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Copyright, 191S, by the Star Company. Great Britain Right* Reserved.
Fourth of a Series
of
Instructive
Articles
by the
Well*
Known
»
Dancer
Ruth
St. Denis
T HIS newspaper presents to-day
the fourth of a series of
articles by the most graceful
woman in America. Miss Ruth St.
Oenis is the foremost dancer in the
United States. Her fame, not limited
to her own country, is worldwide.
Miss St. Denis has literally danced
before kings, having been received
and admired in the courts of Europe.
She is a mistress of the art of ex
pression without words, pantomime,
and is deeply learned in the grace
and beauty lore of the Orient. She
advises her countrywomen upon a
subject in which every woman is
nterested, how to improve her fig
ure, and tells them in clear, force-
i manner and careful detail how
' ■ j can be done. She does not hesl-
to point to the faults in the
(igures and carriage of her country-
omen, but while she tells of the
evil she also describes the remedy.
“This is the complex pose, the front foot showing
the value of resting the weight on the sole, the
back foot in the position of the straight line from
toe to knee that ballet dancers use for balance.”
No. 4-The Feet and Ankles
By Ruth St. Denis
T O develop your ankles and low
er legs to the size which the
symmetery of your body re
quires, watch a child run. The lit-
'tle one gets over the ground quickly,
running straight and silently as an
Indian on the balls of the feet.
A child does not run on his toes,
nor on his heels. He is a good walk
er because he is a natural walker.
It is natural to walk on the balls
of the feet, unnatural to tiptoe or
walk on the heels. It is tortuous
shoes that teach awkward habits of
walking and standing and so make
the ankles thick and the calves
thin.
When you have learned your les
son from the child running about
at play, take your next lesson from
a ballet dancer. The ballet dancer’s
postures so develop the ankle and
leg that there is a straight line from
the great toe to knee. When you
have learned to form this straight
line the ankles and calves will have
reached their proportional size, and
you will have taken that step, at
least, toward attaining symmetry of
the figure.
Rid your mind of one foolish fear
about the feet. Shoe dealers tell
us all sorts of wild tales as they
fit our shoes. They tell us we must
wear this kind of a boot, and must
not wear that, because of the dan
ger of the fallen arch. Believe me,
there is no such thing. The foot is
crowded into shoes that are too
small, and the instep is pushed out
and the arch of the foot pushed up
while trying to inhabit the shoe.
When the tortured foot is released
it relapses from the unnatural into
the natural shape and because the
arch is then lower than the position
into which we have forced it—we
really ought to be arrested for such
treatment of the feet—we say the
arch has fallen. Yes, I grant you—
fallen into place, the place it should
have been all the time.
To develop the calves and ankles,
wear shoes as little as possible. Go
barefoot as much as circumstances
will permit. Wear no stockings ex
cept when you must, and wear Greek
or Japanese sandals to protect the
feet from cold and dampness at
such times as you are without stock
ings. Am I merely wasting my
breath, I wonder, when I add “wear
comfortable shoes?” Think of the
different gait of the women who
wear uncomfortable shoes and those
who wear comfortable ones. It is
the difference between the waddle
of the elephant and the free grace
of the antelope in the forest.
Think about these principles I have
laid down and govern your treat
ment of your feet, for upon the feet
rest the ankles and calves. I am not
guilty of punning when I make this
assertion. The foot is the command
er in chief, so to speak, of the ankles
and the two pairs of calves and
ankles, are the little army it governs.
I was standing at the foot of a
hill, dreading the climb before me,
one day when a truth came to me
with flashing suddeness. If you are
afraid of the hill it is because you
do not climb it in the right way, I
said to myself, announcing this
truth. I set about the climb. In
stead of rushing at it tempestuously
or going diffidently about the climb
I began it easly, thinking: "I will
leave the ascent to the cushions of
my feet. They will carry me up!”
Instead of swaying forward on my
toes which threw my weight for
ward, and flung my internal organs
out of place, nor on my heels which
posture had the same effect, except
that it tilted the body abnormally
backward, I began the ascent easily
and lightly on the balls of my feet.
