
combat between the beasts takes place, and,
contrary to expectation, the timid deer are
always made to be the conquerors.

At the end of the fight a symbolical cere-
mony takes place, in which the victors trace
in the sand with a long pole a picture of
some strange-looking animal. No one seems
to know what this is meant to be, nor can
any guess be made as to the nature of the
event which is thus so strangely celebrated.

The natives of the Pacific Islands have
always been noted for their dances, and
many of their ballets are not far behind the
best efforts of civilized countries. Of re-
cent years, however, there have been great
changes in the customs of these islanders,
and many of the older dances are now lost ;
though, thanks to the excellent descriptions

3 History of Dancing. 69

that Captain Cook has left us in the account
of his voyages, we are enabled to see what
alterations have been made in the dances,
and to compare them with those now in
existence.

*In one place, Hapsee, in the Friendly
Islands, a special notice is made of how
splendidly drilled the performers were, mov-
ing " with an exactness and dexterity far
surpassing what they (the natives) had seen
of our military manoeuvres."

A description then follows : — " ... A
dance performed by men, in which one hun-
dred and five persons were engaged; each
having a paddle or an instrument resembling
a paddle, about two and a half feet long,
with a thin blade and a small handle. With

A

these instruments various flourishes were
made, each of which was accompanied with
a different movement, or a different attitude
of the body.

•' At first, the dancers ranged themselves
in three lines, and so changed their stations
by different evolutions, that those who had

* The following extracts are taken from an early copy of " A
Voyage to the Pacific Ocean," 1784.

70 3 History of Dancing.

been in the rear came into the front. At
one part of the performance they extended
themselves in one line ; afterwards they
formed themselves into a semi-circle ; and
then into two square columns. During the
last movement, one of them came forward
and performed an antic dance before Captain
Cook, with which the entertainment ended."

In these islands there appears to have
been a certain amount of figure dancing
also, and an illustration, from the same
book, of two Otaheite girls performing a
pas de deux is here given.

At another time, he tells us, a perform-
ance was given by women dancers, and it
is interesting to note that here was a very
similar idea to that of the ancient Greek
singing and dancing chorus. In the Captain's
own words: — ". . . Twenty women en-
tered the circle, whose heads were adorned
with garlands of crimson flowers ; and many
of their persons were decorated with leaves
of trees, curiously scolloped, and ornamented
at the edges.

" They encircled those of the chorus, with
their faces towards them, and began by

SB.

s

3 History of Dancing. 71

singing a soft air, to which responses were
made by the chorus ; and those were alter-
nately repeated. The women accompanied
their song with many graceful motions of
their hands, and continually advancing and
retreating with one foot, while the other
remained fixed. After this, they turned their
faces to the assembly, and having sung some
time, retreated slowly in a body, and placed
themselves opposite the hut where the spec-
tators sat. One of them next advanced from
each side, two of whom returned; but the
other two remained, and to these from each
side came one by intervals, till they all had,
once more, formed a circle about the
chorus."

Among dances imitative of mankind and
his actions, the war-dance will always be
found to be the most numerous. For, next
to that of eating, the great idea of every
primitive mind — despite the moralists — is to
have a fight with his neighbour.

And in these dances, a very accurate de-
scription is given of the methods of warfare,
so that, apart from the rhythmical beauty
which a number of them possess, many are

72 3 History of Dancing.

of historical value, for in almost all cases
the dance outlives the method of fighting,
and in places where civilized weapons, and
the resulting difference of tactics, may have
been introduced, we are able to have, never-
theless, a life-like picture of the old fighting
weapons and customs. Thus, I believe, in
remote parts of Mexico the natives still per-
form a war-dance, showing traces of the
once famous " Rabinal Achi " of their ances-
tors, the fierce Aztecs.

Again, the Bhils, the war-like people who
were once the terror of Central India, have
a dance which was originally a war-dance,
but which has now degenerated into a per-
formance by professional players, who go
on a tour through the country, giving their
show at the different villages they come to.

And this, which started by being a fierce
imitation of war, has become a sort of
comic pantomime, in which men fight against
women, the men using short clubs and the
women being provided with long poles,
though what is the origin of these peculiar
weapons is not absolutely known.

Men dance very little in India, but the

3 History of Dancing. 73

grace and dexterity of the Nautch girls is
well known. Girls are employed, too, at
most of the temples, for the ceremonial
dancing, being often devoted to the use of
the temple in babyhood by their mothers
as a thank-offering.

A curious war-dance is performed by the
Natal Kaffirs. A war-dance in every sense
of the word, being performed just as they
are going off to battle, it seems to have a
symbolical meaning, and probably signifies
that they will be all-conquering. For the
men form up in ranks, and, turning their
backs in the direction of the enemy, face
the village and the assembled women. These
women, in a singing tone, appeal to them to
stay ; but they only answer by darting their
assegais towards the sky, and then slowly
withdraw to the sound of chanting, step by
step, and always facing the women ; thus
giving a picture of what they will, or hope
to, be like after they have met the enemy,
showing a bold front and with full ranks.

Nearly all the primitive war-dances are
recitative in character, and either the chorus
sing of the past events of the nation, or else

74 A History of Dancing.

the performers will tell, somewhat boastfully
as a rule, of their own deeds. Among two
such dissimilar peoples as the natives of
Tasmania and the North American Indians,
this idea of singing one's own prowess is
alike carried out in the dance, the women
giving special facilities to it, by purposely
taunting the men of cowardice.

Many tribes celebrate the act of hunting
in their dances ; but there is, I believe, only
one people where women go through a big
pantomimic dance concerning their own
hunting and domestic operations. This
dance is also of Tasmania, though now fast
dying out, and in it the women describe
their daily life, the clambering for opossum,
diving for shell-fish, digging for roots, and
— shade of Mrs. Caudle! — quarrelling with
their husbands.

A number of dances that were originally
of a warlike character grow, with the peace-
ful instincts of the people, into mere games
and amusements, and thereby lose, in a great
measure, their dancing nature. Thus in
Yucatan there is a dance, or rather a game,
in which one man shuffles in a cowering

A History of Dancing. 75

position round a circle, catching on a stick
the bohordos or canes thrown at him by a
ring of other men seated around. This is
probably a survival of the catching of arrows
or spears on a shield during a war-dance.

In Fiji, also, there is a club-dance, a pas
seul of a comic nature, in which the per-
former is dressed up in a complete frame-
work of leaves, and has also a mask on his
face. This is the same idea as the now fast
disappearing Jack-in-the-Green of our own
country, though the Fiji dance has probably
a very different origin.

Animals have always been favourite things
to imitate in dances ; but, as these so-called
dances are seldom more than a series of
uncouth leaps and falls, they are hardly
worth mentioning. Those of the Ostyaks
of Northern Asia, who imitate the wolf and
the bear, the people of the Congo Free
State, who act the gorilla and its movements
when attacked, and the dance of the Deme-
rara natives, in which four men covered with
skins stoop with their heads in contact to
represent an ox, which is continually being
annoyed and teased by another performer

76 £ History of Dancing.

dressed as a baboon, are perhaps more highly
developed than the rest, but even they are
without the rhythm which should typify a
true dance.

A curious instance of origin and develop-
ment is that of the " cake-walk," the dance
which a year or two ago created such a
furore on its first introduction from America.
This, of course, came from the plantation
negroes, whose ancestors were imported
many generations ago from Africa.

Now a friend of mine, lately returned from
Africa, told me only to-night that many of
the special movements of the cake-walk, the
bending back of the body, and the dropping
of the hands at the wrists, amongst others,
were a distinct feature in certain of the
Kaffir dances, and that he had been at once
struck by the marked similarity between
them.

CHAPTER VI.

QUAINT DANCES IN CIVILIZED
COUNTRIES.

" On with the dance, let joy be unconfined,
No sleep till Dawn, when Youth and

Pleasure meet"

— BYRON.

F all a country's customs, its national
dance is the last to die out. And
it is seldom, if ever, that a nation
will adopt a new dance and acclaim
the foundling as its national custom, so that,
in almost all dances of the people, we find
a history of considerable antiquity.

In seeking for a national dance, we have
to enquire for the dances performed by the
people, especially the rustic population, and
not for those devoted to the upper classes.
For the dances of the upper classes, who
travel into different countries and mix with
the social pursuits of other nations, become
like their performers, cosmopolitan in nature.

78 A History of Dancing.

Thus, in nearly all civilized countries, we find
now the waltz, the polka, the lancers, and
other social dances, just as we have at home.
But in the rural districts the people go on
dancing what has been danced by their
fathers for centuries upon centuries, and
there we find the real national dance.

In England, however, although by no
means under a republican form of govern-
ment, the habits and customs of the people
have become so assimilated with those of
the upper classes, especially during the last
fifty years or so, that all distinctive charac-
teristics of the commons are rapidly dying
out.

Thus, we cannot now find, even among
the rural population, any traces of what
might be called a national dance. Certain
dances, such as the Maypole and the Morris,
described in a former chapter, might, had
they still been kept up, have been termed
national dances ; but now even these are
dead, and the country-folk dance the waltz,
the polka, or the lancers, just as the upper
classes do, albeit generally with more aban-
don and fun. Turning, however, to another

3 History of Dancing. 79

portion of the population, " they who go
down to the sea in ships," the music-loving
and frolicsome Jack Tar, we find a dance
that might almost be called a national
dance — namely, the Hornpipe.

This is said to have been originally an in-
land dance, and one performed at fairs and
merry-makings in the country ; but for the
last two or three hundred years it has been
almost exclusively associated with the sea.
Danced, as every one knows, by one per-
former, or at the most two facing each
other, it is perhaps the liveliest and most
interesting of all English dances to watch.
Necessarily lively, as the music is in very
quick time, the feet move so rapidly that
they literally seem to twinkle ; yet all the
time the body is kept perfectly rigid, and
in this lies the charm and skill of the
dance ; for, with arms folded and an air of
perfect repose in the features, the performer
gives one the idea that the upper half of his
body and the lower belong to two different
persons, so that the dance has a novel and
strange effect on the observer. At intervals
in the music, however, the whole of the

§0 A History of Dancing.

man becomes endowed with movement, and
the performer goes through the various
motions of his ship's duties, such as loosen-
ing an imaginary rop£ here, tightening one
there, hauling at a pulley, etc.

Originally, as its name implies, it was
danced to the music of the pipe, the particu-
lar one, the hornpipe, having a horn bell
or rim attached to the open end. After-
wards, as in Nelson's time, the violin was
generally used, and this instrument is still
a favourite one, although the more prosaic
concertina and mouth-organ occasionally take
its place.*

Scotland, that delightful country of para-
doxes and surprises, presents one of its
most striking contrasts in relation to danc-
ing. For the people, the staid and sober
Scotch folk of fiction, aye, and of reality too,
at the first sound of the bagpipe or fiddle,
burst into dances so spirited and lively as
to be hardly equalled in vigour and wildness
by any other nation's dance, save perhaps
the Irish jig.

* Captain Cook, in his account of his voyages, specially attri-
butes the immunity of his crew from disease to their taking
•xercise and their dancing of the hornpipe.

A History of Dancing. 81

Yet even in their wildest dances there is an
incongruity ; for, as we are told by an historian
of Scotch customs, the dance is entered into,
especially on the part of the men, with the
greatest gravity and decorum, and the perfor-
mers go through it heroically from beginning
to end, however long and arduous it may be,
without that laughter and amusement which
generally characterises the dance.

The two chief dances of Scotland, and
these are really woven into one, are the
Reel and the Strathspey.

A curious thing about the reel is that it
was at one time an important dance in Den-
mark, and is still danced there to a slight
extent. This is but one more link in the
chain which binds the people of the High-
lands with those of Denmark, for they were
originally of the same race.

The Reel is a very beautiful dance to
watch, as its smooth and gliding motion
gives one the pleasant though rather strange
impression of rest and vivacity combined
Hogarth probably had this idea in his mind
when he instanced the reel as exemplifying
the line of beauty.

82 A History of Dancing.

It is danced by two couples or more, and oc-
casionally a circular form of the dance is intro-
duced, when the performers do most of the
steps on the points of the toes. The music is
generally in common time of four crotchets in a
measure, though sometimes in " Jig-time " of
six quavers. It was probably after hearing
this latter music, that Gilbert rather aptly des-
cribed them in the " Bab Ballads" as" Jiggetty
Reels." The Strathspey, said to have origin-
ally been danced in the Strath or Vale of the
river Spey first took up a position as a re-
gular dance about the year 1750. It is danced
alternately with the reel, but with slower
movements ; yet, at the same time, it is more
arduous and exhaustive than its companion
dance, as the motions are very jerky, and
without the smoothness which characterises
the reel. It was at one time very popular,
and its peculiar rhythm caught the ear of
the people in a way that no other dance had
done. Its tunes were hummed everywhere,
and it was a common thing for the dancers
to sing some words to it while it was being
performed. Burns, among others, wrote
several songs for the Strathspey.

A History of Dancing. 83

The Jig we always associate with Ireland",
though, when we come to think that the
Celts of Ireland, and those of, at all events,
the west and south-west of Scotland, are of
one and the same race, there is no reason
why it should not be one of the dances of
Scotland too.

And so it was, though being an indefinite
sort of thing at the best, and of no fixed
steps or movements, it is now difficult to
trace it in any of the Scottish dances.
Shakespeare makes a special mention of it
as a Scotch dance, though whether he was
mixing it up with the Reel or not we cannot
say. His description certainly seems to tally
with the dance as we now know it in Ire-
land, for he says—

" Hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig."

"Much Ado about Nothing," ii. 1.

There is but one more of the well-known
Scotch dances, and that is the " Sword-
dance." This is really more a test of skill
and agility than a social amusement, since
only one person dances it at a time ; yet it
is a cherished Highland custom, and, if
danced in the correct way, with sharpened

84 A History of Dancing.

swords and but thin covering for the feet,
not without the additional excitement of the
chance of getting a serious wound.

It is a most picturesque dance ; and if
one has had the good fortune to witness it
up in the Highlands, with the flaring lights
in the roof, and the ring of people sitting
around the central performer, who, dressed
in all the glory of his tartan colours, goes
through the quick and difficult steps between
the crossed swords, it is a sight he will not
readily forget.

The dance itself is of considerable anti-
quity, and originated with the great North
Scandinavian race, and thus, via the German
Saxons, came over to England as well as
going direct to Scotland. In the time of
Tacitus, even, it was of some importance as
a dance, and was described by him with
much detail in his " De Morib. Ger.," cap. 24.

Spain, the land of warmth, of sunshine,
of music, of art, can justly claim pre-emin-
ence among the nations for her graceful
and beautiful dances.

