OCR Text |
Show THEORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING. 59 Some young people are framed by nature with their limbs turning outwards; they possess, therefore, more facility, and succeed to greater advantage than those whose legs turn towards each other: a person of the latter kind indeed can cherish no hopes of becoming a good dancer, how diligent soever his labour and study may be. Practice will do no more than turn his feet, and bend his soles a little downwards, but his thighs and knees must remain always in their natural state. Here we perceive how requisite it is that all who intend devoting themselves to the study of dancing, should scrupulously examine the make and faculties of their body, before they begin to learn an art in which it is impossible to succeed without several gifts of nature. Be attentive, in practising, to the movements and position of your insteps; do not let them relax in strength and elasticity, nor suffer one of your ankles to be higher than the other ; these would be two very serious defects. Render your insteps as pliable and graceful as possible, and give them sufficient strength for the execution of rapid, vigorous, and elevated movements. The action of the instep principally consists in raising and letting down the heel. Study above all things to make it easy and strong, as the equilibrium of the whole body depends on it. W h e n you spring upwards it catches your weight on coming down, and, by a strong rapid movement, makes you fall on your toes. The movement of the knee is inseparable from that of the instep, and differs from it but in being perfect only when the leg is extended and the point of the foot low. The movement of the hip is a sort of guide to that of the knee and instep, as it is impossible for these last to move unless the hip acts first. In some steps the hips alone are set in motion, as in entrechats, battements tendus, <yc. |