DANCING ERRORS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4741, 22 August 1924, Page 1

DANCING ERRORS.

MODERN EXAGGERATION. NEGLECT OF DEPORTMENT. . There are a number of dancers who take infinite trouble in learning the latest steps and variations, who yet pay little or no attention to what may be called good style. It seems to me that men are the worst offenders in this way; they often do not know the correct way of holding their partners, or else have ’ some peculiar hold of their own that makes the girls they dance with look positively ridiculous ! A good dancer never exaggerates in any way whatever. If he (or she) has to take a long step he takes a long one, but there is nd exaggeration about the matter. Just look around any public dance hall or room and notice how many there are who have some conspicuous and ugly exaggeration !

One man will bend forward over his partner to such an extent that she has to bend right back in a most uncomfortable position. She looks and feels thoroughly unnatural, and in consequence her limbs become stiffened and her movements ungainly. Another man will bend far back, making his partner lean forward, with her shoulders humped up. Could anyone look more ungraceful ? It is not always a man’s fault: many girls have just picked up a number of steps from ‘ friends, and have not been taught how to stand, in some cases they flop on to their partner or else pull away, making their bodies bo stiff that it is almost impossible to steer them properly. . Not infrequently a girl dancer may be seen with her left arm hanging upon her partner’s right (a habit that can make a man’s arm ache not a little by the end of the dance!) ; she is clutching his shoulder with her left hand, and her feet are much top far apart. She is supposed to be dancing backwards down the room, and her feet should either be together or one behind the other —in a straight line. Another little habit is for a girl to place her left hand perfectly flatly at the back of her partner’s right shoul-der-blade. If she must hold him like this, at any rate her fingers should

be together and not spread out like a bunch of bananas! As a matter of fact, her left hand should rest lightly upon her partner’s right shoulder, just her fingers, in fact, and not the whole weight of her hand. To clutch his shoulder firmly is quite wrong—and also it is "not done” to encircle his neck with her left arm I Some men like to hold their partner’s right wrist, but it is not particularly graceful or approved of, neither are little trickts such as lifting their feet high off the ground permissible, dancing upon the sides of the feet, or doing a number of tiny, exaggerated, toddling side-steps, which impede the progress of other dancers. To sum it all up, the girl should hold herself straight, be supple and able to follow well. The man should hold her correctly, neither too tightly nor too floppily, and should be definite in his movements.