Not perhaps so vigorous, nor yet of such
intricate and involved movements, as those

A History of Dancing. 85

of her Northern sisters, they are neverthe-
less the acme of all that is pleasing and
artistic in the rhythm of motion. Dancing
comes as naturally to her daughters, as
swimming to the Polynesians, or singing to
the Germans ; while Cervantes, who had
such a keen insight into the natures of the
Spanish people, was undoubtedly thinking of
his countrywomen when he said, " There
ne'er was born a woman yet, but she was
born to dance."

Yet, even now, while she is a nation laid
low amongst those whom she once despised,
she can still claim a great distinction, for
it is from Spain that those dancers come
who by the grace and perfection of their
dancing become the wonder and admiration
of every capital of Europe.

The dances peculiar to Spain are mostly
of Moorish extraction ; but the interval has
been so long, and the dances have been so
added to and improved by the people them-
selves, that there is now but little trace of
their ancient origin. Andalusia is the classic
home of the dance, and it is there that one
sees the best displays of the national dances.

86 A History of Dancing.

These are three in number — the Fandango,
the Bolero, and the Seguidillas, though, of
these, the Seguidillas is really only the Fan-
dango or the Bolero danced by a greater
number of people. The Fandango, which
means literally, " Go and dance," is danced
.n slow six-eight time, by two people facing
each other. It is the prototype of all the
others, and is the most popular of the
Spanish dances. In this, as in all the
others, the arm movements play an impor-
tant part, and much of the peculiar grace
and charm of the Spanish dance is due to
them. The performers hold castanets in
their hands, and often the clicking of these,
and the rhythmical hand-clapping of the on-
lookers, is all the music they have, though
sometimes a mandolin or a guitar is added.

There is a curious old story in connection
with the Fandango, which nearly all the
Spanish historians vouch for as true. It is
said that in the year 1700 the Sacred Col-
lege, or. Ecclesiastical Court from Rome,
condemned the Fandango as an irreligious
performance, and were about to forbid the
dancing of it anywhere.

A history of Dancing. 87

But some enthusiastic votaries of it asked
to be allowed to have it performed before
the Court, to show the learned members
how harmless it was. So some dancers
started it, and so contagious was the music
and the rhythm of it, that eventually the
whole Court joined in, and there was to be
seen the unusual spectacle of the Sacred
College dancing the Fandango, which they
had specially met to prohibit !

The Bolero is a more modern dance, and
is found less in the Southern than in the
Northern districts, as it is of French ex-
traction and was introduced from Provence,
passing through the Basque country into the
North of Spain. It is a dance for a solo
performer, almost always a woman, and
the hand and arm movements are a great
feature in it. It consists of sharp turns and
revolutions of the body, of short quick
rushes of two or three steps, now to one
side, now to the other, the feet always
stamping on the floor in time to the music,
while at intervals, when there is a sudden
pause in the tune, the dancer stops rigid in
a picturesque pose, with the body bent

88 A History of Dancing.

slightly backwards, the hands on the hips,
and the head erect and defiant.

The Seguidillas is in quicker time than
the Fandango or Bolero, and is a combined
dance of eight people. The performers
range up in two files, with three or four
paces interval between them, and commence
dancing to the usual accompaniment of cas-
tanets, guitar, etc. It is a very exact and
definite dance, and the bars of the music
are counted for each fresh movement. Thus,
on the fourth bar the dancing begins, on
the ninth there is a pause, while at intervals,
just as in the Bolero, the performers stop
in a rigid and immovable pose, this, if good,
being especially applauded by the on-lookers.

There are numerous other minor dances
of Spain, among which the Sarabanda, made
historic by its performance by Cardinal
Richelieu to please Anne of Austria, La
Cambelas, and the Chacona, are the most
important.

There is also the Cachucha, which is a
comparatively modern dance, brought into
prominence by Fanny Elssler, the famous
premiere on the Paris Opera stage.

A History of Dancing. 89

About this dance James Russell Lowell,
the American writer and statesman, re-
marked in his account of the wedding cele-
brations of the late King of Spain : — " By
far the prettiest and most interesting feature
of the week was the dance, in the Plaza des
Armas, before the Palace, of deputations
from all the provinces of Spain, in their
picturesque costumes. The dances were
curious rather than graceful, and it was odd
that the only one which we are accustomed
to consider pre-eminently Spanish, the
Cachucha, was performed by two pro-
fessional dancers. The rest had, however,
higher interest from their manifest antiquity
and almost rudimentary characters."

A famous dance of Naples is the Taran-
tella, a dance with surely the most strange
and curious history of any. For it is said
to have originally been invented $o cure a
disease, Tarentism, from which it got its
name ! This peculiar remedy was organized
as early as 1374, when the disease, which
was the terrible " dancing mania," a form
of hysterical madness which once spread
over the whole of Germany, first made its

90 A History of Dancing.

appearance. This Tarentism was for a long
time thought to be the result of a bite from
the Tarantula spider, owing probably to a
confusion of names ; but it is now practically
certain that it was merely a form of nervous
hysteria, of which the better known " St.
Vitus' Dance " is a distant branch.

In France, the great revolution having
removed the sharp dividing line between the
upper classes and the lower, there is now
no real national dance ; for, just as in Eng-
land, the dances of the country people have
become assimilated with those of the upper
classes.

In remote country districts, it is true,
one may still find occasionally the " contre
danse," a dance not unlike our own Sir
Roger de Coverley, and of which our old-
fashioned " country dance " is a corruption,
while there is, of course, in Paris, the
" Can-can " ; but, apart from these, one
may safely say that the present dancing of
France is in all respects similar to that of
England.

Not so in Russia. Here we have dances
of a wilder and more vigorous kind than are

A History of Dancing. 91

to be found in any other European nation.
And I think it may be regarded as a general
rule, that the colder the climate of a country
may be, the more vigorous will be its dancing.

The dances of Russia (I am not speaking
of their society dances, which are, of course,
the same as those of any other civilized
country) are of many varieties, as is only
natural in a country so large, and divided
into so many provinces ; but through them
all runs one general type.

I was tmce fortunate enough to see some
Russians performing one of their national
dances, and was struck by the really difficult
and exhausting nature of the movements.
Some seven or eight men and girls took
part in the performance, though most of the
time only one of them would be dancing,
the others meanwhile standing round and
making the music by clapping their hands,
singing, and beating tambourines ; although
at certain intervals they would all join in,
passing and repassing each other, dancing
the whole time, till some fresh performer
commenced a solo once more.

This, the solo performance, seemed the

92 A History of Dancing.

most difficult to do, as it was danced through-
out in a crouching position, as if a man almost
sitting on his heels were to suddenly start
dancing, keeping his body bent at an angle the
whole time. Occasionally he would straighten
out and leap up in the air, and then go through
one or two steps in an upright position, also
making one or two very swift revolutions on
the points of his toes, but only again to resume
the original crouching pose. It is this bending
of the body that is typical of all Russian peasant
dances ; and, though it may not sound so, it is
in reality very picturesque to look at.

For, in performing this dance, the people
put on all their best and brightest-coloured
clothes ; and to see a group of them danc-
ing to the sound of the tambourines and
the singing of their companions is a very
pretty sight. In Germany the waltz is
really the national dance of the people, and
it was from the German peasants originally
that the waltz, the one delight of our
English ball-rooms, came. Also the Gallo-
pade, from which, in a slightly altered form,
we get our modern Gallop ; but both of
these I shall deal with in another chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

THE BALLET: ITS ORIGIN AND
DEVELOPMENT.

" To brisk notes in cadence beating
Dance tJieir many twinkling feet."
GRAY. — " PROGRESS OF POESY," Part II., 3, 6, 10.

|ERHAPS the nearest approach to
perfection which dancing as an art
ever reached, was to be found in
the ballet. The only detracting
circumstance being that the dancing in the
ballet was of a mechanical rather than an
inspired nature. So that, while from a
purely artistic point of view one can hardly
regret the decadence of this form of danc-
ing, yet when one remembers the great im-
petus it gave to dancing in general, and that
without it our stage dancing of to-day might
never have existed, we cannot help feeling
grateful for the important part it has played
in the history of dancing.

94 A History of Dancing.

Giving, as it did, such splendid chances
for acting, for expression, and for minute
and intricate movement, it naturally came
to be regarded as the climax of all forms
of dancing ; yet in itself it was unreal and
artificial, and had none of the artistic
effects, the ideas of waves, clouds, and
swaying trees, which the long skirted
dancers of to-day, in their nearer approach
to the old Greek style, are able to give. It
has been pleaded for the ballet that it was
eloquent, dramatic, full of gesture ; so it was,
but so are also such well-known plays as
" L' Enfant Prodigue," and moreover, in these
the art of acting is confined to its proper
sphere, the drama. It is no plea, I think, for
the ballet, as a form of dancing, that its act-
ing was so superb.

The ballet has a long and ancient history of
its own, extending right away from Roman
times, through mediaeval Italy and France,
eighteenth and nineteenth century England,
up to the present day ; though in speaking now
we generally carry in our minds a picture of
the ballet of the late Georgian and earl
Victorian times, when it was at its zenith.

A History of Dancing. 95

But the ballet, if we regard it in its real
meaning as a dance in rhythmical time by
a number of persons who combine gesticula-
tion and acting with their dancing, was un-
doubtedly performed among the Romans,
and in the later Augustan times had arrived
at a considerable standard of excellence.
The first ballets given at Rome were simply
comedies helped out to a considerable ex-
tent by gesture, and similar in nature to
the old comedies of the Fabulae Atellanae,
on which, indeed, they were founded ; the
only difference being that the ballets had
a larger number of performers and included
both male and female dancers. Then, in
time, the dancing began to take the first
place in the performance, the acting being
helped out by the Chorus singing Cantica
describing the plot and occurrences of the
play after the Greek manner. These ballets
became immensely popular, and the chief
poets in Rome were called upon to write
the songs and words for them, and several
librettos by Lucan, written for the
ballets about the year 65 A.D., may still
be read.

96 A History of Dancing.

From the late Roman period there is a
long gap till the fifteenth century, when in
Italy again appeared the ballet, though of
a different and much more artistic nature
than the old Roman performances. Indeed,
the Italy of mediaeval times may be regarded
as its original home ; and with that country
must always be associated the idea of the
ballet as a separate art in itself. The very
name ballet is derived from the late Latin
"ballare, through the Italian "balletto";
and our English word ballad, literally " a
song for dancing," is drawn from the same
source.

The first revivals of the ballet in Italy
were without doubt founded on the perform-
ances of the old Roman pantomimi, and pro-
bably these performances had been carried
on among the country towns in a but slightly
altered manner through all the interval be-
tween the Augustine period and the fifteenth
century ; but about the latter date more
attention began to be paid to dancing in
general, and particularly to this form of
dramatic dancing. So that, in the year
1489, matters were ripe for a sudden revival

A History of Dancing. 97

of popular feeling in favour of the ballet,
brought about by a big spectacular per-
formance arranged by one Bergonzio di
Botta, in celebration of the marriage of the
Duke of Milan, at Tortona. This was a
magnificent affair, and the performance of
it was spread over many hours. Five great
spectacles were set forth in it, namely, the
Siege of Troy, the Judgment of Paris, the
Seasons, the Conquests of Alexander, and
a Carnival, each of these shows being in
five acts, and each act having three, six,
nine or twelve entries for dancers ; singing
and recitation going on the whole time.
This was the precursor of many similar
ballets in Italy, some of them fine perform-
ances, but none being quite equal to
di Botta's.

Soon, however, the best ideas, and some
of the best dancers also, of the ballet, were
imported into France, then the most civilized
country in the world, and from that time
France established that reputation for danc-
ing which with the centuries has gone on
steadily increasing, and which she has never
lost.

98 A History of Dancing.

Katherine de MedicisSvas the first to in-
troduce the ballet into France, originally
with the idea of withdrawing the mind of
her son, the king, from affairs of state, in
the hope that she might get thereby more
power into her own hands. It soon became
exceedingly popular with the Court, and
performances were given on every possible
occasion. Baltazarini, the ballet master
whom Katherine had brought over from
Italy, reorganized and introduced a uni-
formity into the ballet, which now
began to run on fixed and regular
lines, and from this time the modern
history of the ballet may be said to have
commenced. /

In 1581 a great ballet, the " Ballet Comique
de la Reine,7 was given at the marriage of
the Due de Joyeuse, and this was a note-
worthy event, in that a few months later
a printed book about it, the first book on
the ballet ever written, was published ; and
in this is described, at some length, the
music, dialogue, and plot, illustrated by
pictures of the various movements and the
dresses.

A History of Dancing. 99

Henry IV. of France was a great sup-
porter of the ballet, no less than eighty
special performances being produced be-
tween the years 1590 and 1610, while Louis
XIII. and Louis XIV. were equally zealous
in their patronage of it. Indeed, both of
these monarchs danced publicly in the ballet,
and so enthusiastic was the latter that he
founded an Academy of Dancing, placing
Quinault as the Director, and Lully as the
chief composer. A great innovation, the
introduction of female , dancers, took place
in the ballet in 1681*; Lully, "with the true
eye of the artist, foreseeing the far more
graceful effect which would be produced by
this. The new scheme was a great success,
and from that time the ballet has never
had to entirely rely on the heavier and
naturally more clumsy dancing of men only.
The first ballet, in 1681, in which ladies took
part, was one called " Le Triomphe de
TAmourf^ the music of which was written
by Lully; but it was not till some years
later that female dancers in any number
took part in the performances. In this year
also, a book, " Des Ballets Anciens et

100 A History of Dancing.

Modernes," was written by a Jesuit, Le
Pere Menestrier, and for a long time this
book was the great authority on dancing.

Louis XIV. now becoming too stout to
dance in person, the ballets for a time went
out of favour, and for some thirty years
matters were at a standstill with regard to
their development. However, in the earlier
part of the eighteenth century, two female
dancers, Mdlles. Salle' and Camargo.* sprang
into fame and caused a sudden revival of
interest in the ballet. Thousands flocked
to see them, and Voltaire himself made
special mention of them in his writings.
Mdlle. Salle paid a triumphant visit to Eng-
land in 1741, this being the first record we
have of any noted danseuse appearing in
London.

About this time, too, Vestris, the great
Gastano Vestrisi^ first came upon the scene,
and by his methods quite revolutionized the
ballet. He followed close in the footsteps
of another male dancer, Dupre, but his own
fame quite overshadowed that of his fore-

* Camargo was said to be able to do no less than eight tntre-
(hats before retouching the ground, undoubtedly a record up till
that time, and probably still a record.

