Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1876 — Dancing on Wheel Skates. [ARTICLE]

Dancing on Wheel Skates.

Writing from Brighton, • correspondent of the London Daily Netee says: Skating on wheels, advancing by leaps and bounds, like the commercial prosperity of Great Britain under the administration of Mr. Gladstone, has now reached a stage of perfection at which skating merges into dancing, and a skating party becomes a ball. Buch an entertainment was given here last night by some of the officers of the Scots Greys, stationed at the Preston barracks. Cards were issued for a dance, the ball-room being the grand rink in West street. Under the direction of Mr. Mellison. This was a splendid building, formerly, I believe, a concert hall, and now admirably adapted for the purposes to which it has been devoted, having a fine stretch of asphalt, covered in by a lofty and well-ventilated roof. Eight o’clock was the hour mentioned for the ball .to commence, and shortly after that -time the company began to assemble. Morning-dress was, of course, worn, no roller-skate and no style of skating yet having been invented which would make it possible to cut the outside edge, cross or go backward in the graceful blit inconvenient trailing skirt with which ordinary dancing is mosjf or less successfully managed. But nevertheless the scene was a pretty and animated one, with the many colored dresses, seasonably trimmed with fur, the saucy Rubenj hat, and here and there that ghost of alongdead past, the coal-scuttle bonnet. About 250 invitations had been issued, and there was present a company not far short of that number. There was perhaps something a trifle monotonous about the pretty little cartes de danse supplied to each of the guests. Eighteen dances were set down and each was a waltz. The fact is that skating on wheels lends itself naturally to the time and swing of the waltz, and may be successfully adapted to other sorts of dancing only after a severe course of training, such as could be undertaken by few except professional acrobats. A quadrille may be managed in a space that will allow of considerable margin (we had the Caledonians just before midnight), and with a band skillful at filling up interludes, during which partners who have overshot the mark are struggling back to the square; but the general result is not satisfactory, and the game is usually considered not worth the candle. The motion of the skater and the time observed are so nearly akin to waltzing that when the band plays the “ Bri»e dee Nurte," or “ Queen Mab," one naturally lapses into the waltz. One consequence of this is, that when, according to the programme, and, with very few exceptions, according to the fact, everybody was waltzing, the scene presented differed in an almost inappreciable degree from the sight witnessed on ordinary club nights. Here and there two ladies or a lady and gentleman broke into a waltz proper, moving round in due form and sliding through the steps of trois tempe; but for the most part the company contented themselves with skating round the rink in waltzing time, and swaying right and left on the outside edge to the waltz measure." To those who looked on, expecting novelty, this was somewhat disappointing, but to the company of skaters gliding across the smooth floor in an endless band there were no spots on the sun. They skated and danced with energy that seemed inexhaustible, halting only at eleven o’clock for such brief time as supper demanded, and then setting to again at the interminable waltz, the endless band growing thinner, but not finally breaking till an •arly hour this mornirfg. f