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Show THEORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING, 75 diversified and enchanting, remind us of the beautiful Bacchantes that we see on antique basso relievos, and by their aerial lightness, their variety, their liveliness, and the numberless contrasts they successively present, have, in a manner, rendered the word arabesque natural and proper to the art of dancing. I may flatter myself in being the first to give the precise meaning of this expression, as applied to our art; without which explanation it might afford a motive of derision to painters and architects, to w h o m it originally and exclusively belonged. Dancers should learn from those chaste pieces of sculpture and painting, the real mode of displaying themselves with taste and gracefulness. They are a fount of beauty, whereto all who aspire to distinction must resort for purity and correctness of design. In the Bacchanalian group above-mentioned, I introduced, with some success, various attitudes, arabesques, and groups, the ideas of which I had conceived on seeing the paintings, bronzes, and marbles excavated from the ruins of Herculaneum, and by these additional images, rendered its appearance more picturesque, characteristic, and animated. (See fig. 4, plate X I V , the principal group.) Those precious monuments of ancient skill have been repeatedly pronounced the best models for the painter and sculptor: in my opinion they are of equal service to the dancer. Poses, preparations, and endings of steps and temps, fig. 4, plate IV, fig. 1, 2, 3, and 4, plate V. N. B. Enehainemens and steps may be also finished in attitudes and arabesques. Different attitudes, plates VI and VII. Attitude, (as technically so denominated), fig. 1, plate VIII. The same, side view, fig. 2, plate VIII. Different manners of resting in attitudes, fig. 3 and 4, plate VIII. Derivatives of the attitude, fig. 2 and 3, plate IX. |