SIONOR VESTRIS.
London Magazine, April, 1781.

A History of Dancing. 103

runner. He, in company with Mdlle. Cam-
argo, created a sensation in Paris in the
year 1775, by a new ballet, " Leandre et
Hero,'' in which they took the two name-
roles; this ballet was a noteworthy per-
formance, and is also especially interesting
in that Mdlle. Camargo^wore for the first
time the short-skirted' ballet costume, all
previous dancers having worn full-length
dresses.

Contemporary with Vestris was another
great dancer, Jean Georges Noverre^ who
was noted for the great wealth of acting
and expression he put into his dancing. Up
till Noverre's time the ballets had been
performed in much the same manner as
they were under Katherine de Medicis.
Each act had been introduced by fresh
dancers, and nearly always by a different
style of dancing ; while sin variably a dialogue
explaining the plot had been carried on
throughout the whole*'"performance by the
Chorus. Songs, also, had been introduced
at frequent intervals, and indeed the dancing
had always been more or less of secondary
importance compared to the acting and sing-

104 A History of Dancing.

ing. Noverrd changed all this, and produced
what has ever since been known as the
" ballet d'actiorff ' the unravelling of a plot
by dancing and gesture pure and simple.
With him was revived the true art of
pantomime, such as had been made use of
by the old Roman mimes when at their
best ; and from the time of Noverre the
new school of dancing, which lasted all
through the remaining life of the ballet,
may be said to have commenced. Noverre
was accustomed to say that genius and a
power of acting were essential to a good
dancer, and in a book he wrote, " Lettres
sur la Dance et les Ballets," he lays much
stress on this.

In 1772, a new dancer, Maximilian Gardel,
appeared, and under his auspices a further
important change took place in the ballet.
This was no less than the removal of the
masks which all dancers had hitherto been
in the habit of wearing. This, a relic of
Roman times, had been considered a sine
qua non, to the complete equipment of a
dancer, and when Gardel first ventured to
appear without one, it was the cause of

A History of Dancing. 105

considerable surprise and questioning. He
nearly lost his popularity through its disuse,
but in time people became more accustomed
to it ; other dancers copied his example, and
in twb or three years the masks disappeared
altogether.

During the period of the French Directory,
and after the retirement of Noverre, there
was an inclination to introduce a patriotic
note into the " grand ballet," as it was now
called, and the theatre was much made use
of by the authorities to keep up the national
spirit among the populace. Some very fine
ballets, notably one named the " Marsellaise,"
were performed at this time ; and though
there were no individually great dancers,
yet the general standing of the ballet was
never more brilliant.

The leadership of the dancing world was
next taken up by Vincenzo Galleotti, a
dancer who secured much fame in Copen-
hagen, and after him Bournonville, a pupil
of his, became the acknowledged head of
the profession. Bournonville was made
Director of the Academy at Copenhagen
between the years 1830 and 1836, and during

106 A History of Dancing.

that time he produced many famous ballets,
among them being the ballet of " Napoli,"
at that time considered to be the finest the
world had ever seen.

It will be noticed that all the names yet
mentioned have been those of foreigners,
for we in England have never been able to
lay claim to any of the world's dancers, and
indeed even the English history of the ballet
is but the history of foreign dancers who
have appeared in this country. The ballet
was practically unknown in England till the
appearance of Vestris in 1741 ; and, though
ever since that time the English have always
been great patrons and admirers of the
ballet, they have never been able to produce
any dancers equal to those of the Italian or
French schools. The first English ballet
we have mention of was one called " The
Tavern Bilkers," performed at Drury Lane
in 1702. This was a descriptive ballet, but
danced, of course, in the old style, with
songs and dialogue illustrating the plot.
As early as 1667, Dryden uses the word
" balette " as an English word, but with
the exception of this one in 1702 there

A History of Dancing. 107

seem to have been no ballets worthy of the
name till about 1740. The earlier Italian
operas in London were performed without
the ballet, and this was one reason why the
continent was so much more advanced than
England in respect to its dancing ; for with
the history of the opera is entwined that of
the ballet. But with the further develop-
ment of the opera in England, and the
accompanying introduction of the ballet as
in the Continental manner, we arrive at a
period that stands out by itself as the
golden age of the ballet in this country,
namely, the first half of the nineteenth
century.

Not so very long ago, perhaps — indeed,
the latter part of that period is well within
the memory of many still living ; but the
ballet is now a thing of the past, and so
sharp is the boundary line dividing the days
of the opera, of the early Victorian dandies
and all their accompanying environment,
from the matter-of-fact people of to-day,
that the period seems to have been placed
almost in another world. The names of
Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Cerito, are merely

108 A History of Dancing.

names to most of us — names of once cele-
brated people, it is true, but for all that
nothing more to our ears than are the
places on a map to one who has never tra-
velled; and it is difficult for us to imagine
the magic influence, the magnetic power,
which once surrounded them.

Those were the days when the Haymarket,
Her Majesty's, or Covent Garden, were but
patronized for the ballets that were staged
there ; and when one who had not witnessed
the last success of Taglioni, or had not
helped to applaud the new performance of
Duvernay, was of no account, and but little
better than a barbarian. How they flocked
to the opera, and how they crowded the
boxes and promenades night after night,
these bucks of the D'Orsay period, staring
through their quizzing glasses at the newest
premiere, or bowing with well-measured
grace to some fair leader of society in the
opposite box ! And, sheltered under the
protecting wing of fashion, which, contrary
to her usual manner, remained unchanged
for some thirty years, the ballet made great
advances towards perfection, and at the

A History of Dancing. 109

end of Taglioni's reign had become as
artistic an affair as mechanical skill could
ever hope to make it.

Taglioni ! Name to conjure with ! Can
any of our modern celebrities claim to have
created the sensation that was caused when-
ever the great Taglioni was announced to
appear ? Her name was upon everyone's
lips, songs were composed about her, books
and music dedicated to her, while " Taglioni "
hats, dresses, overcoats, were common signs
in all the shop windows. Many, though
fewer every year, are yet able to recall
scenes of the nightly thronged houses, when
the theatres kept on absorbing more and more
eager enthusiasts, till they seemed swollen
almost to a bursting point ; many still living
are able to proudly say they saw Taglioni
at her prime ; yet now her name is almost
forgotten, so complete has been the extinc-
tion of the ballet !

Another great danseuse, who, if her skill
was not so great, was said to have possessed
an even greater personal attraction than
Taglioni, was Fanny Elssler. The story of
how these two competed for fame on the

110 A History of Dancing.

Paris Opera stage, first one gaining the
acknowledged supremacy, then the other,
is one of the romances in the annals of
dancing. And to see Elssler dance the
Cachucha ! That was the one thing to live
for in those days. What a perfect furore
it caused, and what storms of applause
used to greet her appearance every night !
It was said that Fanny Elssler could do
anything with her feet that it was in mortal
power to do. Oliver Wendell Holmes' ad-
miration for her is shown in the sentence
he puts into the mouth of the " Master,"
in the " Poet at the Breakfast Table." He
says : "I have seen the woman who danced
the cap-stone on to Bunker Hill Monument,
as Orpheus moved the rocks by music,—
the Elssler woman, Fanny Elssler."

But with the retirement of Taglioni an4
Elssler, both in the year 1845, the ballet,
having lost its two most brilliant stars,
began to fade into insignificance, and though
for nearly thirty years afterwards it still
retained its original characteristics, it was
never quite the same again. The name of
Henriette d'Or stands out among the last

A History of Dancing. Ill

of the old school of the ballet, but from
the time of Taglioni the premieres who
could lay any claim to the title " famous "
might be counted on one hand.

About thirty years ago, however, the ballet
received a new impetus with the production
at the Variety Halls, such as the Alhambra,
and, a few years later, the Empire, of per-
formances which, if not exactly ballets of
the old school, were still sufficiently like
them to deserve the name. This new school,
which was distinguished by the transforma-
tion of the short-skirted coryphees into a
radiantly-coloured chorus dressed in tights,
a chorus whose chief duties seemed to be
those of looking nice and marching about
with military precision, had, and still has,
a strong leaning towards the spectacular
effect, and each year the dancing became
more subservient to this, until it is now of
quite secondary importance compared to
the rest. That fine effect is gained by all
this wealth of colour and display of dazzling
dresses cannot be denied, but it is effect
gained at the expense of dancing ; and
though the scene becomes like a coloured

112 A History of Dancing.

picture, a painting that an artist might
delight in, it is in reality the destruction of
a high form of one art for the sake of an
inferior form of another.

The stages of the Alhambra and the Em-
pire have for the last thirty years or more
been noted for their ballets, and many fine
performances have been produced there. At
the Alhambra in 1860 was produced a ballet,
41 Yolande," by Alfred Thompson, which was
just on the boundary line between the old
and the new schools, having many of the
characteristics of the old style, combined
with the brilliant spectacular and coloured
effects of the new. And that it should have
had this display of colour was but natural,
as it was a Japanese ballet, the first ever
produced in England, and was dressed in
all the bright colour and scenery for which
Japan is famous.

The Empire, and the Alhambra too, have
of recent years, with the introduction of
the electric light effects, produced some
wonderful ballets, among the best known
at the former place being " Faust," " Round
the Town," " Les Papillons," etc., of which

A History of Dancing. 113

the staging and colour effects have all been
arranged by Mr. C. Wilhelm, who has had
much experience in that work. For many
years Madame Katti Lanner has been a
famous director of the ballets at the Empire,
and it is in a great measure due to her that
the dancing has retained that degree of im-
portance which it still holds.

Nowadays the premieres are all that are
left to remind us of the once famous ballets
of the " forties." They still preserve the old
style of costume, and many of them go far
towards preserving the old excellence of
dancing, Mdlle. Adeline Genee, one of the
latest arrivals at the Empire, recalling much
of the grace of Fanny Elssler. But, for all
that, the ballet is now a thing of the past,
and, with the modern change of ideas, a
thing that is never likely to be resuscitated,
And in a way it is perhaps as well, for, as
I have said elsewhere, a forced and mechan-
ical style cannot contribute to the further-
ance of the real art of dancing, and move-
ments such as walking on the extreme
points of the toes can only be regarded as
unnatural.

114 A History of Dancing.

From the point of view of acting, it has
no doubt been of inestimable service to that
kindred art, for it has taught us how much
can be performed by mere gesticulation, and
that, to an actor, speech is really of secon-
dary importance compared to the acting
itself, the correct movements of the limbs
and features. An interesting story is told
of how Roscius, the great Roman actor, and
Cicero, the famous orator, once had a dis-
pute as to whether gesticulation or elocution
could best convey meaning. Finding that
their arguments led to nothing, they decided
to hold a trial of their respective arts, before
certain friends who were to be the judges.
After some time, the prize was awarded to
Roscius, and so delighted was he at the
result that he went off and wrote a book
on the subject of gesticulation.

The ballet was without doubt the school
of pantomimic acting, but from the point
of view of dancing itself, it can never be
compared to the free and natural style of
the best dancers of to-day. And though
with its decay a great amount of the in-
terest devoted to the art of Terpsichore

A History of Dancing. 115

has been withdrawn, and popular favour
much diminished, yet in the best interests
of dancing no one can really regret the
wane of the Ballet.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE STAGE DANCING OF TO-DAY.

" // ne sait sur quel pied danser."

OLD FRENCH PROVERB.

N heading this chapter, "The Stage
Dancing of "to-day," I intend the
words " to-day " to be used in their
widest sense, that is, as referring
to the present generation.
And the stage dancing of the present
generation, the graceful skirt-dancing which
is now the chief, if not the sole, type of
the art, and which has collected to itself all
that was most beautiful of the bygone forms,
may be said to have sprung, Phoenix-like,
from the ashes of its immediate progenitor,
the Ballet. For there is no distinct line of
demarcation between modern skirt-dancing
and the ballet of the old Italian school,
different as at first sight they seem ; this

A History of Dancing. 117

fact Miss Alice Lethbridge, one of the finest
exponents of our modern skirt-dancing, has
expressed as follows : "As long as dancing
continues, the special movements of the
older ballet, its entrechats, pirouettes, and
countless other steps, must also exist, for
they are but the great groundwork of it all."

In dealing, therefore, with the present-day
dancing, I shall commence with the birth
of that particular form known as skirt-
dancing.

To most people the word " skirt-dancing "
will at once call to mind the Gaiety Theatre,
and not without reason ; for with the Gaiety
Theatre (I may say with both the Gaiety
Theatres, for the new one is, so far, well
carrying out the plans of the old) skirt-
dancing has ever had its closest ties. From
the time of that ever-memorable four, known
to all as " The Gaiety Quartette," namely,
Edward Terry, E. W. Royce, Kate Vaughan,
and Nellie Farren, when Kate Vaughan
revolutionized the stage world by her long-
skirted dancing, down to the moment at
which I write, this, perhaps the most skilful,
and certainly the most beautiful form of

118 A History of Dancing.

the Terpsichorean art, has been the great
tradition of the Gaiety.

It is unnecessary here to go into the pre-
vious history of the old Gaiety, beyond
remarking that the building was originally
the " Strand Music Hall," but was converted
into the " Gaiety Theatre " under John
Hollinshead's management in 1868, being
then devoted to musical burlesques, a form
of play which was carried on in an almost
unbroken line for nearly thirty years. But
the date 1876 marked a great epoch in the
history of the theatre, for it was in this
year that the " quartette " was formed, a
quartette which instantly became famous,
and which was the foundation stone for that
success which has never since deserted the
Gaiety.

Nellie Farren, Kate Vaughan, Edward
Terry, and E. W. Royce ! Those were
indeed the days of " Stars." Nellie Farren,
affectionately known to the whole of England
as " Our Nellie," the greatest burlesque
actress, and the brightest and kindliest
woman that ever lived ; Kate Vaughan, who
created a new era in the world of dancing,

A History of Dancing. 119

whom thousands came to see for the grace
of her art, and of whom the late John
Hollinshead wrote : "In all the troubles and
worries of rehearsals she was never once
known to be wanting in patience and perfect
courtesy," a tribute that could be rendered
to but few; Edward Terry, equally clever
in song, dialogue, or dance, and whose fame
as a burlesque actor is now only equalled
by his later fame and reputation in the
higher comedies ; and " Teddy " Royce,
acknowledged at the time to be the finest
dancer in England, if not in the world !

Kate Vaughan, by her institution of the
long-skirted form of dancing, took by storm
the hearts of all theatre-goers, for the grace
and charm of the new style could not be
denied, and the superiority, if only from an
artistic point of view, of this form of danc-
ing, built on the old Greek model, over the
stiff and conventional movements of the
Italian school was so evident that from that
time ballet-dancing began to lose a popu-
larity which it has never since regained.