I do not exaggerate when I say that
it was almost like being carried up.
It at least reduced the action to a
minimum. Try it while on your va
cation this summer. It turns hill
climbing from exhausting torture
into a delight.
In the dance there are many glid
ing movements that may be
lire
L
‘‘Imitate the walk and
the standing posture of
the child. Instinctively,
as the Indian, he runs or
stands on the balls of his
feet.”
executed on the balls of the
feet. Not l he most graceful
dancing poses are made while the
weight rests on the toes. And in
dancing the heels are rarely used.
Using the heels unduly makes Hie
ankles larger and the calves smaller.
Practice the walk and the
standing posture of the child,
for they are absolutely natural.
Instinctively, as the Indian, the
child runs and stands on the
balls of the feet, which is the
reason why the child can play
so long without tiring and the
Indian can run all day without
apparent weariness.
Do not scorn the halls of
the feet. They are the padded
support of your weight, the
cornerstone of your body struc
ture when you stand erect.
The heels are mere aids in
emergencies—“wheel horses” 1
rail them, borrowing a driving
term—for the feet. They may
be relied upon to help out, but
they do not do the chief work,
nor have they any initiative or
leadership.
If you study the dancing
poses of a mistress of dancing
you will note that there is a
complex one that follows both
principles I have laid down—
one, that the support of the
weight is the ball of the feet, the
other that the ballet dancer’s big
should iu some steps show a straight
line at the front, from toe to knee.
A picture of myself In an East In
dian dance shows this complex pose.
To develop the balls of the feet use
them, and use them for what they
were designed—to support the
weight of the body. Nature makes
no mistake. She pads the sole thick
ly for that special use.
When you find yourself shifting
the weight on the toes or heels in
walking or in ordinary dancing shift
it back to the bails, where it belongs.
For securing the straight line at
the front of the leg from great toe
to knee you will need the guidance
of an experienced ballet dancer. You
recently published the news of an
accident that befell Miss Carol Har-
riman because she was trying to
rest her weight on her great toe
when she was unaccustomed to it.
Because sucu accidents are liable to
befall those ignorant or unpracticed
in tile art of balance, the straight
line I have described has been named
The Dead Line,” or “The Danger
Line."
Be as conshlernte in your care of
the feet as you are of your face. A
smudge on the face you regnrd as in
some degree a social disgrace. Learn
to regard your feet with the same
reverence, and you will be no more
apt to retire without thrusting your
Feet into a tepid ball! of water con
taining a teaspoonful of powdered
borax or a teaspoonful of witch ha
zel to the gallon of water than you
would without demising the face af
ter its contact with the dust and
grime of the day.
Many dancers massage their feet
with mutton tallow, and every night
remove the callous spots, rubbing
them gently with a pumice stone.
No calloused spot as large as a pin
point should be allowed to remain on
the feet, because it will become a
growing irritant.
'Dancing strengthen*
the lower leg by throw
ing the weight upon
the little used sinews
of the salves.”
Why Color Blind People Can Never Possibly See a Ghost
‘Don’t scorn the
balls of the feet.
They are the pad
ded support of
your weight, the
cornerstone of the
body structure when you stand
erect.”
Photo a*
Otto jamv*
SCIENCE has discovered that color
v blind persons never see ghosts.
Their eyes are not made the right
for it.
Phe scientist who has made this dis-
is Dr. August Lummer, head of the
y si cal Institute of the great University
Breslau in Germany.
,; e holds that it is proved that persons
o honestly believe that they see ghosts
! victims of optical illusions. The effort
see in an almost dark place creates
i effect of very strange apparitions and
ice the subject, being probably also in a
•vous condition, imagines that he sees
ists.
rhe normal eye has an arrangement of
y rods and cones in the retina. The
is perceive light and the cones color,
len a person with a normal eye tries to
i in a half dark place the cones, which
s useless, interefere with the effective
Jon of the rods and the confusion
lates the effect of apparitions that come
and go and change their shapes. The
color blind person lacks the cones and
his rods act with extraordinary efficiency
in the dark. The color blind person sees
a clear, permanent outline of things as
long as there is the least amount of light
present. That means that he never sees
ghosts.
