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Show THEORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING. 79 OBSERVATIONS ON ENTRECHAT, AND ON THE MANNER OF BEATING AND CROSSING IN CLOSE-LEGGED AND BOW-LEGGED DANCERS. Close-legged dancers. The contraction of the muscles, occasioned by the efforts of leaping, stiffens each articulation, and forces every part back into its natural place. The knees, thus compelled to turn inwards, regain their primitive thickness, which greatly opposes the beatings of the entrechat. The more united are the legs at their upper part, and divided at their extremities, the more incapable are they of beating or crossing; they remain, therefore, nearly motionless during the action of the knees, which, in consequence, appear to roll uncouthly one upon the other ; and thus the entrechat, being neither cut, beaten, nor crossed at the feet, cannot have that rapidity and brilliancy which constitute its principal merit. A good method of studying, diligent practice and time, as I have already intimated (Chap. II, Study of the Legs,) are the only means of remedying this defect. Bow-legged dancers. These are nervous, rapid, and brilliant, in all things that require more strength than agility. Nervous and light, on account of the direction of their muscular fais-ceaux, and the thickness and resistance of their articular ligaments ; rapid, because they cross more at bottom than at top, their feet having but a very small distance to perform the beating steps in; and brilliant, by reason of the light being so very conspicuous through their legs as they cut or uncut. This light is* precisely what we may term the clair-obscur of dancing : for if the temps of the entrechat be neither cut nor beaten, but, on the contrary, rub. bed or rolled one upon the other, there is no light to re- |