" Ars est celare artem" and this must have
surely applied to Kate Vaughan ; for though,

120 A History of Dancing.

in discarding the old form of dancing-dress,
she was prevented from displaying her skill
and mastery over the movements and steps
particularly associated with the Italian
school, she nevertheless gave such an artis-
tic performance that all beholders were
delighted with the innovation, and the
degree of refinement that was thence-
forward associated with stage dancing has
more than made up for any loss sustained
in point of actual technical skill. On the
model of Kate Vaughan's style is built prac-
tically all that is best in the stage dancing of to-
day, and had it not been for^her happy inspira-
tion a very different type of dancing might now
be in vogue. She was one of those who are
born to dance, dancing because they must,
and in whom there is a distinct inspiration ;
and though through a strange perversity she
suddenly, in the zenith of her fame, threw
everything on one side and invaded the do-
main of Old English Comedy, yet in later years
she again sought her first love, and when I last
saw her, only a few years before her death,
she even then showed herself a complete
mistress of her art.

A History of Dancing. 121

The skirt-dancer is not solely dependent
on her steps or the manipulation of her
skirts for effect, as is sometimes thought,
for a great portion of the skill consists in
the proper attention paid to arm movement ;
though in a good dancer this is so sub-
merged in the tout ensemble that it is hardly
noticeable. The importance of this arm
movement, the x«/°°l'0A"a of the Greeks, can
only be realized when we try for a moment
to imagine how strange and harsh would be
the effect if the arms were kept stiff and
motionless through an entire dance. Ovid
understood the artistic effect of the arm-
movement, and was much impressed by it,
saying, " Si vox est, canta ; si mollia brachia,
salta" which is literally, "If you have a
voice, sing ; but if you have good arms, then
go in for dancing."

Much of the grace, too, of skirt-dancing
depends upon the body-postures, and on the
perfect balance that is so necessary to a
good dancer. In fact, many of the most
difficult movements are only possible to
those who possess this gift of balancing to
a marked degree, while even the ordinary

H

122 A History of Dancing.

movements are much beautified and added
to in grace by those with an obvious facility
of balance. It is to this additional power
that much of the skill and success of Miss
Alice Lethbridge is due, and many of the
movements which have made her name
famous, such as that wonderful revolving
movement of which she is said to be the
sole mistress, are in a great measure de-
pendent on it. This revolving movement
was one which she first introduced in a
dance when playing the part of Pepita in
" Little Christopher Columbus " at the Lyric.
She has given it no special name, merely
calling it the " waltz movement," as it is
in this form of dance that she has been in
the habit of introducing it ; but it is an open
secret that many have tried to imitate her
in it without success.

The movement itself consists of, while
still dancing the ordinary waltz, suddenly
bending the body backwards, till it is almost
at a right angle, and in this position slowly
rotating the body around its own axis, mak-
ing all the correct steps of the dance, and
moving round in a big circle the whole time.

A History of Dancing. 123

The swaying of the body in slow time to
the rapid movements of the feet, and the
effect of the waving skirts, lend an air of
grace to the dance such as has seldom been
equalled. One of the critics at the time
wrote : " She looked like a big white poppy
in that ceaseless revolving movement round
such a large circle, and the amateur won-
dered how the dancer could possibly preserve
her balance."

Her dancing in " Little Christopher Colum-
bus " was one of the sensations of the thea-
trical year, and from that time her name
was assured, though even earlier, when little
more than a child, her dancing in " Mynheer
Jan " at the Comedy Theatre had caused
her to be declared by many critics the finest
dancer on the stage, since Kate Vaughan
had some years before retired from the field
of burlesque. All her dancing shows great
knowledge of both the practical and theore-
tical sides of the art, and she is without
doubt the most graceful exponent of dancing
we now have.

Returning to the early Gaiety days, men-
tion must be made of another dancer of the

124 A History of Dancing.

Kate Vaughan type, and one who was
closely associated with all the Gaiety pro-
ductions immediately succeeding her — Miss
Sylvia Grey. Miss Grey appeared in most
of the famous burlesques of the " eighties "
and early " nineties," and her dancing, con-
trasted with that of Miss Florence Levy,
another Gaiety favourite who was in almost
all the same pieces, was an object lesson of
the wide differences that the art of dancing
could range over.

For the dancing of Miss Levy was of the
" high-kicking " type, and clever and difficult
of execution as it undoubtedly was, it yet
could hardly be called artistic, and merely
served as a foil to show up the far more
graceful effect of the other style. The high-
kicking type, which for a time threatened to
become very popular, is now fortunately
dying out, and is only seen occasionally in
some of the " Halls."

Two other artists who, like Miss Grey,
have now apparently retired from the danc-
ing world, are Miss Letty Lind and Miss
Mi mi St. Cyr. The latter always had a
predilection for the foreign styles of dancing,

A History of Dancing. 125

and though at one time a pupil of Mr. J.
D'Auban, who taught such true English
dancers as Miss Grey, Miss Lethbridge, and
Miss Sinden, it was in her expositions of
the Tarantella dances that she made herself
famous, while her Spanish Castanet dance
5n the part of La Frivolini in " La Cigale "
will long be remembered.

Miss Mabel Love, another pupil of Mr.
D'Auban, has of late years been directing
her attention away from the Terpsichorean
field, and practically the only good dancers
we now have are Miss Alice Lethbridge,
Miss Topsy Sinden, and, the latest addition
to the ranks, Miss Winifred Hart-Dyke.
Miss Hart-Dyke is a pupil of Madame Caval-
lazzi, and was dancing in the last of the
" Savoy " pieces, coming to the front by her
performance in " Merrie England," where
she gave a very excellent pas seul in the
second act.

Miss Topsy Sinden, who up till recently
was connected with Daly's Theatre, would
be far the most graceful dancer on the stage
to-day, were she not a little too apt to
sacrifice some of the charm of her perform-

126 A History of Dancing.

ance to occasional bursts of step-dancing,
almost of clog-dancing, and at times a slight
suggestion of high-kicking, both of which
are fatal to the artistic effect. She has,
however, some wonderful dancing to her
credit, and her performances in " San Toy,"
" The Country Girl," and other musical
plays, left little to be desired.

She started young, as all the best dancers
have done, commencing in one of Sir Augustus
Harris' Covent Garden pantomimes, at the
early age of five.

The question of allowing young children
to perform on the stage has been much
discussed of late years, and though at one
time stage children may not have had that
proper care and attention which should have
been bestowed on them, the same cannot
be said now; and with the present system
of magisterial control to supervise their
school education, and benevolent manager-
esses such as Miss Ellaline Teriss to look
after their pleasures, the lot of a stage child
is generally a much-envied one. And for
quite seventy per cent, of the plays pro-
duced, children are a necessary part of the

A History of Dancing. 127

performance, for nothing looks more out of
place than a grown-up person trying to take
the part of a child, while for pantomimes
and spectacular plays large numbers of
children are required. As pantomime fairies
they are most appropriate, for many of the
pretty children one sees engaged might have
come straight from the " fairy rings," of
the light-footed blue-eyed elves which so
appealed to the imaginations of our fore-
fathers.

Dancing was the " little people's " recrea-
tion, and the fairies would have lost half
their charm in the minds of their believers,
had they not indulged in their merry moon-
light capers. And with their love of danc-
ing was associated everything that was
bright and cheerful and pretty. Fairies
were always represented as bedecked with
posies and garlands of flowers.

" The dances ended, all the fairy train
For pinks and daisies search the scattered plain."

— POPE.

And so also we, the more prosaic mortals,
always deck our dances with bright dresses
and colours, for with dancing everything
must be cheerful.

128 A History of Dancing.

But to return to the children. It is set
forward by every authority on the subject
of dancing, that the only way to succeed in
the art is to commence young, and for this
reason alone we might advance the cause
of the stage children. But when we see
how the little ones really enjoy themselves
while at their duties, and look forward so
eagerly to the time when the curtain goes
up, and when we know also that the extra
money they earn adds little comforts that
would otherwise be denied to many a home,
we can look on it with sincere approval.

It has been said that all good dancers
start young, but it must be added also that
all good dancers work hard. Just as in
every profession, it is hard work that brings
the best to the front ; but to those dancers
who enter their profession because they feel
attracted to it, it is a labour of love. That
they do have to work hard there is no doubt,
for the keen eye of the public is ever upon
them, and they must be therefore in a sort
of perpetual training. Especially was this
applicable to the ballet-dancer, and Oliver
Wendell Holmes has remarked in his " Poe

3 History of Dancing. 129

at the Breakfast Table"— "Yet they have
been through such work to get their limbs
strong and flexible and obedient, that a
cart-horse lives an easy life compared to
them while in training " ; but, at the same
time, this hard training has always had in-
estimable advantages from the point of view
of the worker's health, for it is no doubt
the finest exercise in the world, and keeps
the body in a state of suppleness, and the
muscles in a condition that nothing else will
do. And through the body we approach the
mind. " Mens sana in corpore sano" The
ancients were strongly of the opinion that
dancing developed character. Plato put
forward a theory as to dancing in regard to
the development of both mind and body,
and Lucian also, in his " Essay on Dancing,"
gives a very high value to the art.

But there must be moderation in all
things, and some of the forms of dancing
on the stage to-day cannot be considered
in any way as of health-giving value. I
refer to those in which strange and un-
natural postures are brought into use, such
as an American form of dancing I have

130 A History of Dancing.

lately heard of, called " Rock Dancing."
This is practically a dance of the ballet
movements of the Italian school, performed
almost entirely on the instep, a painful and
ungraceful proceeding which might justly
cause the performers to be called contor-
tionists rather than dancers.

There are other forms of modern stage-
dancing which are as far removed from the
best, the long-skirted type, as what is known
as " the illegitimate performance," from the
true drama, in the sister profession. Among
these may be mentioned such dances as
Plantation Dances, Cake Walks, and other
innovations which have unfortunately crept
in of late. The old-fashioned Clog Dancing
is without doubt very clever, and one cannot
but admire the skill shown in a good per-
formance ; but it is not graceful, and relies
more on the sense of sound than of sight
for a proper appreciation of it.

As opposed to this essentially " foot-
dancing " is the equally definite "arm-
dancing of the Serpentine Dance, that dance
which has given name and fame to La Loie
Fuller. Wonderful and beautiful effects are

A History of Dancing. 131

produced in this Serpentine Dance, " mats il
rfest pas la guerre" All things considered,
there is only one true form of dancing on the
stage to-day, and that is what, for want of a
better name, is known as " skirt-dancing."

And this skirt-dancing, what is it ?

A vision of laughing eyes and twinkling feet,
a swift rushing of floating draperies through
the air, a twirl, a whirl, now here, now there,
yet all with a certainty and precision whose
very apparent absence declares its art ; then,
as the music slows down, a delicate fluttering,
like a butterfly hovering among the flowers,
and lastly, as a soft falling snow-flake, silently
she sinks to the ground. Is not this something
worth living for, to be able to dance it, to be
able to see it ? You, who are now learning
your art, and who are to carry on the traditions
of your seniors, and you others, who would
rush to any new forms, any momentary
crazes, if they but took the popular fancy,
keep to the paths of the true art, for they
are assuredly the best, and avoid, as you
value your chances of success, as you value
your art for its own sake, such things as
" Cake Walks " and " Rock Dances."

CHAPTER IX.

DANCING AS A SOCIAL PASTIME.
" God match me with a good dancer"

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING," ii. 1.

WONDER how many times this
ejaculation of the fair Margaret's
has been unconsciously repeated by
the frequenters of our modern ball-
rooms, when by some mischance an ungainly
or awkward partner has been encountered.
For there can be nothing more out of place
in a ball-room than a bad dancer ; if one
cannot dance well, it is better to refrain
altogether ; one can gain more enjoyment
by watching the good dancers, and by one's
very abstinence can give them an equal
amount of pleasure. From the early Planta-
genet times, down to the present day, a
certain skill in the technical parts of the
dances, and polished and courtly movements
in general, have been essentials, and it is a

3 History of Dancing. 138

pity to think that these centuries-old traditions
should be so often disregarded in the dances
of to-day. But in a modern hurrying world,
where Turveydrops no longer reign, we must
be satisfied to think that what still survives
of the old-time courtesy of manners, regarded
as an out-of-date custom, perhaps, but yet
present, is to be found in the ball-room.

What may be called Society Dancing,
really commenced with the Danses Basses,
or Court Dances, as distinguished from the
Danses Hautes, or Country Dances, in the
sixteenth century, though dancing at Court
had been of course in vogue for many years
before this, witness the famous ball in the
reign of Edward III., where we are told the
Order of the Garter was instituted ; and
there is also said to have been a form of
the Contre Danse existing at the Court of
William the Conqueror. But the Danses
Basses, or dances of the upper classes, were
the real beginnings of our social dances of
to-day, and they were dances of France,
from the mirror of which country our own
dances have been but one long reflection
ever since.

134 A History of Dancing.

One of the earliest of the courtly dances
was the Pavane, according to one theory
the original form of the Minuet. The name
of this dance is probably derived from the
Latin pavo, a peacock, because of the state-
liness of its movements, but some say it
takes its name from Padua in Italy. This, I
think, is refuted by the fact that the Pavane
was almost undoubtedly of Spanish origin.
There was a Spanish proverb, perhaps it
still exists, " Every Pavane must have its
Galliard," the Galliard being a short lively
dance coming at the end of the more sober
Pavane. Ben Jonson, too, in " The Alche-
mist," speaks of the Spanish Pavin. Con-
cerning the stateliness of the dance, Sir
John Hawkins has written in his " History
of Music," " It is a grave and majestic
dance ; the method of dancing it anciently,
was by gentlemen dressed with caps and
swords, by those of the long robe in their
gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and
by the ladies in gowns with long trains, the
motion whereof in dancing resembled that
of a peacock."

The Pavane was common in England after

3 History of Dancing. 135

about 1540, and it is no doubt to this dance
that Sir John Suckling refers in his " Ballade
upon a Wedding," in the famous lines —

" Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out

As if they feared the light ;
But, oh, she dances such a way,
No sun upon an Easter Day

Is half so fine a sight I "

Shakespeare himself was probably an
ardent votary of dancing, to judge by the
frequency with which he introduces it into
his plays, and the Pavane was certain to be
the one he mostly danced. That he was
well versed in its technicalities we may
judge by the words he puts into the mouth
of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in answer to Sir
Toby's question, " What is thy excellence in
a galliard ? " " Faith, I can cut a caper, and
I think I have the back-trick simply as
strong as any man in Illyria."

