Newspaper Page Text
Copyright.' 1913. by the Star Company. Great Britain Right* Re«erri<t‘
9 •
^low Dancin
Beautiful Figure
For the women untrained to flexibility in youth, curving the
hands is necessary.”
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Saho
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m y
“Curve the hands backward from
the wrists and twist them
round and round.”
“Bending the fingers
backward and forward
if they are inclined to
be stiff.”
Second of
an Instruct
ive Series
of
Articles
by the
Well-
Known
Dancer,
Ruth
St. Denis
“Test the pliancy of the arms by slowly raising them and letting them fall to your
sides. Drop one knee and turning slowly from side to side let the
arms describe half circles.”
No. 2—The Arms and the Hands
By Ruth St. Denis
The Most Famous American Dancer
rr j HEN you begin to develop beauty
of arms and hands, begin at the
point half way between your
shoulder blades. This is no misprint, no
blunder of copy reader or of any one else.
I mean exactly that. To develop the arms
and hands begin to work equi-distant be
tween the inner ends of the shoulder
blades.
All movement begins in the chest. The
mainspring of grace is not in the arms
and hands themselves, but in their be
ginning point, which is the point I have
mentioned. As two branches of a tree
start at the same point and widen into
twin branches, so the arms start from the
point equi-distant between the shoulder
blades, which is, in a sense, the motion
centre of the upper limbs. Think of that
point and work from it. It is silly to be
gin with meaningless flopping motions of
the hands from the elbows, yet that is
where everybody begins.
Test the pliancy of your arms by slowly
raising them and letting them fall to ygur
sides. Then fancy them flowing—so think
of something that flows, a stream, say,
and then with the arms held out at front
or at your sides, imitate the rippling of
•the water. Don’t carry it to the point of
snakelike resemblance, however.
We see dancers and women in
Is the most awkward. I have never worn
a corset—never will. I decline to go to
jail in flesh and in spirit.
For a young girl with pliant muscles
and the unconsciousness of youth these
ripple actions, taken while walking or
dancing, are enough to develop the arms
and hands to such roundness and fulness
as accord with their bodies. If they are
slender they do not want the biceps of a
blacksmith. Nor, if they are of rounded
figure should they possess pipe stem limbs.
The ideal of bodily beauty is symmetry.
The American idea has transformed it into
an object of bulging excrescences. To give
any part of the body undue prominence
is to be vulgar. It is equally true whether
you do this by dressing or by bver exer
cise.
Keep in mind that we do not wish to be
come a nation of athletes, but of perfect
human beings—and that symmetry, which
is harmony of each part of the body with
every other part, is the beginning and a
large part, if not all, of perfection.
But we must consider that not every
one is trained to the natural expression,
which is grace, in her youth. Even in
childhood foolish mothers begin to hinder
expression and obstruct freedom with
clothes, while we ought to wear as few
clothes as possible. Childhood and youth
are made stiff, unwieldy and weighty by
tight corsets, tight gloves, tight collars,
tight shoes and tight garters. The body
loses its flexibility, as a prisoner locked
into a six by nine-foot cell grows cramped
of motion and wooden of posture. Too
many mothers are jailers of their children.
For the woman grown up,
this habit of mind and body
it is not enough to play that
the arms are wavelets and to
consider as a starting point
the middle of the back be
tween the shoulder blades.
Certain elementary movements
must also he practised by
them.
For them shaking the hands
loosely from the wrists, up
and down, and sidewise,
should be practised. Far bet
ter if with these and other
exercises the various dancing
steps, or at least walking to
rhythmic counts, be practised
For the woman untrained to
flexibility, in youth, curving
the hands is necessary. Curve
them downward from the
wrists and backward.
Twist them found and
round from the wrists, first by an outward,
then an inward motion: in other words,
away front the body, then toward the body.
Do this rhythmically, by counting slowly
or to slow music. Personally I do not
care for music with my pantomime. I
could do as well without It. But to some
persons, rhythm, that is, regular movement,
is impossible without music. Therefore
have music if you wish. Have it in slow
tempo, six eight time preferred. If you
have no musical Instrument, you can
whistle or hum an air in that measure.
But if you are not of the lame folk who
require music as a crutch for their move
ments, count as you dance or walk.
Binding the fingers back and forward,
if they are inclined to be stiff, may also
be necessary to expressiveness of the
“While flitting or lying down, and relaxing the other muiclet, take the starch, so to
speak, out of the fingers by shaking them sidewise and up and down.”
hands. If the fin
gers are "at all
rigid, do this now
and then during
the day. While
sitting or lying
down and relaxing
the other muscles,
take the starch,” so to speak, out of them
in that way.
