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Show 42 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. attitudes and groups. This excellent artist displayed, with the utmost gracefulness, all the qualities I have above enumerated, all the charms that dancing possesses. The performer must move with taste and decency, let nothing be unnatural, nor in the least lascivious ; all must contribute, as the poet says, to " la decente Mollezza ." And this is precisely what the spectator should admire in artists of our class. Ease, elasticity, gracefulness and decency, must be always preferred to the extravagant movements, contortions, and grimaces of dancing Phrynes. Among the ancients there were two kinds of dancing : one for respectable and well bred people, the other for debauchees and the vulgar. This distinction eveu existed in the time of Homer.-(Vide Iliad, Booh 13M.) Many of our m o d e m dancers might learn something from those of the age of Alcinous. 17- Every part of the body must, in its motions, be in harmony one with the other. It is the acme of perfection. 18. These last verses unquestionably describe what w e now call petits batte-ments on the instep, or ronds dejambe. The poet will have everything done according to rules, and not as an effect of mere chance. 19. The author of the Adonis again reminds us of the concord between dancing and music. All must be studied and duly performed according to precept. You must, nevertheless, endeavour to conceal, by ease and variety, this systematical difficulty. 20. The poet here presents us with an ingenious description of the pirouette. Its execution and effect are painted in the truest manner. The dancer begins by turning & la seconde, and then continues the pirouette with petits battements or ronds dejambe. " E'l corpo non leggiero e 11011 gravoso D'intorno al centro si raggiri e volga."-TASSO 21. The first four lines of this stanza show what rapidity pirouetting admits of, and what elegance may be displayed in turning. The last lines speak of the preparation for, and effect of, the cabriole. 22. It is impossible to explain more minutely, or in a more poetical manner, |