But in another part of " Twelfth Night,"
he would seem to have mixed up, perhaps
intentionally, the Pavane with the Passa-
mezzo, an Italian dance of a different form.
For he makes Sir Toby speak of the surgeon
as a " passy-measure pavin," but Reed, in

136 A History of Dancing.

his work on Shakespeare's Plays, suggests
that either Sir Toby in his drunken babbling
may have meant to say, " a past measure
panicin," or else that the reading of the line
is incorrect, and should be " a passy measure
or a pavin."

Following the Pavane, and according to
the Parson in Washington Irving's " Christ-
mas Day," founded upon it, was the Minuet.

But the more commonly accepted theory
of the Minuet is that it was derived from
the Courante, an argument in favour of
which being that it was at first a quick
dance, and therefore far more like the "swift
Coranto " than the stately Pavane. It was
called the Minuet because of the small steps,
and at its very commencement was a rustic
dance, a brawle or branle of Poitou. In
the year 1650 it was introduced in Pans,
and three years later was given a musical
setting by the great Lully, but it did not be-
come really popular till some years after this.

About this time, dancing as a social pas-
time was becoming more frequent in France,
and in 1662 the King founded a Royal Aca-
demy of Dancing, putting Beauchamp, a

A History of Dancing. 137

noted dancing-master, at the head of it.
The King himself took lessons for over
twenty years in dancing, and often danced
in Minuets at the Court functions. In
Beauchamp's time, however, the Minuet
had hardly come into favour, and it was
left to Pecour, a later dancer, to bring it
to the front as the first dance in France.
From that time its popularity never failed,
and for over a hundred and fifty years every
State Ball, not only in France but in all the
civilized countries of Europe, was opened
with a Minuet.

The Minuet, surely the most famous of
dances, was essentially a product of the age,
and a dance that only such an age could
have produced. When the correct method-
of proffering a snuff-box, or doffing one's
hat, were actions ruled by certain definite
formulae, and only to be attained after years
of practice, one can hardly be surprised at
the stateliness and constrained movements
of the Minuet. It was an age of artificiality,
and this was a make-believe dance, at least
so far as the generally adopted axioms of
dancing, which declare for a combination of

138 3 History of Dancing.

vigorous movements, would have it. Yet
they would seem to have enjoyed this
mathematically precise game of walking
about, those powdered and satin-clad ladies
and gentlemen ; they must have, or they
would not have done it, nor would its popu-
larity have lasted in so marvellous a manner.
Mimicked in the play, written of in books,
and set down in pictures more times than
anyone can number, it has yet rarely under-
gone the humiliation of buffoonery, its cold
superiority repelling all but the hardiest
mockers. The caricaturists of the day laid
hands upon it, it is true, and in many of
the cartoons of Bunbury, Rowlandson and
Gillray, we find the Minuet occurring ; but
they caricatured the people rather than the
dance, for to them there was nothing
strange or out of place in a dance that
was solemnly walked. And to us it has
been handed down as the outstanding type
of that age, and whether it be the cover of
a chocolate box, a painted fan, or a Christ-
mas almanac, we always find these Georgian
dandies in the act of dancing a Minuet.
The earliest form of the Minuet was a

3 History of Dancing. 139

dance for two people in moderate triple
time, and their movements over the ground
covered the shape of a letter S. Later on,
the angles were turned more abruptly, and
the figure became that of a Z, and shortly
after this the whole dance was enlarged,
and was followed by the Gavotte, in itself
originally a stage dance. In the early
French days the dances were often held
out of doors, on one of the lawns, and con-
sequently the gliding movements of the feet
when a fresh step was taken were not
brought into such prominence as they were
later on. It is the Minuet of these early
days, danced in the sunny afternoons out
on the green swards, that Watteau, Lancret
and Bourcher have loved to portray. In the
time of Marie Antoinette, there were four
Minuets commonly danced, but one, known
as the " Menuet de la Cour," arranged by
Gardel, was the favourite one.

The golden age of the Minuet in England
was undoubtedly during that period when
Beau Nash was Master of the Ceremonies
at Bath. It may not be out of place to
give here a short sketch of Beau Nash,

140 3 History of Dancing.

one of the most interesting figures of the
eighteenth century.

The son of a Welsh country gentleman,
he entered the army while still in his teens,
but after a short period of magnificent
riotousness resigned his commission because
"he did not care to be trammelled by the
narrowness of a military life." Even at
this time he was one of the acknowledged
leaders of the day, and his horses, clothes,
and dinners, had begun to set their mark
on the " beau monde." Living, as he did,
upon no apparent income whatever, it is
little wonder that at times his companions
suspected him of being a highwayman.
Probably he won large sums by gambling,
and he would also have been merely follow-
ing the custom of the day in owing his
tradesmen for everything. In whatever way
his income was derived, he certainly stands
out as one of the greatest " chevaliers
d'industrie " in an age when this was
almost one of the fashionable professions.

Moving with certain other society leaders
to Bath, his wonderful organizing powers
soon found scope for themselves here also,

3 History of Dancing. 141

and he started those famous evening func-
tions and balls with which his name will
always be connected. It was he who en-
gaged the band of musicians, who at a sign
from him at the close of the evening in-
stantly stopped playing, thus causing all
dancing to end ; and so much was his name
feared, that no one would have dared to go
against his wishes. He was appointed by
his own desire, " Master of the Ceremonies,"
and once being elected he ruled the assem-
blies with an iron hand. The well-known
" Code of Etiquette at Bath " was drawn
up by him, and was posted in the dancing
rooms, and woe betide any hapless person
who broke its rules. He himself started
all the balls by taking a lady out to dance
the Minuet, the rest of the evening being
always carried out on the lines of a fixed
precedent. At eleven o'clock to the minute,
he held up his finger, and the music stopped,
and after a short interval for final refresh-
ment, all the guests left the building.

Brewer describes him in three words as
a " notorious diner-out," but so great was
the wonderful personality of the man, that

142 3 History of Dancing.

I have no ^ doubt, had he chosen to devote

•

his fine organizing powers to the services
of the country instead of to the fads of
society, he would have become one of the
leading statesmen of the time. However,
his name, as Beau Nash, Master of the
Ceremonies of Bath, has been handed down
to us in a perhaps more permanent manner
than it would have been had he been a
statesman only, and will probably last longer.
As a dramatic contrast to this life of almost
regal magnificence, he ultimately died, des-
titute, friendless, and in rags.

The Minuet can hardly be called a dance
at all, but it was without doubt one of the
finest schools of courtesy and deportment
ever invented. Pope was, I am sure, think-
ing of the Minuet when he wrote —

" True ease in writing conies from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learnt to dance."

It is interesting also to note that in the
days when no gentleman could be seen in
public without a sword, special short
" dancing-swords " were made, which made
the carrying of a sword possible and yet

3 History of Dancing. 143

did not interfere with the freedom of the
movements for dancing.

One of the dances that followed the
Minuet was the Quadrille, or " Quadrille de
Centre Danse," to give its full name. This
was one of the " Square " dances that used
to delight our ancestors, and about which
we so often read in old-fashioned books.
Quadrille was originally a card game for
four people, but the name was given to a
dance introduced into the French ballets
about 1745. The dance itself was probably
a direct descendant of that contre danse in
use at the Court of William the Conqueror.
It did not, however, become popular as an
ordinary dance until some sixty years after
its appearance in the ballets, and it was not
until 1808 that it was introduced into England
by a Miss Berry, to be ultimately taken up by
the Duke of Devonshire and made fashion-
able about 1813. This is on the authority of
Raikes, but others would have it that it was
not danced in England till the famous Lady
Jersey, Lady Castlereagh, and other society
leaders, brought it over from Paris, and
danced it in Almack's rooms in 1815.

144 A History of Dancing.

The French Quadrille was for two, four,
or any number of couples, but four pairs
seem to have been the ideal number in
England. The dance itself was divided into
figures, usually five, being Le Pantalon,
L'Ete, La Poule, La Tremise, and Le Final,
and with each figure there were appropriate
movements and phases of almost a panto-
mimic nature — as, for instance, during the
figure La Poule, the performers clucked
like a hen ; but later on these adjuncts were
left out, though the figures remained, as
names only, for a very long time afterwards.
Each pair of dancers remained always vis-
a-vis, and only danced with each other,
thereby differing from the more modern
Lancers, and the whole dance in its later
years often ended with a galop. The Quad-
rille was a far more lively dance than the
Minuet, and was thus paving the way for
that great revolution in social dancing, —
the Waltz.

What a sensation the Waltz must have
caused to those who witnessed its first
invasion of England. Sweeping all pre-
cedent on one side, and overturning all

A History of Dancing. 145

the old thoughts and ideas on dancing, the
Waltz came and conquered, but not without
the severest opposition that a dance has
ever had. Such a distinct departure from
all established forms was bound to be re-
garded with disfavour by those of conserva-
tive ideas, for it must be remembered that
this was practically the first time in the
history of dancing that two people had ever
danced with each other and together ; and,
to crown all, it was considered by many to
be positively immodest ! Byron took this
latter point of view in a half-mocking, half-
serious way, in his famous " Apostrophe to
the Waltz," which he wrote anonymously
from Cheltenham at the end of the year
1812, when that town was rapidly becoming
a leading fashionable resort, and where he
would probably have seen it danced for the
first time. He was afterwards inclined to
disown this poem, not considering it up to the
usual standard of his writing ; but, for all that,
it contains many charming and memorable
lines, such as the ones where he describes
the ship coming across the seas bearing
various things to England, among them

146 3 History of Dancing.

" her fairest freight

Delightful waltz on tiptoe for a mate."

To Baron Neuman is attributed the
honour of first introducing the Waltz into
England, and though it was so strongly
opposed at first, we nevertheless find Byron
writing at the end of 1812 — the very year
in which it was first seen in England —

" To one and all the lovely stranger came,
And every ball-room echoes with her name."

but it was nearly three years before it finally
overcame all opposition, and was brought
to the front place among English dances by
its public performance at Almack's Rooms
by the Emperor Alexander, Princess Ester-
hazy, Lord Palmerston, and other society
leaders. The stamp of fashion once on it,
it became all the rage, and was danced
nightly at Almack's, Willis's, the Pantheon,
and other famous dancing rooms.

Byron addresses it as " Imperial Waltz !
imported from the Rhine," for its original
home was in Western Bavaria, where it
was called Dreker, " the turner," while the
other name given it, Waltz, also signifies a
turning. At first it was in very slow time,

3 History of Dancing. 147

compared to the way it is danced now, and
yet it was the first of the quick-step dances !
There have been many innovations since
then, slight variations in the manner of
dancing it, such as the hop-waltz, and, of
course, the system of reversing, but the
main idea has remained the same since
the beginning, and it is still the queen of
our ball-room dances.

A curious thing about this reversing is
that though in England it was introduced
merely as a variation to relieve the mono-
tony of continually turning in one direction,
in Germany the dance is always from right
to left, the opposite to the hands of a watch,
or what an Irishman might call " continuous
reversing." In some dancing rooms I went
to in Cologne, I was surprised to see the
dancers, after every certain number of bars,
take their partners' hands and walk a few
steps forwards, after the manner of the
pas-de-quatre, reverting to the ordinary
Waltz almost immediately. Whether this
was typical of the German Waltz, or merely
some local variation, I could not ascertain.

The " Dreamy Waltz " has inspired many

148 3 History of Dancing.

of the greatest musicians to write for it,
Schubert, Chopin, Weber, and Strauss, all
contributing their share, but the Waltzes of
the last-named will always remain as the
finest examples of dance music ever
written.

The Galop or Galopade was the next
dance to be introduced to England. This
was, and is, a dance in very quick time, but
beyond the fact that it was usually danced
as a finish to some other dance, it is of
little interest. It came to us from Hungary,
translated, like most of our other dances,
via the channels of Paris, and though intro-
duced some seventy years ago, and never
at any time very popular, it is still occasion-
ally seen in our ball-rooms.

In striking contrast to the somewhat cool
reception of the Waltz, was the open-armed
enthusiasm with which the Polka was re-
ceived. It is true that all Paris had gone
mad over it in a way that only Frenchmen
can, but the staid English people were
quickly endeavouring to outdance even the
French, and the new excitement spread
like wildfire.

3 History ot Dancing. 149

The way in which the Polka was dis-
covered is somewhat romantic. Up in the
wilds of Bohemia, in 1835, Joseph Neruda —
whose discovery of this alone might have
brought him fame — found a peasant girl
dancing and singing to herself, and a dance
such as he had never seen before. He got
her to repeat it, and seeing the great possi-
bilities of it, took it down to Prague and
and afterwards Vienna. It was an instan-
taneous success, and the Polka, or half-step,
as it was then called, took the public fancy
as no other dance had done. Paris was
still too full of the Waltz to heed other
dances, and it was not until 1840 that the
Polka assailed the capital of the dancing
world. But the quaint and captivating
" half-step " once inside the walls of Paris,
it immediately secured a following, which
was almost fanatical in nature. M. Cellarius,
a professional dancer, performed it one
evening on the stage of the Odeon, and the
next day it was being danced in half a dozen
of the best Paris Salons. A few days later
it became more general, and it was not many
months before all Paris had run Polka-mad.

150 3 History of Dancing.

It was danced publicly in the streets and
boulevards, not only in the evenings, but all
day long ; traffic was disorganized, and its
tunes were whistled and sung on all sides.
New phrases were coined, and the word
" polkeur " was upon everyone's tongue.
Even the sober " Times " plaintively declared
it could get no news through from Paris,
except accounts of the Polka! When it
did come to London, it came as an already
established dance, and though the excite-
ment did not run wild in the streets, as in
Paris, it was enthusiastically received, and
without a shadow of opposition. The " Illus-
trated London News" on May llth, 1844,
reported the first Polka at Al mack's, and
the description I will give in its own words.

" ' La Polka/ like its predecessors, the
Waltz and the Galop, is a 'danse a deux,'
couples following each other in the salle de
danse, commencing at pleasure, and adopt-
ing of the following figures that which
pleases them most at the moment. All those
anxious to shine in La Polka will dance the
whole of them, returning from time to time
by way of rest to the first figure.

A History of Dancing. 151

" The measure is 2-4, but to facilitate our
definitions, we subdivide each measure or
bar into 1-2-3-4, the accent on the 2, to be
played not so fast as the Galop.

