DANCING, &c.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1205, 18 March 1880, Page 3

DANCING, &c.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— l have carefully read through the letters which have appeared in the last two issues of your paper by •• Mores" and "Mens." While I cannot subscribe in full to the views of " Mores," I think that " Mens" has not succeeded in his attempt to disprove them. On dancing, " Mens" appears singularly lame and feeble There is something very grotesque in his argument from nature, viz., " legs" moving in responsive harmony with the strains of light, jerky music. I offer no objection to the fantastic step and whirl of the legs, providing arms are kept in their right place. I understand that in dancing, as recorded in the Bible, this was attended to, and they were not used to encircle the waists ot ladies, &c. I believe a deal of trouble is induced through this modern innovation, which I, in common with many other parents who have daughters, would earnestly desire to see discontinued. Then, I believe that delicate persons should scrupulously avoid the ball-room. The heated atmosphere and the consequent liability to chills to those who are clad in ball-room attire prove, and have proved, decidedly injurious to numbers. The hours, too, of the ball-room are unquestionably as immoral as they are injurious. See next day the drowsy, aad in some cases, the ghastly look, and then acknowledge how beautiful and healthful the ball-room is, or rather how damaging morally and physically such "recreation" proves. Not aspiring to the classical signatures of your two former correspondents, I sub* scribe myself An Observer.