Tn order to understand this interesting
fact or theory it is necessary to study the
intricate structure of the eye.
The retina of the eye consists of ten
layers, of w'hieh only the second layer,
containing the rods and cones, Interests
us. The function of the rods and cones
is very different, one from the other.
With the cones we perceive color, with
the rods we perceive light and focus.
The normal eye has about an equal num
ber of cones and rods. In the totally color
blind eye, however, the cones are absent
In the eye that is partially color blind
there are some cones, but the set of nerves
communicating red and green, or yellow
and blue to ‘the brain, are atrophied, a
person who is red blind, is always green
blind, both colors appearing black or
gray; the person who is blue blind is al
ways yellow blind, both colors appearing
luminously white or gray.
To the person who is totally color blind
daylight is extremely disagreeable. This
is due to the fact that being equipped only
with a light-seeing apparatus, untempered,
and not toned down by the color which is
everywhere apparent, a sunlit landscape
makes the impression of a snowclad land
scape, and we all know how trying snow
is to the eyes. However, in the dark the
color blind person, equipped with an ap
paratus very much more sensitive for
glimpsing at feeble light than the normal
eye, has the advantage over the normal
person. A speck of paper so tiny as to
be unperceived in the dark by the normal
eye, will be readily perceived and cor
rectly located by the color blind eye.
which is able to focus in the dark, a feat
which the norma) eye can never accom
plish, because in the normal eye only
cones—the color seeing instruments—are
contained in that spot of the eye which
brings into focus all objects apprehended
by vision, while in the color blind eye
this spot is equipped with rods.
Upon this fact, the Inability of the nor
mal eye to focus even such objects in the
dark which are sufficiently luminous and
large of area to be seen, depends the see
ing of ghosts and spooks.
No room is entirely dark. Through
some slit in the shutter, some crack in the
wall a ray of light is certain to find its
way into a room. Falling upon a large
surface, say a nightgown hung against the
wall, or a petticoat thrown over a chair, it
attracts the attention of the person who
has been awakened with a shock by some
slight noise, the nibbling of a mouse, or
the flip-flapping of a bat or bird. Sitting
up in bed, with beating heart, the person
who has been rudely aroused from
slumber stares at the object which con
fronts him. Now another peculiarity of
the cones is that they look at objects in a
straight line, while the rods see things
sideways.
Accustomed as the normal eye is to
focus with the cones at play, it tries to
look straight at the object which it sees.
But we cannot see.colors In the dark, for
tiie sense of color is due to the absorption
of some rays of the sun’s spectrum and the
reflection or transmission of others, and
the cones, consequently are entirely pow
erless to help their owner in determining
not only the color and nature of the ob
ject but even its exact location. The
rods try valiantly to do their work. They
glance sideways at the object, and the ob
ject is seen not very plainly, but in an
uncertain, flickering sort of way.
Determined to make out what IT is the
eye strains hard to look at the strange
tbmg in a straight line. In doing this the
action of the rods is suspended for the
moment and the helpless cones are turned
upon it instead. Of course, they see noth
ing, and the object in consequence seems
to disappear. This is repeated in rapid
succession. The nerves, irritated by being
rudely awakened, aggravated by the elu
siveness of the object which extinguishes
itself and reappears with will-o'-the-wisp
ease, help the eye in investing its tor
mentor with shape and substance of a
ghost. The illusion of a spook is per
fect, and it will take a man with strong
nerves, Indeed, to resist the hallucination
that he is actually entertaining a visitor
from another world.
On the other hand, the color blind man,
as we have seen, is furnished only with
rods, the organs which give perception of
light and dark and the form of objects
His sight in a dark place is not hampered
by the presence of cones in his retina. If
he see anything at all he see a perna-
nent, dark object, not a wavering, fluctuat
ing, ghost-like object. f
)