Another means of loosening or ‘un-
starching the stiff, inexpressive hand is
to hold one hand in the other and shake
it. Place your thumb in the palm of your
fingers at the back of the hand and shake
it vigorously, but always in rhythm. I can
best describe this motion by saying that
it is a “wiggle waggle.”
While practicing the movements with
the hands and arms assume easeful pos
tures. While resting on your couch relax
further by lifting one arm and dropping
it beside you as though it were a heavy
weight of which you were ridding yourself
Lift the other arm and drop it. That move
ment in itself unlocks, as it were, the
tightened and imprisoned muscles.
While you lie there “uncurl” your fin
gers The tendency is to draw the fingers
into the palms of the hands and tighten
the hand into a fist. Tired nerves incline
us to that pugnacious way of presenting
our hands to the world. That is one of
the things which nature abhors, an obstruc
tion. Our aim should be to remove every
obstruction to free natural motion. The
forest of such habits as these must be
cleared before we reach the state of grace
ful attitudes and movements.
You can practice the raising and drop
ping of the hands and shaking them from
the wrists, pressing them back and forth.
holding one with the other and shaking it,
while you are lying on your bed composing
yourself for sleep at night. You can prac
tice them when sitting before your tea
table, while lying back in your easy chair,
while lying in a deck chair on a cruise.
But you can practice them also while
dancing. There is no better time to exer
cise the arms than while practicing the
dance steps, for dancing is not a mere ex
ercise of the feet. It is a pervasive motion
of the entire body. When you do not dance
with the entire body, as a ripple reaches
far out to sea, you are simply indulging
in acrobatics. So extend the arms and
raise and lower in easy, almost uncon
scious unison with the dance.
Drop to one knee and turning slowly
from side to side and twisting the body
easily from the waist, let the arms describe
slow, graceful half circles.
Was the Delude Caused by the Fall of a Vast Watery Rinjj Like One of Saturn’s?
private life obviously Imitate the
movements of a serpent. This,
unless there Is some special rea
son ip fitness, such as an actual
shrpent dance, is ridiculous. More
than that, it is ugly. But, flowing
water is beautiful. Try to repro
duce with your arm the effect of
tuples caused by a light wind on
o surface of water. These move
ments, as I have said, can be made
at the sides, or beginning at the
front, extend to the sides.
Another and similar movement
is that of a child at play with a
ribbon. Watch a child playing
" ith a ribbon and you will see a
manifestation of all the ebullient
oy of a kitten with a ball of wool
for playmate. Holding this imag
inary strip of ribbon in the hand,
shake it up and down, and watch
it rippling in the air. Shake it
with the hands in front of you,
with hands at your sides and be
hind you. Let the arms flow
their will.
I have no suggestion as to their
•xact angles with the body. 1 am
>pposed to mechanical methods in
□ostures. Natural action is al
ways graceful. Obstructed or im
peded motion is invariably awk
ward. That is the reason that a
child is the most graceful object
in nature and a woman in corsets
O NE of the last works of
Isaac N. Vail, the famous
geologist, js a very ingeni
ous booklet designed to show that
the deluge was caused by the fall
of a vast, watery ring from the sky.
Mn Vail was a well-informed
scientist who endeavored to make
all natural facts conform to the
literal accuracy of the Bible. In
describing the creation of the world
the Bible says: “Let there be air
in the midst of water, making a
division between the two waters.”
Mr. Vail argues that this must
mean that there was a watery body
suspended in the firmament above
the earth. This body, it is most
reasonable to believe, was a watery
ring similar In form to the ring
which now surrounds the planet
Saturn. The fall of this ring is the
only phenomenon that could explain
such an enormous fall of water as
the flood of Genesis, lasting for
forty days.
The existence or this ring, dis
tributing the sun’s heat over the
whole earth and turning it into a
greenhouse, would explain the tor
rid period of life evidenced by geol
ogy. Then the ice contraction of
the ring as it cooled would explain
the glacial period, which science
shows to have prevailed upon our
planet. Finally the ring fell, and
that was the flood.
The Bible also tells us that after
the flood the Lord said that He
would give man the rainbow as a
sign that no such calamity would
occur again. Mr. Vail interprets
this to mean that a rainbow was
not possible when a watery belt
hung suspended over the earth, and
that after the water disappeared
from between sun and earth the
rainbow became a possibility.