"The steps are two, and the following
description may in some measure convey
them to our readers. We commence with
the first and most general. — At the one, hop
on the right leg, lifting or doubling the left
at the same moment : at two, put your left
leg boldly forward on the ground : at three,
bring your right toe to the left heel: at
four, advance your left foot a short step
forward. Now is the ' one ' in the next bar
or measure of the tune. Hop on the left
leg, doubling or lifting up your right leg,
and so on — proceeding in this step with
your arm circling your partner's waist round
the room.

" In conclusion, we would observe that
La Polka is a noiseless dance. There is
no stamping of heels or toes, or kicking the
legs at sharp angles forward. This may be
very well at the threshold of a Bohemian
auberge, but it is inadmissible into the
salons of London or Paris. The Polka as

152 3 History of Dancing.

danced in Paris and now adapted by us, is
elegant, graceful and fascinating in the
extreme."

Even then there were apparently traces
of that rowdyism which is unfortunately
seen too often in our ball-rooms to-day.

The Polka was very wella dapted for a
stage dance, and there may be some now
living who can remember seeing Perrot
and Carlotta Grisi first dance the Polka at
the Opera in Slavonic dress. It was after-
wards introduced into many of the ballets
as a pas de deux, and always met with
success.

" Punch," of course, had his say in the
matter, and during the year 1844 there
were many pictures and humorous refer-
ences to the dance in his pages. There is
one excellent parody on the " Maid of
Athens " in which the Polka is the central
theme. In connection witht he Polka should
be mentioned the Schottische, which also
claimed Bohemia as its home, and which
was at first called the "Polka tremblante."

About this time, in 1845 to be exact, there
was also introduced to England a Polish

A History of Dancing. 153

dance called the Mazurka, and though it
was at one time fairly popular, and was
occasionally seen in our ball-rooms, till a
very few years ago, it never really attained
the success which came to its contem-
poraries. It has been called "the melan-
choly Mazurka," possibly owing to the sad
strains of some music that Chopin set to
it ; but it must be remembered that much
of Chopin's so-called dance music was never
really meant to be danced to. The mazurka
is one of the oldest Polish dances, being
invented in the sixteenth century, and it is
still, I believe, common in Poland, but it
can no longer be called an English dance.

A square dance which we still have, and
one which has caused so much discussion
of late years, is the Lancers. In itself a
most picturesque and pleasing dance, it un-
fortunately gives opportunities for conduct
which, to say the least, is not that of a
ball-room, and which almost justifies the
dance being sometimes called " the break-
neck Lancers," or again " Kitchen Lancers."
This is a great pity, as there is something
very fascinating in a set of lancers well

154 A History of Dancing.

danced, and the constantly kaleidoscopic
changing of the positions is a very charming
thing even to watch. The Lancers, with
its quaint old-fashioned phrases, " Set to
Corners," "Grand Chain," and "Visiting,"
and those courtly movements which seem
to bring with them a faint aroma of the
past, has always been a favourite of mine;
and to see a dozen people careering madly
down the room, knocking aside all who may
come in their way, at once destroys all the
poetry of it. It is said that on more than
one occasion a broken limb has resulted
from this rough and tumble play, and in no
way could one call the Lancers as now too
often danced " Mannerly modest, as a mea-
sure full of state and ancientry."

The Lancers was introduced to France
by M. Laborde in 1836, and in 1850 it made
its first appearance in England, a set being
composed by Lady Georgina Lygon, and
seven other ladies and gentlemen. It is
certainly not now so popular as it was a
decade or so ago, but it still holds three or
four places in most ball programmes.

The Cotillon can be almost disregarded as

A History of Dancing. 155

a dance, as it has become merely a medley
of movements, and is only occasionally intro-
duced by some hostess as a novelty, or as
a means of distributing small gifts. It was
started in the reign of Charles X. of France,
and was for some time a popular dance at
the French court, but in modern France as
in England it is now seldom seen.

One of the last dances to be invented was
the " Pas de Quatre," said to have derived
its name from the fact that it was at first
danced to the tune of the famous Pas de
Quatre of the Gaiety, composed by the late
Meyer Lutz, for so many years conductor at
that theatre. This was for a time exceed-
ingly popular, as it came as a welcome
relief to the monotony of the Waltz, but
the last two or three years it seems to
have gone out of favour again, and is now
not often seen. It was also at first called
the Barn Dance, through some idea that it
was a revival of a peasant dance, but beyond
a slight likeness to the old form of Schot-
tische, and that in only a few of its move-
ments, it has broken fresh ground in every
way.

156 A History of Dancing.

Two dances have of late years been
brought over from America : one the
Washington "Post, enjoying an enthusiastic
but short-lived popularity, while the other,
the Two-step, a variation on the Waltz, has
as yet not had time to seek a fair judgment.
It is certain that our American cousins are
fonder of dancing than we are, and it is to
them that we must look for any new dances,
praying only that they will not send us
another cake-walk !

The only other dance that is still some-
times seen in our ball-rooms is the dear old
Sir Roger de Coverley. This is the only
genuine survival of our old English dances,
and it is one of the prettiest of them.
Founded, of course, on the Centres Danses,
or Country Dances, it has retained enough
of their movements to give us a general
idea of what they were like. Perhaps it
will not be inapropos to give here the fable
of how the Country Dances began, as told
by the poet Jenyns in the verses on dancing
which he dedicated to Lady Fanny Fielding,
said to have been the finest dancer of the
early eighteenth-century ball-rooms : —

A History of Dancing. 157

" Then let the jovial country dance begin,
And the loud fiddlers call each straggler in :
But e'er they come permit me to disclose
How first, as legends tell, this pastime rose.
In ancient times (such times are now no more),
When Albion's crown illustrious Arthur wore,
In some fair op'ning glade each summer's night,
Where the pale moon diffused her silver light,
On the soft carpet of a grassy field,
The sporting fairies their assemblies held :
Some lightly tripping with their pigmy queen,
In circling ringlets marked the level green,
Some with soft notes made mellow pipes resound,
And music warble through the groves around ;
Oft lonely shepherds by the forest side,
Belated peasants oft their revels spyed,
And home returning, o'er their nut-brown ale,
Their guests diverted with the wondrous tale,
Instructed hence, throughout the British isle,
And fond to imitate the pleasing toil,
Round where the trembling Maypole fixed on high
Uplifts its flow'ry honours to the sky,
The ruddy maids and sunburnt swains resort,
And practise every night the lovely sport ;
On every side Aeolian artists stand,
Whose active elbows swelling winds command ;
The swelling winds harmonious pipes inspire,
And blow in every breast a gen'rous fire.
Thus taught, at first the country-dance began,
And hence to cities and to courts it ran."

158

A History of Dancing.

In a curious old book, " Playford's Danc-
ing Master," published about 1690, the music
of the Sir Roger is printed, with full dancing
instructions. Though an English dance, it
was taken over to France and introduced
into the French ballets in 1745, the same
year as the Quadrille ; and, like the Quad-
rille, it became popular as a ball-room dance
at the beginning of the last century. On
the rare occasions on which we now see it,
it is used to finish up the evening, and in
the same way, with this, the last of the ball-
room dances, I will end the present chapter.

CHAPTER X.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S
DANCERS.

" When you do dance I wish you
A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that."

" WINTERS TALE," Act iv. 3.

HISTORY of dancing necessarily in-
volves an account, however small,
of those men and women who by
their individual genius and skill
have assisted in the making of that history.
For as the life history of each great dancer
of the world was unrolled, so too did the
history of dancing itself advance, for each
of the dancers brought their tribute in the
shape of some fresh movement, some hitherto
unknown step, or some new invention for the
general good of the art, and with each name
is thus associated a page in the history of
dancing.

160 A History of Dancing.

Pylades and Bathyllos, the great Roman
dancers, Scaliger the scholar and antiquarian,
even Henry VIII. and Anne, wife of James I.,
have all helped in their several ways ; while
musicians, directors of ceremonies, and ballet-
masters innumerable, have also added their
quota to the general store; but it is only
when we come to the later periods, the
times when dancing began to be regarded
more seriously, to be regarded as a distinct
and not unimportant art, that the real
makers of its history came upon the scene.

To France, as is only right, belongs Jhe
earliest of the notable dancers, Noverre,
who was born in Paris in 1727. He made
his debut at Fontainebleau, at the Royal
Theatre, in 1743, when only sixteen years
old, and within a year had become famous.
In 1755 he came over to London at the
special invitation of Garrick, and remained in
England for two years, dancing in most of the
important operas produced during that period.
After leaving London he lived for some time
in Lyons, holding a post as Director of
Ballets, and while there he published his
" Lettres sur la Danse et les Ballets."

A History of Dancing. 161

At length, in 1775, he gained the coveted
post of " Maitre des Ballets " at the Paris
Academy, which he held till the time of the
Revolution, when he lost money, position,
everything, and had to retire in comparative
poverty to St. Germain, where he died
in 1810.

Noverre will always be remembered as
the founder of the true ballet, the " ballet
d'action," and it is in a great measure due
to him that dancing took the important
position it did. Himself a good actor, he
enfolded the necessity of good acting upon
all those under him, for without capable
histrionic powers it would have been im-
possible to do away with the recitations
and descriptive songs hitherto in vogue,
and the outcome of this was the pantomime
ballet.

Gaetano Vestris was an Italian, born in
Florence, the original home of the ballets, in
1729, two years after the birth of Noverre.
In his own time he was acknowledged to
be the best male dancer the world has^ver
seen, and many now say that no one has
ever since equalled him. And, knowing his

162 A History of Dancing.

fame, he was unable to resist the temptation
of being inordinately vain about it. People,
in speaking of him, were wont to describe
him as " the best dancer and the vainest
man that ever lived." He himself took the
title of " Le Dieu de la danse," and an
anecdote is related of him that once, when
the conversation turned on the subject of
European celebrities, someone asked him
whom he considered to be the greatest man
in Europe ; Vestris turned round with a
bow, and said, " There are only three great
men in Europe — myself, Voltaire, and the
King of Prussia."

Vestris is credited with being the inventor
of the spinning movement known as the
Pirouette, but Gardel, a later dancer, so
altered and brought this to perfection that
he is now generally regarded as its author.

He had a son, Marie Augustus Vestris,
who also became a great dancer, though he
was never quite able to achieve the success
of his father. Madame Vestris, the cele-
brated English actress of half a century
later, was also a connection of his. He
died, an old man of eighty, in 1808.

A History of Dancing. 163

Gardel, as the first to do away with the
face masks, and also as the perfecter of the
pirouette, and Mdlle. Camargo, as the first
danseuse to wear the ballet dress, are
worthy of mention, but little is really known
about their lives, and even their feats of
dancing were quite overshadowed by those
who came immediately after them.

Carlo Blasis, however, was at one time
a celebrated dancer, though he is now more
generally remembered for his writings on
the subject, and for the ballets which he
composed. Born at Naples in 1803, he
seems to have been able to dance almost
before he could walk, and in 1815, when
only twelve years old, he was actually prin-
cipal dancer at Marseilles.

From Marseilles he went to Paris, and
there studied under Maximilian Gardel,
taking part in some well-known ballets pro-
duced at that time, and in which he had
as partners two noted danseuses, MdleL
Gosselin and Mdlle. Le Gallois.

He next made a success at La Scala,
Milan, and in 1826 proceeded to England.
Meanwhile his sister, Mdlle. Blasis, was

164 A History of Dancing.

making a name for herself by her magni-
ficent singing at the Italian Opera, and in
her spare moments writing music of all
sorts, for she was a clever musician, and
incidentally helping her brother, who was
devoted to her, by setting some of his
ballets to music.

While in England, Carlo Blasis wrote his
" Code of Terpsichore," an exhaustive trea-
tise on the technical details of the ballet,
which was published with some music by
his sister, and a little later translated into
English. It was in England also that the
accident occurred that terminated his career
as a dancer, for he so severely injured his
leg while rehearsing a pas de trois with
Mmes. Bougnoti and Vaguemoulin, that he
never publicly appeared again. He was
able, however, to take charge of and direct
the ballets for many years after, and as
a director of ballets he even achieved more
fame than he had as a dancer.

In 1837, he became Director of the
Imperial Academy at Milan, then a very
important post in the dancing world, and
ten years later he came to England once

3 History of Dancing. 165

more as " Composer of the Ballets " at
Drury Lane, afterwards holding the same
appointment at Covent Garden, this latter
being the last post of any consequence he
held before his death.

Antonius Augustus Bournonville is chiefly
noted as being Denmark's greatest dancer,
and also the producer of some very famous
ballets.

Born in Copenhagen in 1805, and brought
up in an atmosphere of dancing from the
first, being the son of a ballet-master in
that city, he soon showed signs of great
dancing powers, and after taking some good
engagements in his own country he made
his debut in Paris at the age of twenty-one.
Four years later he was made Director and
Ballet-master of the Academy at Copen-
hagen, and it was there that he produced
those ballets for which his name will ever
be remembered. Waldemar, Les Noces,
Faust, and the famous Napoli, were among
the best known, and they disclosed a new
field in the management of the ballet, namely
the extent to which perfection in the staging
and dressing of it might be carried out.

166 A History of Dancing.

Next in order come the names of Taglioni
and Elssler, perhaps the greatest in the
annals of dancing, certainly so in the annals
of the ballet. These two great dancers
seem by a curious fate to have been brought
together all their lives, and the coincidence
in relation to them, though not so much
noticed during their lives, became very
remarkable when looked back to from after
years. Taglioni was born in 1809, Elssler
a few months later in 1810. Both made
their debut in Vienna ; both competed for
fame on the Paris Opera stage, and at the
same time ; both came over to England,
and both appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre
under Lumley's management in 1842; both
of them left the stage in 1845, and having
thus been thrown together at most of the
important points of their lives, they both
died, old women, in the same year, 1884.

Taglioni, slightly the elder of the two, was
born at Stockholm. The daughter of an
Italian ballet-master, her future was cut
out for her from the beginning. It seemed
destined by fate that she should be a great
danseuse, but the stern determination of

A History of Dancing. 167

her father had also a great influence on
her ultimate career. He subjected her to
the severest discipline, and from her baby-
hood almost she was accustomed to practise
a great many hours a day, and to rule her
every mode of life with the one view of
dancing constantly before her. At length,
after ten years of arduous training, she was
considered fit to make her debut, and ap-
peared in Vienna in June 1822. She made
an instantaneous success, which was re-
peated at Berlin and other cities in Germany,
till in 1827 she reached what was then the
culminating point of a dancer's ambition, the
Paris Opera. Here she created a perfect
furore of excitement, her new style taking
all beholders by storm. She was in the
habit of wearing "her dancing dress much
longer than was the usual custom, and this,
combined with certain novel steps and
movements of her own, and the fact that
by her skill she was able to give a much
improved rendering of the routine steps of
previous dancers, gave the impression to
those observing her that they were watching
an entirely new style. Indeed, one writer

168 A History of Dancing.

in speaking of her has remarked, " She
revealed a new form of dancing, a virginal
and diaphanous art instinct with an origina-
lity all her own, in which the old traditions
and time-honoured rules of choreography
were merged."

