BALLROOM SPEED

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1926, Page 4

BALLROOM SPEED

illy Patrick Chalmers in the London •‘■Daily .Mail.” Is ha 11 room dancing deteriorating? T.ie president of the British Association ol Teachers of Dancing thinks it is. and states a leading reason concisely: “Dance hands have too much licence. . most, of the bandsmen are not dancers themselves, and do not understand dancing irom the dancers’ point of view.” To an old-fashioned observer onr

ballrooms certainly do present a queer I appearance—chaotic, untidy, no order, 1 no method, everyone doing what lie likes, how he likes, when and where he likes. The Charleston is partly to blame—that, and the growing expertness of the dancing crowd, who dance so much that they no longer bother to take lessons when a new .stop or dance comes in. hut ” get the hang of it.” from a friend, and proceed to do the dance with variations of their own. The net result is that our ballrooms are gay enough, instead of being rather restrained, solemn and intent. But tiie disorderliness of it all is very disturbing to an academician and even to a non-dancer who likes to seo

method and symmetry. How much the bands are to blame for this new state of affairs is a question.. But they, too, are adventuring. The celebrated hands more and more concentrate on weird musical experiments. some of which sound like futurist painting expressed in sound. They

call this “ concert jazz.” Many a dancer, obliged to move to it in a crowded club, calls it by quite another name. A famous hand which recently paid us a visit played at such a speed that even expert young dancers got annoyed. The leader explained that he. wanted to give us “ something new.” The dancers said that what they wanted was a rhythm they could dance to. The dance hand leader was out of sympathy with that attitude: he wanted tlio crowd to follow his hand, and in his native States he was used to get- . ting what he wanted. 1

The dancing of America is largely to blame for the antics of many of our hands to-day. In America, if you say it loud enough, it is so : and when the word goes for that that dancing is to be “pepp.v.” because some great dance musiean says so. bands accept it, and dancers quicken up. The word arrives here and our bands follow suit, believing that they are in the van of fashion. The unlucky dancers, who are not con-

suited, are dragged at tho tail of the wagon. Only one thing can bring the bands back into line—a revolt of the dancers.