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Show THEORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING. 73 wards it is thrown before, and thus changes its place with every variation of position. Besides a graceful carriage, let the dancer acquire uprightness, by forming an exact counterpoise with every part of his frame, and thus enable himself to support his body on one leg only, as, also, to obtain an elegant style of attitude upon both. (See plate VIII, X , XI, XII, &c.) Of the Centre of Gravity in a Dancer. The weight of a man standing upon one leg is divided in an equal manner on the point that sustains the whole, (see fig. 1, plate X.) and as he moves, the central line of gravity passes exactly through the middle of the leg that rests wholly on the ground. (See fig. 1, plate VIII, &c.) Counterpoise. A person that carries a burthen placed out of the central line of his body, must necessarily add, from his own weight, a balance sufficient to counterpoise it on the opposite side, and thus form a true equilibrium round the perpendicular of gravity. (See fig. 2, plate VIII, &c.) But in certain attitudes which the dancer throws himself into as he springs from the ground, as also in inclined arabesques, such as that presented by fig. 3, plate XI, the central line of gravity is not to be attended to in the same manner as it is in the figures of the plates T, II, III, IV, &c. (See fig. 1, plate IX, fig. 1, plate X, as relating also to this remark.) Of the Figure that moves against the Wind. A dancer that goes against the wind, in whatever direction it may be, cannot preserve with exactitude the centre of gravity on the line that supports him. (See fig. 2, 4, and 3, turned on opposite sides, plate XIII. See also fig. 1,2, 3, plate X I V , and fig. 4, same plate, which represents a Bacchanalian group, which I composed, during the first year that I was engaged at the Theatre of L a Scala, |