new names, both of steps and of dances. For their benefit, it is in order to make a digression at this point.
Let it be emphatically understood that the dances above enumerated are the only ones that have any present significance in French, English or American ballrooms. So-called “new” dances, bearing names of summer and winter resorts, heroines and what-not, are presented in endless succession; but analysis always shows their almost complete lack of individuality. Their claim to recognition regularly consists of a minor variation of a familiar bit of one of the Waltzes, the Tango, or the One-Step. Around this nucleus are gathered steps taken from the other dances directly; and the “composition” is supposed to contribute publicity to some progressive teacher or performer. At the present moment a “Spanish” something-or-other is claiming attention, on grounds which, examined closely, consist in a drawing of one foot up to the other, with a slight accompanying body movement. Spanish dancing does use this movement, it is true. So does the One-Step; the Turkey Trot had it on its birthday. Examples of such efforts might be multiplied, but one is sufficient to show the needlessness of concern over strange and unproved titles.
The steps and figures hereinafter described are standard. The list cannot be complete, since the Tango alone has figures to a number variously estimated at from about fifty to more than a hundred; nor is it desirable that it should be. Many of those figures are wholly alien to the true Tango character, contribute nothing of beauty or interest, and might well be allowed to perish. Others are of such slight variation from basic forms that they can be learned in a moment by any one familiar with the principles. Embellishments are easily added, once the structure is solidly built.
The instruction that follows was prepared under the careful supervision of a teacher whose good taste is unquestionable and whose broad familiarity with dancing in all its aspects qualifies him to foresee and estimate tendencies with extraordinary precision: Mr. John Murray Anderson, previously introduced in these pages in connection with the old court dances. The photographs illustrating the text were made from the work of Mr. Anderson with his partner, Miss Genevieve Lyon; collective possessors of a favourable and growing popularity as performers. These photographs may be studied with full reliance upon their value as guides to the style of each of the dances described.
To the beginner, the diagrams and text will serve as a grammar, by whose guidance the steps can be put into practice. Familiarity will accustom the limbs and body to the mechanism of the steps, and the mirror will go far in revealing the faults inseparable from any new undertaking that requires skill. At that point the photographs have their special value.
As soon as the student is reasonably conversant with his grammar, he should begin to avail himself of opportunities to put his knowledge to practical use. Also, if he wishes to dance with distinguished grace and style, he should put himself for a term under the eye of a capable teacher. Ambitious professional performers, possessed of the knowledge and skill derived from years of concentrated study of their art, periodically submit themselves to rigourous coaching. The amateur, though measured by much less exacting standards, has commensurately less preliminary training on which he may depend to give him the qualities that make for graceful execution. No dancer can see his own work truly. All need at least the occasional oversight of a skilled eye; and a teacher’s experience in detecting the causes of imperfections enables him to cure them in a minimum of time.
The figures (enchainement) composing the new dances have no set order of performance; their sequence is at caprice, usually suggested by the music. Nor is there yet any indication that their increasing number has reached its limit. Every one is at liberty to test his powers of invention and composition, to experiment with the adaptation of steps of one dance into another, and, in general, to give play to his individuality. But, to hasten the uniform acceptance of a certain set of figures as a standard basis of each dance, it would be best to postpone indulgence in fantasies until after the subjoined figures have been learned. At present the progress of the Tango, in particular, is hampered by the fact that hardly two people in the same ballroom will be found in agreement as to what steps constitute that dance. And, as noted before, a preliminary learning of the fundamentals will enable him who dances to decide intelligently what new steps may be added to a dance appropriately, and what are out of harmony with that dance’s character. (The discussion of theme, in the chapter on ballet technique, deals with composition of steps.)
Explicit verbal description of steps is possible only by use of the accepted designations of positions of the feet. If they do not impress themselves on the memory clearly, the reader should by all means copy the diagram on a separate slip, and keep it before him as he experiments with the translation of text and diagram into practice of the steps.
