Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

THE NEW CHARLESTON

"PEP WITHOUT VULGARITY” TANGO DEAD AS A DOORNAIL EVERYONE LEARNING NEW DANCE Dancing this season is going to be peppy without being vulgar (writes a London correspondent). Those elastic-limbed couples who cannot enter a ballroom without jiggling their feet like Dervishes are going to he sadly out of place. Instead of the crazy Charleston with its kicks and contortions we are to have a Charleston so sedate and nice-mannered that the mildest of curates would not blush to he caught doing it. The old Charleston Is dead——killed by its own pep. And no one is mourning its passing. This is the opinion of several of London’s foremost teachers of dancing in a special forecast of the coining season’s dancing modes*

Everybody is learning the new Charleston. For the stout and portly the old dance was a veritable fandanfo of death. Not so the new dance, t is so very harmless, so very quiet and innocuous that dance teachers axe specially recommending it for grandmothers. It is the Charleston with the sting e3ctra<}ted. Where in tihe pM form couples occupied the same spot on the floor for minutes together and bucked like bronchos, they will now perambulate with a neat little flip of the feet that is both peppy and pleasant, NO KICKS “Really it is a sort of Charlestonfoxtrot, 5> declared Mr Santos Casani, the celebrated teacher of dancing, who is responsible for the new modifications. “We call it the flat Charleston, for the kick is entirely eliminated, and there is no lifting of the feet from the ground. The fact that it is progressive and that the dancers must move round the floor does away with the irritating obstructions which are one of the chief drawbacks of the old form. “But its principal recommendation, I think, is that it is absolutely devoid of any vulgarity. Such was the interpretation that many dancers were putting on the old form that many hostesses and restaurants were rigidly banning its performance. But nobody can object to the new dance. “That it is going to be a tremendous rage there is not the slightest doubt. Everybody is learning it. And the beauty of it is that it is so delightfully simple to learn. “The foot is kept flat upon the floor throughout, and nil the movement is in the knees. Of course, it is not done as a separate dance, but is interpolated into the foxtrot. RECONSTRUCTED WALTZ “There is good news for those who sigh for the dreamy lilt of the old-

fashioned waltz in the efforts being made to bring it back into popularity. But it is a reconstructed waltz with a little more pep about it than in tlie old days. “Where in the old-fashioned waltz we used to dance on the toes and keep turning round and round,” said Mr Casani, “we now dance on the ball of the foot, which is considerably more restful. The dance is also more progressive, which is not so monotonous.” A great effort is also to be made to popularise the tango. For years the tango lias been the backward boy of the ballroom. Everybody likes ~ its intriguing rhythm, but few, apparently, want to danoe to it. “People are apt to think Englishmen can’t dance the tango properly.” declared Mr Casani. “That is not tjie case. There is no dance that an Englishman or an Englishwoman cannot master quite as well—if not better—than foreigners. And there certainly is nobody more graceful. TANGO “HIGHWAYMEN" “This year I’ve hit upon a little scheme which X think should go a long way towards bringing the tango into its own. “I am organising a band of ballroom highwaymen whose sole aim in life throughout the season will be to get the tango played in various fashionable ballrooms and dance it. There will be six expert couples, all well-known dancers, “They will invade restaurants and hotels and ask the orchestras to play

tangos. If the answer is: ‘But nobody will danoe* they will be able to guarantee at least six couples. And if necessary they will break their partnership and dance with anybody.” The paso doble is another dance for which Mr Casani predicts a future. According to Miss Molly | Spain, the well-known teacher, this season is going to hre&k all dancing records. There never has been such a rush to learn the latest steps. Parents are vying their sons and daughters in their enthusiasm to shake a festive leg. “There is no doubt,” she declared, “that the new flat Charleston is going to be all the rage. It will absolutely oust the old form in practically every ; ballroom. “After the foxtrot and the Charleston —or the Charleston- foxtrot—the , waltz will undoubtedly be the next in popularity, with the tango a poor third. There will still be one or two 'one-steps played, but the paso doblo 1 think will be quite extinct.” GAYER AND LIVELIER Dancing styles are. in -a state of flux, according to Mrs Humphreys, the well-known expert and teacher. “Though the Charleston rhythm has undoubtedly come to stay,” she declared. “the dance is in a state of revolution and nobody can predict into what it will eventually evolve.” In Mrs Humphreys’s view the tango is os dead as a door nail. The reason, she says, lies in the self-consciousness of Englishmen te tackle anything that smacks 6f sheikdom. “It is not that thev can’t dance the tango.” she declared. “They can—beautifully. I’ve seen them doing it abroad, “But the moment it is played in a ballroom at home they sit tight. Nothing on earth will induce them to take the floor.

“Altogether dancing this season is going to be gayer and livelier than ever. And the great point is that the new Charleston is going to put back the high tone which the old form was in danger of undermining.*'

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19261204.2.43

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12621, 4 December 1926, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
978

THE NEW CHARLESTON New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12621, 4 December 1926, Page 4

THE NEW CHARLESTON New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12621, 4 December 1926, Page 4

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert