OCR Text |
Show THEORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING. 65 CHAPTER III. STUDY OF THE BODY. LET your body be, in general, erect and perpendicular on your legs, except in certain attitudes, and especially in arabesques, when it must lean forwards or backwards according to the position you adopt. Keep it always equally poised upon your thighs. Throw your breast out and hold your waist in as much as you can. In your performance preserve continually a slight bend, and much firmness about your loins. Let your shoulders be low, your head high, and your countenance animated and expressive. A dancer who wishes to charm the beholder's eye must display all the elegance that his fancy can inspire him with, in the carriage of his body, the easy development of his limbs, and the gracefulness of every attitude into which he throws himself. But let no affectation intermingle with his dancing ; that would mar every thing. By due attention to these particulars, he will make each of his accomplishments shine forth to their greatest advantage, and feel always rewarded for the labour he has taken. The elegance of the upper part of the body is chiefly to be attended to by a dancer, as in that, one of his principal merits consists. Carry your bust10 gracefully, impart to its motions and oppositions a certain abandon, and by no means let it lose the beauty of its pose nor the purity of its design. |