“Away out toward the bounda
ries of the solar system,” says
Geologist Vail, “we may behold that
beautiful clockwork of worlds, of
which the planet Saturn is the cen
tre. In addition to his eight moons,
three stupendous rings revolve
about him. two composed of mete
oric and one (the inner) of aqueous
matter. There, 19,000 miles from
his surface, revolves an ocean, 8,00o
miles broad and 100 miles thick—
an ocean above Saturn’s firmament
or atmosphere. Were we situated
upon that planet, in order to behold
those revolving waters we would
have to look upward, and could
readily understand how two bodies
of water could be separated by a
rakia,' an expanse—by a firmament.
If that aqueous ring were now over
canopying our little earth, no per
son would say the firmament could
not be a natural and philosophical
partition between the divided
waters. Every man would see a
literal and true interpretation of
that mysterious passage inscribed
on the very face of the heavens
The infidel would see himself con
fronted and denied by the hook of
nature on which he so confidently
relies.
“Well, then, are we to understand
that the earth was at one time sur
rounded by an aqueous ring, or belt,
of waters? We turn again to Gene
sis: ‘And God made the firmament,
and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firma
ment; and it was so.’ To him who
stands by the Integrity of the Mo
saic account of creation, there can
be no doubt upon this subject. The
declaration is unqualified that there
were waters above and waters be
low. Those below were on the
earth, for it was said, Let the
waters under the firmament he
gathered’ together that the ‘dry
land might appear.’ Then the
waters above were overhead. But
the -language of science, unim-
peached and unimpeachable, is that
no such body of water could possibly
exist there unless it should revolve
about the earth as a ring, or bolt.
“Geology tells us that there was
a time when the native heat of the
earth repelled vast quantities of
vapor and mists from its surface.
These could not avoid being thrown
into belts by the rotatory motion of
the earth. In fact, it might be said
that such formations are the neces
sary consequences of the evolution
of worlds from their primitive state.
"The most eminent astronomers
now living claim that both Saturn
and Jupiter are to-day repelling, by
their native heat, their waters into
space. Both are characterized by
the presence of aqueous belts, in
double or multiple layers, that must
successively condense and fall a;
oceans upon those planets when the
heat that now holds them in space
ceases.
"And 1 presume it will not be de
nied very long that our oceans have
many times been augmented by the
successive participation of waters
from space beyond our atmosphere.
"Since then we have the plain
declaration of Scripture that there
were waters above and beyond the
firmament; since we see waters so
placed above the surface of other
planets, and since such bodies of
water must revolve about the cen
tral body, I claim that the earth
in antediluvian times was surround
ed by a huge belt of waters. That
it was visible to the first inhab
itants as the last remnant of waters
falling to the earth. These waters
originally formed in and repelled
from that great laboratory, the prim
itive earth, skirted the boundaries
of a vast and remarkable atmos
phere with which the chemist, the
geologist and enlightened astrono
mer are familiar. Well, such an ob
ject must have had a name. Mark
that the waters on the earth were
called ‘seas.’ The atone remaining
Hebrew word which could refer to
the waters we render the ‘Great
Deep.’ It was so called because all
mankind formerly believed that the
clouds were fed from above. They
beheld them grow dark and heavy,
and expand until they rent them
selves and emptied their contents
upon the earth.
“When the aqueous ring begun to
descend upon earth there must have
been in the torrid and temperate
zones a down-rush of water, hut at
the poles a dowrerush of snow
This explains why we find in Siberia
and other Northern regions bodies
oi’ mammoths aud other animals
that were suddenly engulfed in the
ice.
“From the retreating glaciers
their remains have been falling for
thousands of years,” says Mr. Vail.
"Whole cargoes of elephantine i . or
and other fossils are picked up fnnn
the surface or dug up from lie-
frozen soil. There only are they
found upon the surface.
“During the fall of the waters here
supposed, on that part of the earth
sloping toward the North Pole, there
must have been a great rush of the
same toward the latter. Everything
that could float would he swept
thither.
“The travels of Erman In North
ern Siberia have proved that such
a wave did sweep from the Altai
Mountains to the Arctic regions.
Skirting the Northern Ocean, he
says, there are hills ::oo feet high,
made up in great part of whole car
casses of mammoths and other
mammals ‘cemented together by
layers of frozen mud and ice.' Drift
wood piled equally high—trees with
their trunks thrown upon each other
in the wildest disorder, forced up in
spite of gravitation, and with their
tops broken off or crushed as if they
had been thrown with great vio
lence from the south on a bank and
tinge heaped lip.’ ” v *