The advance made in stage dancing within the last generation has been very pronounced, yet so gradual has been this growth and improvement, that only the elders of the present time can visualize its progress, and that only by a backward look to the period of paucity and monotony that ruled in their junior years, and contrast the dearth of then with the abundance of now.
For really, whether in our multitude of revues or in our many musical shows, the dance, the pose, the rhythm and the melody that enhance our delight are all parts of the modern art of stage dancing. And it is of this art that the writer seeks to tell the story in the present volume.
Both the theatre and the dance have had their abundant historians. The dance is ages older than the theatre. The time of the coming of the dance to the theatre and their fitting union ever after has been recorded. They have advanced together hand in hand through the years since their first meeting and are closer companions at this hour than ever before.
Stage dancing is no longer the haphazard stepping of feet to music that it was in the beginning. From its earlier crude efforts it has developed into a modern art, a profession of the first class, calling for brain and ability at their very best, its devotees giving years of labor to perfecting themselves in their chosen art.
ONE VIEW OF GRAND BALL ROOM