ROUND AND ROUND

Evening Star, Issue 22465, 9 October 1936, Page 1

ROUND AND ROUND

THEY CALL IT HANGING Indoor hiking—that is the men’s idea of dancing technique. They call it dancing, but we girls who have walked miles and miles and miles round ballroom floors with them in the last few seasons have several different names for it. Something should bo done—and qiiickl\ - —before yet another dancing season is established and another supply of silver shoes definitely ruined. A man would be insulted if, when ho said “ Will you dance? ” you nswered “ Can. you dance P I." mean can you, not do you? ” But that question should Ee laid down in all books of ballroom etiquette as being permissible. After all, only one man in every 10 can dance-—the others just do dance; and why should we have to suffer agonies to pick out the one in 10? Only the self-complacence that is essentially part of the ‘male character makes it .possible for men who have so little idea of dancing to bob up at dances and, without shame or remorse, ask women to suffer their meaningless shambling round the room. That’s all most of them achieve. The commonest of the male ballroom pests, writes “ Amand,” in the Sydney ‘ Mail.’ is the walker, the man who simply puts one foot after another without variation mile after mile. We could bear him more easily if he moved his feet in time to the music, but all too often his cars are defective, too, and his steppings are entirely without relationto the steady thump of rhythm being given forth by the band. His twin brother mainly walks, too, but be varies his walks with a sudden skip hero and there, equally unprompted by the music, and, knowing nothing of leading his partner, usually •skips right on to her instep and then waits for her to apologise. This type should be put down by law. THE RARE WALTZER. Lots of men can’t waltz, but they don’t see that as any reason for keeping off the floor when a waltz is being played. They just say. “Dash! its a waltz,” and attempt to fox-trot right through it. Theferorc, if you do happen upon that rare creature, the man who can waltz, yon don’t get a chance, because the floor is packed with amblers moving slowly and aimlessly round at a snail’s pace. Perhaps even worse than these uninspired hikers is the over-exuberant performer who battles round the room leaving a trail of bruised ankles behind him. Endowed with lots of superfluous energy, but no technique, he whisks and hurtles, pivots and prances, and at the end deposits you, a nervous wreck, a mass of bruises, back at the haven of your table. Ho enjoys himself thoroughly. Another type we could do without is the bored husband who attends because his wife makes him and practically refuses to dance, leaving one female partnerless each time. The trouble scorns to he that most men took a few half-hearted dancing lessons in their ’teens, have since forgotten anything they learnt then about rhythm, and have failed to take notice of any of the subtle changes of technique that have occurred since. The result is, of course, that they say blandly that they don’t care for dancing, just as a person who doesn’t know that there arc four suits in a pack of cards is likely to express the opinion that bridge is an uninteresting game. There is very Jittlo fun in doing anything unless you do it moderately well, and the man who says there’s nothing in modern ballroom dancing is only displaying his complete ignorance of its fascinating subtleties and intriguing variations. To dance well is to enjoy an invigorating, glorious exhilaration, to become part' of a pulsing rhythm that sets aside the consciousness of all but music and movement. And wc girls arc being denied that Just because most men are too smugly self-satisfied, 100 lazy, and too jolly stupid to take a few lessons and find out. what they are missing. What’s to be done? To boycott the bad dancers is to stay at borne most nights. The situation is difficult.