In 1832 she married the Comte de Voisins,
and by this time, too, she had amassed a
considerable fortune, which was greatly aug-
mented by her English engagements, when
for dancing at Her Majesty's and Covent
Garden she was said to have received the
largest sums ever yet paid to any dancer.
Some years later, however, she was drawn
into speculation, and lost the whole of her
fortune with the exception of a small sum,
which she eked out by becoming a teacher
of deportment. She spent the latter part
of her life at Marseilles, and died there in
1884.

In "Guillaume Tell" and " Robert le
Diable " she made her two greatest hits,
though Thackeray in " The Newcomes '
especially praises the graces of her dancing
in " La Sylphide " ; but for her performances
of the Tyrolienne and the Pas de Fascination

A History of Dancing. 169

in the two former, if for nothing else, the
name of Marie Taglioni will always be
remembered.

Fanny Elssler, her great contemporary,
was born in Vienna in June, 1810, making
her first appearance in the same city at the
age of six. Then, and for the next twelve
years or so, she danced in company with
her sister Theresa, who was slightly her
senior, though by no means so skilful in the
art, and it was in a great measure due to
this elder sister's generous self-effacement
that Fanny's splendid dancing became so
evident. This sister eventually became the
Baroness Von Barnim, though not till some
little time after she had ceased dancing in
company with Fanny.

They appeared together in Naples in 1827,
and it was here that Fanny made that
success which was the means of her getting
her first big engagement at Berlin in 1830.
Four years later she arrived at the Paris
Opera, and by her dancing of the Spanish
Cachucha at once sprang into fame. Taglioni
was at the same time engaged there, and
so there arose a natural rivalry between

170 A History of Dancing.

them, which was sustained by the fact that
neither could for any length of time outvie
the other in popularity.

In 1840, Elssler sailed for New York, and
there for two years repeated her European
triumphs, after which she made a tour of
the capitals of Europe for some years, and
then, while still in the height of her fame,
she retired and settled in Hamburg, dying
many years later in her native home of
Vienna.

Of what may be called the intervening
dancers, those who filled in the time between
the last of the ballet performers and the
dancers of the present day, the figure that
stands out clear against the background of
all the rest is that of Kate Vaughan. As
the pioneer of a new style of dancing, as the
inventor, the creator, of all that is best in
the dancing of to-day, she would alone have
been worth all the admiration and praise we
can bestow upon her. But when in addition
we remember that her dancing was so
superb, so graceful, and so artistic, that in
a moment it could sweep aside all the rooted
prejudice of years in favour of ballet danc-

A History of Dancing. 171

ing, and could assert its superiority by sheer
force of its own merits, we must unhesitat-
ingly place Kate Vaughan as the greatest
dancer of her time. And as such her con-
temporaries justly proclaimed her. She and
Nellie Farren were the great mainstays of
the old Gaiety Theatre, and to them prima-
rily was its great success due.

In the recent biography of her husband,
Lady Burne-Jones has written, " Another
and different vision also flits across my
mind in the form of the wonderful dancer,
Kate Vaughan — * Miriam Ariadne Salome
Vaughan/ as Edward called her. Never
shall I forget seeing him and Ruskin fall
into each other's arms in rapture upon acci-
dentally discovering that they both adored
her." And a critic reviewing this says,
•" That Ruskin and Burne-Jones should fall
into each other's arms in a transport of
enthusiasm for a skirt-dancer seems incon-
gruous to us only because we forget that
dancing is as natural an expression of emo-
tion— secular or religious — as singing."

Night after night the theatre drew the
•eager public to its doors, to see these two

172 A History of Dancing.

wonderful women, whose personality was so
great as to shine out, strong and resplendent,
through all the tawdry glitter and make-
believe of the stage, and whose many un-
recorded acts of kindness to the needy and
distressed will perhaps never be known in
full, and yet who, when old age at last
overtook them, were allowed to sink, one
in actual want, and the other with a mere
pittance, to the grave.

This is one of the saddest phases of stage
life, this contrast of the successful period of
a popular favourite's career, with the too-
often latter ending in misery and want.
People without thinking are apt to say,
" Serves them right, they should have put
something by. Look at us ; we are pros-
perous in our old age, because we saved."
But they forget the very different conditions
under which they lived ; they forget that the
people of the stage have seldom had that
business training, that mercantile sense
which almost naturally impels a habit of
thrift ; they forget that in the precarious
nature of the profession judgment by appear-
ances is unfortunately one of the leading

A History of Dancing. 173

factors of success, and that a certain style
has to be kept up even when it is often at
heart not wished for ; and lastly, they do
not know that from many of these appar-
ently glittering incomes commissions of a
most usurious and almost incredible nature
are too often extracted by theatrical agents,
in whom rests practically the sole power of
obtaining engagements for them. On the
top of all this, it is but little understood
that nearly three months in the year, during
the summer, there is for seventy-five per
cent, of those on the stage no work to do
at all, and that, year in and year out, nine
months' income has to suffice for twelve
months' living, a state of things that surely
exists in no other profession.

But to return to Kate Vaughan. Her
theatrical history practically starts with her
appearance in the Gaiety Quartette in 1876,
though she had been on the stage, occasion-
ally dancing and occasionally acting, for
some years before this. Her maiden name
was Candelon, but she, in company with
her sister Susie, took the name of Vaughan,
when they helped to form the "Vaughan

174 A History of Dancing.

Dancing Company," a well-known combina-
tion in the early seventies. She had before
this studied dancing and acting under Mrs.
Conquest at the famous " Grecian," and her
first appearance in the "legitimate drama"
was with Miss Litton's company at the
Court Theatre in 1872.

Appearing at the Gaiety with Edward
Terry, E. W. Royce, and Nellie Farren, in
" Little Don Cassar de Bazan," she met
with instantaneous success, and from that
time forward became the supreme ruler in
the Terpsichorean field. Then came that
quick succession of burlesques from the
pens of some of the readiest and wittiest
winters of the day. The names of H. J.
Byron, F. C. Burnand, and Robert Reece,
will always be associated with the time
when the Gaiety was, par excellence, the
home of the burlesque ; while later, A. C.
Torr, the nom-de-plume of poor Fred Leslie,
was constantly found beneath the title of
the play.

In all of these Kate Vaughan won her way
into the hearts of the people, and no one was
more sorry than her Gaiety audiences when

A History of Dancing. 175

she relinquished the dancing shoe for the
buskin, and joined in her lot with the drama.
Had not her dancing prowess so completely
overshadowed her efforts in this direction,
she might have made a big name for herself
as an actress also. As it was, her rendering
of Peg Woffington in " Masks and Faces "
drew forth the genuine praise of the critics,
and in many other parts she showed that
she had the capabilities of a great actress.

But it was in the Gaiety burlesques that
her people loved to see her, and many will
recall the tumultuous applause that greeted
her as Alice in " Dick Whittington " — one
of her big hits — when she made her bow
dressed in a lilac-tinted early Victorian cos-
tume, with white furs and a big white muff.

How different was all this to her last
days, forgotten and almost unknown, in
far-off Johannesburg ! Though she would
have been happy to know that some of her
old comrades accompanied her to the grave,
and among them Edward Terry, the com-
panion of her first triumphs, who by a
fortunate coincidence was in South Africa
at the time.

176 A History of Dancing.

Among the dancers of the period, or a
little later, was Miss Sylvia Grey. She was
closely associated at the Gaiety with the
productions of " Little Jack Sheppard,"
" Ruy Bias," and " Cinderellen-up-too-late,"
to mention some of the best known ; while
as Flo Fanshawe she achieved a success at
the Prince of Wales' in " In Town." Her
dancing was graceful in the extreme, and
she wisely understood that to dance with
the feet alone does not constitute the whole
of the Terpsichorean art. A critic in the
" Savoy," an art magazine of ten years ago,
wrote, " Sylvia Grey's dance is perfect, from
the waist upwards, swan-like in the holding
and slow movement of the head and neck,
exquisite in the undulations of the torso."
Such dancing masters and mistresses as
D'Auban, Espinosa, and Madame Katti
Lanner can lay claim to a reflected part of
her success, for she studied under all of
them, and at the last, retiring from the
stage, she in her turn began to impart her
knowledge to other younger aspirants for
dancing fame.

Of Florence Levy there is little to be

A History of Dancing. 177

said, except that she contributed her due
share as a burlesque actress and dancer to
the brightness and general excellence of the
Gaiety's performances.

Katie Seymour was more of a step-dancer
than a danseuse of the best type, but so
intimately was she connected with all the
later Gaiety productions that it would be
unfair to pass over her without comment.
Originally in a music-hall sketch with the
Brothers Home, her dancing, slight as the
opportunities were, attracted general notice,
and she quickly found a place for herself
in the realm of musical comedy. She ap-
peared in " Blue Ey'd Susan " at the Prince
of Wales', and afterwards in " Joan of Arc "
at the Opera Comique. When this latter
production was transferred to the Gaiety in
1891, she went with it, and from that time was
in all the Gaiety pieces until 1901, when she
went to America with the " Casino Girl." On
her return, she essayed business on her own
account, and took a troupe of dancers with her
round the " Halls " ; but for some time she had
been in failing health, and she died, regretted
by all who knew her, in the autumn of 1903.

178 A History of Dancing.

Miss Letty Lind came to the front by a
lucky chance, and it was by the merest
accident that we have her as a dancer at
all. When she was still unknown to fame,
in the days when she was a member of
Mrs. Saker's company, she had a song given
her in one of the plays. Her voice was, to
say the least, never powerful, and she asked
if she might do a dance instead. The result
was magnificent, and from that time her
career was marked out. She had small
parts in the Gaiety productions, but in the
second edition of " Cinderellen " she took
up with great success the name-role, which
had been created by Miss Kate James a few
months before. From that time she took
the leading part at Daly's and other theatres
devoted to musical plays, and in whatever
little dances she has had to do, has always
shown herself a finished performer.

Of the dancers of to-day, Miss Alice Leth-
bridge is in many opinions far in advance of
any other dancer on the stage, both in
technique and grace, and it is she to whom
future generations will look back, as those
of the present do to Kate Vaughan.

A History of Dancing. 179

Learning the stage business and technical
details (I was almost saying, " learning her
art," but that was surely born in her) under
Mr. John D'Auban, she commenced to study
while yet a child, and her first engagement
in the revival of " Rip Van Winkle " at the
Comedy was a child's minor part, in which
she had very little to do, though even then
a solo dance as a little Dutch girl in wooden
sabots caused a genuine applause, and had
to be encored.

Some years later, at the age of fourteen,
she appeared in " The Commodore," taking
up a part originally created by Miss Phyllis
Broughton, and with this company she went
to America, in a short-lived tour of seven
weeks. Earlier in that year she had been
engaged for the part of " Boboski " in the
famous comic opera " Falka," an old favourite
by that time, in which the chief singing part
was undertaken by Herbert Sims Reeves,
the son of the famous tenor, and when the
piece reached the grand total of a thousand
nights she played in the special performance
of it given at the Comedy Theatre.

But it was in the beautiful production of

180 A History of Dancing.

" Mynheer Jan " at the Comedy that as a
dancer she first came to the front, and
people began to know that somebody had
at last arrived worthy of taking up the old
traditions of the art. " Mynheer Jan " took
the public fancy from the first, and the
opening night saw this bright and tuneful
piece firmly set on the path of success. The
spectators were most enthusiastic, and their
enthusiasm was perhaps raised to its highest
pitch when in the second act a novel and
difficult dance was brilliantly executed by
this new danseuse. Storms of applause
greeted her, and they would have encored
her many times, but the strain and excite-
ment proved too much for the young and
then unknown girl, and she fainted while
still on the stage. Next morning the papers
were full of the new piece, and were un-
animous in praise of her dancing, and she,
like Byron, awoke to find herself famous.
The leading theatrical critic wrote : " But
the loudest applause heard throughout the
three acts came of the Salterello dance,
splendidly executed by Miss Alice Leth-
bridge, in the second act. It * brought

A History of Dancing. 181

down the house,' it had to be repeated, and
the delighted spectators clamoured for it
a third time, and were only quieted when
Mr. Harry Paulton announced that the
clever young lady, overcome by her efforts
and by the excitement of the occasion, had
fainted in the wings."

Following this well-deserved success, she
attracted attention in " Carina " at the Opera
Comique, and in " La Prima Donna " at the
Avenue, in the cast of the latter piece Albert
Chevalier, Harry Gratton and Joseph Tapley
being also prominent names. Then came a
provincial tour in the musical farce of
11 Venus"; Harry Nicholls, Kitty Loftus,
Agnes Delaporte, and the famous Belle
Bilton (Lady Dunlo) filling a bill of excep-
tional strength, and in this her dancing as
" Euphrosyne " was one of the features of
the performance.

In " Joan of Arc " she appeared in two
roles, as the Duchess d'Alencon in the first
edition of the play at the Opera Comique,
and as Catherine de Rochelle when, in the
zenith of its success, it was transformed to
the Gaiety. Other well-known dancers in

182 3 History of Dancing.

this play were Phyllis Broughton, Katie
Seymour, and Willie Warde ; and in the
"Era "account of the first night of "Joan
of Arc " at the Gaiety special mention was
made of the generally excellent dancing in
this piece, and among other remarks was the
following : — " Miss Alice Lethbridge brought
down the house by her dainty dancing as
Catherine de Rochelle, and some very pretty
saltatory exercises were introduced by Miss
Katie Seymour, who, with Mr. Willie Warde,
the " Bishop of Bovril," won great applause
for a remarkable pas de deux in the second
act."

After a brief appearance in the succeeding
Gaiety piece of " Cinderella," curtailed be-
cause of the Australian engagement, she
left England for that famous tour of the
Gaiety Company to Australia and New
Zealand, which, arranged for twenty weeks,
extended to over sixty, and which then only
returned on compulsion of other engage-
ments at home. What a programme of
" stars " that was : E. J. Lonnen, Marion
Hood, Bert Haslem, Robert Court ridge,
Alice Lethbridge, and other names which

A History of Dancing. 183

would make any manager's mouth water to
mass together now. And how the colonial
papers raved about her dancing ; indeed,
she had many lucrative offers to remain out
there simply as a teacher of the art, but she
preferred to stay on in the profession, and
so returned to England, and took up the part
of Pepita in " Little Christopher Columbus."

