THE TANGO.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1944, 30 December 1913, Page 6

THE TANGO.

BY ONE WHO LOVES ITV

INTERVIEW WITH MISS MURIEL' STARR,

[BYT SYLVIUS.]

"I see by this morning's paper that the Popo. has issued an edict against tho tango," I remarked. "Well, I don't think that is very nice of him—l wondor if 110 really knows anything about it!" Tho speaker was .Miss Muriel Starr, who is appearing at present in "Within tho Law" at the Opera House. "Whv, do vou know anything about it?" "Do I—well, I like that. The tango can have mo whonover it likes. It is a most beautiful dance, and I would liko to do it all day. Oh, how stupid theso men are —what a curiously oneeyed view they all take of dancing." "One-eyed—how?" "Oh, they run in all "sorts of (meanings that don't really exist at all. When I was in Sydney a Koman Catholic Bishop wrote an article on 'Sensuous Pleasures,' and went for tho tango, and I was interviewed on the dance. The truth of the matter is that none of them know what they are talking about. I have never met peoplo who could 'tango' a bit in Australia, and yet there is always somebody saying that it is grossly improper, and should not be danced bv decent people: Do you know that 90 per cent, of tho decent peoplo could not dance it if they wanted to ever so much. Why, it is not tho kind'' of dance where ono can go into an ordinary ballroom and ask or be asked to dance the tango. It is a very difficult dance, with a great many different steps that arc danced in a certain sequence. It is a languorous but extremely graceful dance, quite Spanish in character —a dance that takes a mighty lot of learning as well as a natural gift for tho dance." "Is it what you would call a sensuous dance?"

Oh, I don't know—l shouldn't say it was any moro sensuous than the waltz, and what bishop is thorc that objects to his daughter waltzing?. Still. I wouldn't call it icy in character. To me it is a delightful.dance, either to do or to watch. I find just as great a pleasure in seeing good tango dancers performing as 1 do .in. dancing it'myself." "Does tho danco go on indefinitely, like a waltz could?"

"No, the real tango is danced to the one tune —the Argentine Tango, and the dance finished with the music. Of course, as in the case of all other dances, the tango is altered and embellished for stago purposes, just as tho waltz is, Toil will see them waltzing down a flight of stairs in - "The Countof Luxembourg" hero next month. But the real tiling is just lovely. . . . A lot of people mix up tho tango with 'rags' like tho 'turkey trot, tho bunny hug. and Texas Tomtny. They arc all 'rags' sure, J)iit the tango is a thing apart. Kaggihg, as wo call-it,, is liorn and bred in tho bones of Americans. I don't know whether it is provided for in the Constitution, but I don't know what Geogge was. thinking about if it isn't. Wo aro a dancing people— more so every day. In all our beat restaurants there is now ■ a dancing space provided in tho middle of ' the big dining hall. An orchestra-goes flippity-flop and up .you .get between'.tho rourso and have a 'rag.' Some'people think wo're mad. ■we do it because wo ■:ari't help it, and because we're happy, and the doctors say it's .healthy, so there,,ypn arp. „"What's ~/tlie matter with it?"

"The dancing craze 13 bred into the children when they can just about walk, and wherever you see an organ or street hand playing hiccough music_ you will see a score of youngsters ragging somewhere round. But the tango—well, it is anart!"!

Miss, Starr never knew she was going to be 0110 when she; started away from ■tile-Canadian lumber camp (whero she was born) at six years of age for New York, whero fate placed her upon the stage at once. Miss Starr confesses to being 24 yoai-s of age, and looks vthe-,part; but -when slio states, with a straight .look'!in her big, greyblue eyes that sho has been on,, the stage for eighteen years, one is apt to believVtliat it' is after' all the same old Yankee bluff. Then' she" tolls of her infantile struggles. which. passed unnoticed by Daniel Frohmann, David Belascoe.. .and William Brady.

"I believe I played every kind of child part that was made, all except little Eva in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' How I came to miss hor I could never make out, but still I suppose there is lots of time yet. At 13 I was a fullblown ■actress on the roads. At that a<re I .remembered having played one-ni«ht 'stands for ten consecutive months with one play. Can" you understand what that means. Ten months and a different town every night. And Teally it wasn't so bad. Fancy mo at 13 playing n wife and mother who is supposed to have a child half my own age. Dear, oh dear—it was a melodrama —tho worst ever—called 'A Homespun Heart.' Ever sco it- No? You're .lucky! I Temember we had an advance man wlio suffered awfully .from rlicumatics; and often we would arrivo in a town and find that tho poor fellow was completely laid up, and not a_ soul in tho placo knew wo wero coming, or that th'ero was such a play as 'The Homespun Heart.' Then wo used, to do our great stunt.' Tho wagon would bo got out— two travelled in a wagon—and long calico' streamers would be fastened to racli side of it. Then, with tho smiling company arranged attractively in' 1 tho van, wo would drive round 1 lio streets nnd got ".he. peoplo excited. Wo played in tents, churches, gaols, and once in a Chinese laundry, with the tables for a stage!" Miss Starr has played in drama 1 , tons nf melodrama, and comedy, but has a hankering after emotional parts. Sho played tho leading part in that strong drama "Madame X'-' on tour iu. America, and has an ambition to come back to Australia in Richard Tully's picturesque romance "A Bird of Paradise." Then tho dinner gong sounded.