Music: Dance Masters

A sunburned girl in a bathing suit, her ankles ringletted with bells, danced in a Manhattan ballroom last week a dance that few white men had ever seen before. To a slow orchestral accompaniment she pounded barefoot on the floor, bowed low, bent back, made gestures as of sowing grain, beseeching fertility. Lining the walls on three sides sat 80 interested men and women. Some were young, some were white-haired, most were matronly looking women and burly, oldish men. Fascinated, they began to beat the rhythm with their programs, then one by one they rose, joined the dancer and for 15 minutes stamped their feet, bowed low, bent back, sowed grain.

The dancer was Agnes Boone, onetime performer with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn’s Denishawn Dancers. The rest were dancing masters and mistresses from all over the country who form the American Society of Teachers of Dancing. For 51 years members of the Society have convened annually, usually in Manhattan, to sit in judgment on the dance, to review old dances, see and invent new ones.

Dancer Boone, traveling in the Far West among 50 tribes on Indian reservations, has studied and gathered much aboriginal dance material. What she exhibited last week she calls the Butterfly Dance, a dance of fecundity from the Klamath tribe of Oregon.

Flicker. In the interest of another kind of dancing came Roger MacEwan, a dance-master of Glasgow and London. He too brought a new dance, his own invention, called the “Oxford” and consisting of four variants of the fox trot and tango. Included in his suite was a thing called the “flicker” which he said was the rage in London. Obligingly he “flicked” for the 80 delegates. Pointing a well-shod toe, taking a step forward with the right foot, bringing the left across so that the ankles touch, the “flickerer” then stamps smartly with the right foot, executing a quick chasse (chasing the right foot out of place with the left). Another step and stamp with the left foot and one has “flickered.” Repeat rapidly to fox trot time.

Taps. Nowadays a dancing instructor must be versed in all kinds of dancing. Gone is the cotillion master whose repertoire was complete with the schottische, polka and waltz. To be up-to-date the schools must teach the ballet, the toe-dance, the classical and acrobatic dance, the fox trot, one-step, two-step and waltz and the tap dance. Leading exponent of the latter is Billy Newsome, vaudevillian, onetime teacher for Ned Wayburn, Broadway showgirl trainer. The tap dance is in vogue. “Society,” says Tapper Newsome, “is taking it up. I’ve tutored the Vanderbilts and the Astors and they love it!”

Last week Tapper Newsome expertly tapped for the delegates. He combines the tap with the Charleston, the Black Bottom, the fox trot. He is working on a combination tap and flicker which, he says, should be a rage.

Chug. Late arrivals, coming from a

Chicago convention of Midwestern Dance Masters told about and demonstrated two graceful midwestern dances, the “Sorority Sway” and “Sea Gull Waltz”; also a choppy one called the “Chug.”

Charleston. Elected second vice president of the society was Adolph Newburger of Manhattan, whose claim to fame is that he taught the Charleston 20 years before it became popular. He denies it originated among South Carolina Negroes. It was, he says, one of the steps in his stage-dance, “The American Beauty Rose,” danced more than 15 years ago.

Master Vizay. President of the society is white-haired, mustachioed Rudolf W. Vizay of Manhattan. For 46 years Dance Master Vizay has taught dancing to the cadets at the U. S. Military Academy. While others taught them to be soldiers, he has taught them the gentlemanly graces of the square dance, lancers, waltz, one-step. For years he discountenanced the two-step. Frigidly he frowned on the fox trot when it appeared, though now he says: “It is just as possible to dance a fox trot with dignity and propriety as it is to dance a waltz.” He abhors exhibitionist Negro dancing, believes it to be fit only for the stage. He admits that the waltz, one-step and fox trot constitute a trinity whence all variations come, and that the real arbiters of dance fashion are popular music writers.

At West Point, Dance Master Vizay is not popular. The cadets, though they like dancing with girls, think there is something sissified about taking dancing lessons. Their dancing uniform is a white shirt, grey trousers, black belt.

Master Vizay stands on a raised platform in the dance hall with stick in each hand. At exhibitions of cadet stupidity he knocks his sticks together vigorously, shrills his orders loudly: “Ready! Toe in first position. Point! . . . No! No! No! Stop!” (Knocks sticks together vexedly.)

The instruction period begins with marching. Follows a rehearsal of the bow. Then comes the regular dancing, fox trot, waltz and one-step. The cadets do not dance together until they have “qualified.” A “plebe” must take six weeks’ compulsory dancing, must dance alone for five months before he can take his qualification tests. Result: many of them follow more skillfully than they lead. A girl who knows describes Dance Master Vizay’s product as follows: “They are probably the stiffest, most boardlike group of dancing-men in the world!”