Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1887 — THE PHILOSOPHY OF DANCING. [ARTICLE]

THE PHILOSOPHY OF DANCING.

Some Consideration!) on the Question, Why Do We Dance? > - [From Macmillan's Magazine.] It will be t ß&id that many people waltz for waltzing’s sake; waltz and dance are almost synonymous terms newdays. If, after the manner of Socrates, I apk, as one ignorant of such things, what is meant by “for waltzing’s sake ?” the answer will, in all probability be. “Oh, for the pleasure, merely.” We will not go into the question as to whether the attainment of pleasure is the ideal end of daucing. That shall be quite left open. Indeed, one must perforce acknowledge that, if a person dances purely for the pleasure he gets in dancing, and is entirely regardless of the person with whom he dances, and all other externals, such a person is much nearer to the ideal than other less ascetic individuals. But is such a course of conduct practicable? That it was not usual in Mr. Northbroke’s day, some two hundred years ago, is clear. “Why are men desirous more to daunce rather with this woman than with that woman ? And why are women so desirous rather to choose this man than that man to daunce withall?” Our spelling may have changed since then—we spell daunce without a u—but our ways are very much the same. For, consider how such a dancer would act in a ball-room. Recognizing the unseemliness of dancing alone, he would find it necessary to get a partner. This may seem easy in his case, as it will not matter whether she be plain or pretty, young or old, silent or talkative, provided she can dance. But looking into it more closely we find that these adjuncts do exert a certain influence, an influence that would injure ideal purity of dancing. Beauty would attract, ugliness disgust. Youth is untrained, age is overtrained. With a silent partner one must talk, with a loquacious partner one must (still worse) listen. However, supposing our dancer overcomes these distractions; supposing he chooses his partner (or should it be rather opponent in these days of fast waltzes and faster flirtations?) after the advice of Jenyns: “But let not outward charms your judgment sway, Your reason rather than your eyes obey. And in the dance, as in the marriage noose, Bather for merit than for beauty choose ; Be her your choice who knows with perfect skill When she should move and when she should be still, Wbo uninstructed can perform her share, And kindly half the pleasing burden bear supposing that the rooms are large and the crush mild; supposing the music is perfect, suppose the floor is smooth—a goodly lot of suppositions, truly—nay, supposing he passes through a dance in reverential silence, how is our ideal friend to conduct himself in the intervals? He is expected to talk, in many instances to flirt, or—but may the gods avert it—to spoon, rs the ycutk in Mr, Northbroke’s dialogue, evidently prompted by the chaperons of the time, says : “It is well known that by dancings and leapings Very many honest marriages are brought to pass, and, therefore, if for that only, it is good and to'erable.” All this cannot be done without descending fr m the atmosphere of almost spiritual ecstasy which ought to envelop the ideal dancer in the ball-room.