Dancing.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 3897, 13 May 1899, Page 4

Dancing.

(By the Rev F. Qoihteell). Where is the evil of danoing ? This is a question often asked. But a mnoh wiser question would be, Where is the good of it 7 This paper is an attempt to supply an answer to the first question. A satisfactory answer to the second, as far as I know, has not yet been reoorded. Danoing is an amusement, but is it not a questionable one ? It is claimed that dancing adds graoe to the movements of the body, but we must consider at how great a cost THE NEXT VICTIM.

Our sons and daughters are growing up in our midst, and we are prepared to study their interests and sacrifioe muoh for their benefit; but are we not opening to them the golden gate of vice and encouraging them to work on a path with numerous pitfalls overspread with flowers, when we permit them to resort to the public danceroom ? Admitting all that oan reasonably be said in favor of danoing, have we never known any disastrous consequences, and may not your child or mine be the next to fall ? DANCING FASCINATING. No one will deny that dancing is fascinating to the danoer, and will wide-awake parents freely give son or daughter to be the subjeot of a merciless, masterful passion if there be the slightest doubt of that passion being evil ? We fight and die to avoid chains of iron, but who does not see that thousands of young people in New Zealand are enslaving themselves to passions and habits which some day will lash them with more severity than the whip of the taskmaster, and refuse to let them go in spite of many groans and tears ? In the name of our common humanity then let us save the children, i DANCING AN ANCIENT CUSTOM, i But you say, dancing is, and has been for many years, a recognised custom amongst us, and why trouble about it now ? Aye ; and slavery was for ages a recognised custom, bnt Wilberforce gave the flower of his life, and England twenty millions, and North America the noblest of the nation to break the yoke of slavery. Why did they trouble ? At one time Indian wives gave their bodies to be burnt on the funeral pile of their husbands, and Britain stepped in and stopped it; it was an ancient custom. Why did Britain trouble ? The antiquity of a custom is no guarantee of its goodness, and it oannot harm ns to look into onrold habits aud submit them to the test of working practical benefit in modern conditions of society.

THE ANCIENTS AND DANCING. Dancing is almost as old as t e world and the practice is discoverable in rude as well as in civilised nations. The very early reoords of ancient Powers mention danoing. The men of long ago danced before their altars and around the statues of their gods. With them it was part of a religious ceremony, or was connected with patriotic or military feeling. The old Greeks made dancing expressive of all the passions of their nature. The dance of Eumenides or Furies created such terror that the spectators seemed to see their dreaded deities about to execute heaven’s vengeance on earth. That was a kind of dancing that has little or no resemblance to, and contains no plea for onr methods of dancing. Hebrew reoords oontain plentiful allusions to dancing, but in most cases it was AN ACT OF RELIGION. Moses and Miriam danced in thanksgiving for their wonderful deliverance from Pharaoh and the Red Sea. David danced before the Ark, &e. The New Testament, however, records thatHerodias danced before Herod with the result that John the Baptist lost his head. But a record of events proves nothing as to the nature of the facts. THE BIBLE by telling us what David or Herodias did does not commit itself to one side or the other. This must be ascertained on entirely different data. We must also remember that in the dancing of older dayß the sexes seem never to have commingled. PROFESSIONAL DANCEBS. Dancing, as an entertainment in private society, was performed in ancient times mostly by professional dancers and not by the company themselves. The ancient Romans considered it DISGRACEFUL for a free citizen to dance except in connection with religion, and even now at Eastern entertainments professional dancers are called in to amuse the company, but these, as in Egypt are highly educated and they improvise verses while present, as they do also in Italy. SAVAGES LOVE IT MOST.

“ Chambers,” to whom we are indebted for much of this history, says: It is among savage nations that the passion for dancing is most strongly manifested, and as civilisation advances, dancing—amateur dancing at least—assumes a more and more subdued character. But the verdict of Dr W. M. Thomson, who lived for many years in the East is unfavourable to dancing even as conducted there. He says :—“ We see little to admire in their performances. They move forward, and backward, and sideways, now slowly now rapidly, throwing their arms and heads about at random, and rolling the eye, and wriggling the body into various preposterous attitudes, languishing, lascivious, and sometimes indecent; and this is repeated over and over, Bingly or in pairs or groups. One thing is to be said in their favour. (to be continued.)