Music: Castanets

Castanets commanding and enticing, sleek black gowns, ruffled white gowns, gowns with all the colors of a peacock’s tail—with these to Manhattan last week returned Dancer Argentina (real name: Antonia Merce) who again will tour as far as the Pacific Coast, give some 50 recitals. At the end of last season Argentina underwent an appendectomy, a proceeding dangerous for a dancer none too young. Special care was taken not to cut a muscle and she is just as agile as before. Her great pride this year is the little red ribbon which she wears on every coat, every dress. It is the emblem of the Legion of Honor given her the past summer for her distinguished achievement in art plus her generosity to French charities. She might also be proud of her U. S. schedule this season. Few individual artists are able to draw more than one audience, at most two, in any one city.

Argentina danced to three sold-out houses in Manhattan last week, will appear there nine times more before she sails in February. She will give two recitals in Boston, three each in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco.