REVIVAL OF OLD DANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1188, 25 July 1911, Page 15

REVIVAL OF OLD DANCES.

Those who are interested in dancing would have found much to satisfy thcin at a ball given recently in the Mcihournc Town Halt, The men were not the "curled darlings of society," and their partners wero for tho most part earning their livings in various spheres of action. Practically every man of the 50!) or (100 present wore the uniform either of a soldier or a sailor, and it is little that such men as these have got to learn in the art of dancing.

What, however, made the hall really interesting was the fact that the round dances did not predominate, and independence of action made for much more satisfactory result. That beautiful old measure the ruietta nns danced by partners merely touching hands at intervals, the two-step was beautifully danced by partners hand in hand, and the Alberts, the Lancers, and the Koyal Irish were all as popular as the waltzes. It would bo hard to imagine anything more beautiful than the rhythmical motions of this great company of dancer!?, or anything more in contrast with what the fashionable ball has to offer. Girls in their early teens -and. grandmothers joined with' equal spirit, and the mere fact that dancing was kept up till close on daybreak is significant. Dancing should be much more than a mere pastime, and it is good to know that Morris dances—tho real old country dances, as well as the various national dances—arc at last being revived by the most up-to ; dato teachers. At the court bulls in Berlin minuets, gavottes, and the like are invariably danced, and the oldfashion ?d dances are interpolated between the waltzes on the programme. One excellent reason for the revival of what may be called the independent dance is the fact that girls can dauco with girls and men with men. No ont- imagines that this condition would obtain in mixed company, but in girls' clubs and boys' clubs—to say nothing of organisations devoted to the uses of their elders—certain forms of dancing might be introduced with the best results possible.