It was in this that she first invented that
wonderful " waltz movement " that I have
spoken of elsewhere, and it is in this play
also that she and E. J. Lonnen dancea their
" Marionette Dance," which was one of the
biggest hits of the piece, and the popularity
of which may be judged from the fact that
it was so freely copied in contemporary and
succeeding plays.

Next followed a tour in South Africa, in
a dancing sketch with E. J. Lonnen ; and
on her return there was a big offer to go to
Paris,, where, in the home of dancing, her
art might have been appreciated even more
than in England; but this she refused,
preferring to remain on the English stage.
Then came numerous theatrical engage-
ments in the provinces ; and, in the inter-

184 A History of Dancing.

vening times, tours with the big productions
of George Edwardes' musical comedies ; and
dancing solos in " San Toy," " The Toreador,"
and " The Country Girl," are among her latest
successes.

Miss Lethbridge, as well as being one of
the most graceful of dancers, is also one of
the most vivacious, two things that are com-
patible only in those who have a perfect
mastery over the art, and, far from dancing
with her feet only, she literally seems to
dance all over, the quick movements of her
arms, hands, and even her eyes, being all
in perfect accord with the rhythm of the
music. Sallust once blamed a woman for
dancing too well ; what would he have said
could he have seen her ! And with all this
vivacity there is so much refinement in her
dancing that her name has become typical
for all that is best in the dancing of to-day.

Her usual dances are, of course, waltzes
and gavottes, as these lend themselves best
to her style ; and among her chief per-
formances have been the revolving waltz
movement, her marionette dance, a wonder-
ful " fire-dance " in a Christmas production

A History of Dancing. 185

at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, and
some very clever and beautifully executed
" Shadow Dances," by means of reflected
lights.

Miss Topsy Sinden has by sheer hard
work pluckily won for herself a permanent
place in musical comedy, and has proved
herself quite worthy of the position. Her
first appearance was in one of Sir Augustus
Harris' pantomimes at Covent Garden, after
which she appeared in the musical extrava-
ganza of "The Old Guard" at the Avenue
in 1887. She then had small dancing parts
in some of the Gaiety pieces, " Cinderella,"
4< Don Juan," etc. ; and in " In Town," at
the Prince of Wales'. At the Prince of
Wales' also she appeared in " The Gaiety
Girl," and, coming to the front as a dancer,
was transferred to Daly's, where she has
had big parts since.

Miss Mabel Love should, of all people,
have excelled in the art, for she is the
daughter of a former danseuse at the Gaiety.
A pupil of Mr. D'Auban for dancing, and of
Miss Carlotta Leclerq for gesture and the
dramatic art, she had all that could be

186 A History of Dancing.

0

desired to help her, and it was not surprising
when her dancing performances began to
attract attention. She appeared in one or
two pieces at the Gaiety, and then obtained
two big parts at the Lyric, succeeding Miss
St. Cyr and Miss Lethbridge in "La Cigale "
and " Little Christopher Columbus " respec-
tively. Since then she has appeared in
several other musical plays, and has had a
number of pantomime engagements ; but
lately she has taken to the drama, and at
the time of writing is appearing in " Sweet
and Twenty " in the provinces.

" Place aux dames," I find, has been my
motto in this chapter, and up till now I
have left the gentlemen severely alone.
Perhaps this is because one is apt to forget
that there are such things as male dancers,
since so few men take up as a profession
stage-dancing purely and simply. Nearly all
of them combine with it either teaching or
else singing and low-comedy business. But
one cannot leave an account of the later
dancers, without mentioning such names as
John D'Auban, E. W. Royce, Willie Warde,
and E. J. Lonnen.

A History^ of Dancing. 187

Mr. D'Auban has been for many years
ballet-master and director of the dances at
Drury Lane, besides* frequently taking a
leading part in them himself. I remember
seeing a particularly fine performance of his
in a " dance of the savages " in one of the
pantomimes there a few years back, and
was much struck by his agility. Irrdeed,
" Punch " once wrote a little verse about
him, which went as follows :—

" Mr. Johnny D'Auban,
He's so quick and nimble
He'd dance on a thimble —
He's more like an elf than a man."

But it is as a dancing master that his
name is best known, and so famous have
his pupils become that a certain type of
dancing is now always known as that of the
" D'Auban scfiool." Practically all the stage
dancers I have mentioned in this chapter
have been pupils of his, and among those
whose fame has not been won by dancing
the names of Mrs. Langtry, Miss Mary
Anderson, a/id Mr. W. S. Gilbert, may be
mentioned as having appeared on his books.

The reminiscenced of Mr. E. W. Royce

188 A History of Dancing.

naturally extend back over a number of
years, though he did not actually appear on
the stage until after he had reached " years
of discretion," as he had not been brought
up with any thought of dancing as a profes-
sion. His first appearance was at the old
Lyceum in 1860 under Oscar Byrne in the
'* Peep o' Day," and at that time, of course,
the Italian Opera dancing was in full swing,
and naturally his sympathies lie with the
old-fashioned ballet. And from a male
dancer's point of view, his advocacy of the
ballet over the present stage dancing is un-
doubtedly right, as it gave opportunities of
dancing such as a man never gets on the
stage to-day : but I must still repeat that
for a woman the ballet was, to my mind,
ungraceful and inartistic in the extreme.

Referring to the dancers of former years,
he has often told me that in his opinion the
secret of their success was that they knew
when to leave off. They executed their
pirouettes, their entrechats, their arabesques,
and then, before they had time to get stale in the
eyes of the audience, they made their bow,
and the dancing for the evening was finished.

3 History of Dancing. 189

But in those days the dancing was the
feature of the performance, and the people
were on the qui vive to watch for new steps,
new movements ; and with the cheering
knowledge that every single person in the
audience was interested in one's perform-
ance, it must have been an easier thing to
be a dancer then than it is now. As a
writer in one of the weekly papers recently
wrote : " Then singing was not the sole
attraction of the opera, for the great dan-
cers had as great a following as the singers
of to-day. In those times dancing was an
art, and was studied affectionately. Its tradi-
tions were respected and handed down."

Mr. Royce's last appearance in the Italian
Opera was under the management of Gyes
in 1876, and later in the same year he went
to the Gaiety to help form the famous
" Quartette."

From that time he became known as the
greatest dancer in England, and, old as he
now is, he might have been dancing yet had
not he been stricken with paralysis in the
height of his fame. The attack, though not
severe, was sufficient to destroy any ideas

190 A History of Dancing.

of continuing on the stage as a dancer, and
though he returned to the Gaiety in 1864,
he found he was t unable to perform the
movements which he had formerly executed
with ease. He then turned his attention to
the drama, and to the teaching of dancing,
in both of which pursuits he has met with
considerable success. He has had the train-
ing of many now famous pupils, and on the
stage his performance of the Miser (Shiel
Barry's great part) in " Les Cloches de
Corneville," has elicited the greatest praise.

Mr. Willie Warde is a brother-in-law of
Mr. D'Auban, which alone might certify to
his knowledge of the art of dancing, but it is
as composer of the ballets at the Gaiety that
his name has become a great one in the danc-
ing world. He himself, like most dancing
masters, is also an expert dancer, and many
of his performances at the Gaiety and the
Empire will be remembered.

Of the late E. J. Lonnen it is impossible to
say too much, for though an actor rather
than a dancer — nor would he have ever
termed himself a dancer — his dancing powers
were most marked. Directly he commenced

3 History of Dancing. 191

any dancing steps, whether merely as a break-
down accompaniment to a song or as a pas
seul pure and simple, one could see that he
was a finished performer. Born and reared
to the stage, he knew the ins and outs of the
profession better than any other actor of his
time, and having in addition an undoubted
genius for acting, it is no wonder that he
achieved the success he did.

His first part in a musical play was in
" Falka,'' at the Avenue, where his metier was
quickly discovered, and from henceforward
comic opera, or its later development, musical
comedy, held him right up to the time of his
death. The mere mention of such plays as
" Miss Esmeralda," " Faust- up-to-date," and
" Carmen-up-to-date," will at once recall him
to whoever saw them, for whether in a minor
part or in a leading one, his personality on the
stage was sure to impress itself on the spec-
tator ; while such songs as " Killaloe " or
" The Bogie-man " have not quite died away
yet, and the life of a comic song usually ends
with the run of the piece.

Other dancers who are also actors are
Fred Wright, Junior ; Harry Grattan, equally

192 A History of Dancing.

clever with pen, pencil, dancing or acting;
Bert Sinden, a brother of Topsy Sinden ; and
that veritable genius, Fred Storey, whose
magnificent acting of " Rip Van Winkle," is
said to almost equal Jefferson at his best,
whose scenic paintings for some of the big
productions at " His Majesty's " and else-
where are works of real art, and whose
dancing, though eccentric, is skilful in the
extreme.

Lastly a word as to Eugene Stratton.
This clever comedian is always regarded as
an actor and comic singer, but few people
realise that had he never sung a song or done
any acting, he must still have made a name
for himself as a dancer. His dancing is per-
haps the most graceful of anyone now on
the stage, and for lightness of movement he
is unequalled. One seems unconsciously to
listen for some slight sound of his footsteps
on the boards, but they never make any, they
are absolutely inaudible, and like the leaves
fluttering down from the trees, they float
about and finally settle without a sound.

A History of Dancing.

193

With this account, scanty as it is, of those
who have helped to make the history of
dancing, I must say " finis " ; satisfied if, in
bringing before you the dances of the past, I
have also been able to show you what a
beautiful thing good dancing still may be.

194 A History of Dancing.

LITERATURE.

TabourePs Orchesographie. — Said to have
been written by a monk under an anagram.
1589.

Orchestra. — A poem on dancing, by Sir John
Davies. 1596.

Chorography or Orchesography. — The art of
dancing notation. Re-written in 1700 by
M. Feuillet and translated into English in
1700 by Weaver. 1598.

Des Ballets Ancient et Modernes. — By Le
Pere Menestrier. 1681.

An Essay towards a History of Dancing. —
By Weaver. 1712.

Pamphlets on Orchesography. — By Sir John
Gallini. 1726.

Lettres sur La Danse et Les Ballets. — By J.
G. Noverre. 1760.

La Dance, Ancienne et Moderne. — By M. de
Cahusac. 1754.

3 History of Dancing. 195

L,e Maitre a Danser. — By Rameau. 1760,
Le Triomphe de Grace. — By Querlon. 1774.

Code of Terpsichore. — By Carlo Blasis, 1830,
and a second series in 1847.

A Book on Ball-room Dances. — By M.
Cellarius. 1894.

The Theory of Theatrical Dancing. — By
Stewart D. Headlam. 1888.

Also
De Saltatione. — By Lucian.

De Arte Gymnastica. — By Hieronymus
Mercurialis. %

Lettres sur les Arts Imitateurs. — By Noverre ;
and books on dancing by Edward Scott
and M. Vuillier.

196

A History of Dancing.

INDEX.

PAGE

PAGE.

Albigenses

22

Fabula: Atcllamc

37

Alhambra

111-112

Fairies, Dancing of....

127

" Almack's "

146-150

Fandango

86

Almetis

29

Fiji, Dances of

24-75

Astronomic Dance

29

"Gaiety Quartette,"

Bacchanalian Dances

19

the

117

Baltazarini

98

Gaiety Theatre

118

Batbyllos

38

Galop

148

Beau Nash

139

Galleotti, Vincenzo....

105

Beauchamp

136

Gardel, Maximilian....

104-163

Bergonzio di Bottn....

97

Genee, Adeline

113

Bhils

72

German Waltzing

147

Blasis

163

Gleemen

41

Bolero

86-87

Grattan, Harry

191

Bournonville

105-165

Grey, Miss Sylvia

124-176

Byron

145

Guatemala, Bailc, the

68

Cachucha

88-89

Hart-Dyke,Miss Wini-

Cake- Walk

76

fred

125

Camargo

100-163

Haye, the

51

Cellarius

149

Herodias' Daughter...

32

Cerito

107

Hornpipe

79

Chaucer

42

Children, Dancing of..

126

Jig, the

83

Cicero

114

Clog-dancing

130

Kaffir Dancing

73

Cotillon

154

Karpeia

34

Cushion Dance

52

Kissing

60

" Kissing- Dance," the

52

David, Dancing of

31

D'Auban

187

Lanncr, Madame

113

De Medicis, Katherine

98

Lancers

153

Dervishes

23

LaVolta

55

Dionysia

19

Lethbridge, Miss Alice

117-122

Duvernay

108

Levy,MissFlorencel24

,178-184

Lind, Miss Letty

124-178

Egg Dance

43

Lonnen, E. J

183-190

Elsster

109-169

Louis XIV. & XV

99-100

Empire

112

Love, Miss Mabel

125-185

Etruscan Dances

37

Lucian

129

Eumcnidcs, Dance of

35

Lully

99

A History of Dancing.

197

PAOE.

PAOE.

Madagascar, Dancing

St. Cyr, Miss Mimi....

124

in

24

Salii, the

21

Maneros

28

Salle, Mademoiselle...

100

Masks, Dancing

104

Santal Dance

67

Masques

56

Saraband

88

Maypole, the

44

Scaliger

22

Mazurka

153

Seguidillas

88

Menestrier

100

Serpentine Dance

130

Minuet

136

Seymour, Miss Katie

177

Miriam, Dancing of....

30

Sinden, Miss Tops}'....

125-185

Morris, the

46

Sir Roger de Coverley

156

•' Mummers," the

41

Socrates

36

Storey, Fred

192

Noverre

103-160

Strathspey

82

Stratton, Eugene

192

Osiris

28

Sword-Dance

83

Ovid

121

Pacific Islands, Dan-

Taglioni 109-166,
Tarantella

167-168
89

cing of
Pas de Quatre
Passamezzo

68
155
135

Tasmania, Dancing in
Terpsichore
Terry, Edward

74
13
119

Pavane

134

Todas

24

Peruvian Dance

66

Phuiakians, Dance of

32

Vaughan, Miss Kate.

Plato

129

118-120,

170-173

" Playford's Dancing-

Veddahs, the

23

Master "

158

Vestris

100-161

Polka, the

148

Pylades
Pyrrhic Dance

38
33

Washington Post, the
Wright, Fred

126
191

Waldenses

22

euadrille

143

Waltz

144-146

uinault

99

Warde, Willie

190

Wedding Dances*

51

Reel, the

81

Willis' Rooms

146

Rock-Dancing

130

Roscius
Roundel

114
50

Xenophon

36

Royce, E. W

117

Russian Dances.,

91

Yucatan, Dance of

74

I

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