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The Omaha-Sunday Bee Magazine Page:
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Having Touched the Lowest
Depths with the "Turkey Trot,"
We Are Now Due to Quit
r Vulgar Antics and Dance
Joyously with the Sunbeams and
the Rustling Leaves' "Says
Miss Violet Romer, Nature Dancer
IE
iVERBODY will be doing it.
Doing what? Dancing not
those grotesque performances
which to-day go by the najme of
dancing, but as leaves dance in the
! breeze, as patches of sunlight
u.. dance on the greensward, as fleecy
clouds float across the sky, and so
X an In short, the dance ot the future,
' - which will be all beauty and bcnefl-
--i-enceTta place of the turkey trot,
: vulg:arlt-'riar(hat tired, disgusted
. ieellng afterward.
Doom of the
I
' T is my greatest joy to reflect
upon, to anticipate the coming
of the dance of the future. I
'. believe that I am appointed to be its
- apoBtle. Do not laugh, for I am
serious. I feel that it Is my mission
" to redeem dancing from the lowest,
" most destructive level whlch it now
occupies, to restore dancing to its
rightful place among the arts,
j where it. benefits will be apparent
-.'to every one.
This means a revolution in the
T" whole practice of dancing profes
. clonal on the public stage, and
" dancing for dancing', sake as a so
cial diversion. The times are ripe
,- for this revolution. When you
touch bottom you cannot go far
ther in that direction. With ,the
T Turkey Trot, the Bunny Hug, the
' Grissly Bear and the Barn Dance we
have gone back as far as possible
toward savagery; no change Is now
, possible except upwards, in line
with civilization, toward beauty, the
-. expression of JoyouBoess.
Our final plunge toward the tur-'-gld
depths ot savagery inxdanclng
s was inspired by the tremendous
- vogue of the morbid "Salome"
I dance, with its historic, classical
excuse for contortions and sensual
suggestions which are all that -dancing
means among the scum ot
the "Streets of Cairo" and the ' Bar
bary Coast." Out of that craze so
" clety developed grotesque move
ments ot similar import whose real
; meaning was disguised by names
f indicating the gambols ot familiar
; animals.
' It is impossible to descend fur
' iher. The dance of the future is
coming into sight. I bel'eve that
within ten years the present hor
rors will be forgotten and every
body will be dancing or want to
be with eager feet, with light
hearts, with healthful, happy,
, rhythmic motions ot the entire
; body, in time and tune with all that
; is beautiful and joyous in nature.
2 This dance of the future will not
'be expressed by persons ot oppo
; site sexes whirling about monot
onously in each other's vulgar em
I brace. Mea and women will have
I learned that real, spontaneous.
I therefore beautiful and beneficial
: dancing means the expression of in-
dividual -impulses. Women, danc- ;
:- ing alone will find for themselves
r and contribute to others the Joy of
1 free and graceful movement Men
; will have learned from Mordklnthat
J they, too, can express themselves
j gracefully and joyously' as Individ-
2 uals in the dance.
in society, the whole aspect of
ball rooms will be changed. Its
'formality will be the formality of
art, not altogether of social . eti
quette. Beautiful music will Inspire
individuals of, either sex to inter
pret it; men will suggest by the
r rhythmic movemenU of their bod
. ie? the more virile manifestation.
Such is the promise of Violet Ro
me who appears on tails pagers
apostle, prophet and priestess of the
dance of the future. What she writes
Is all the more Inspiring because ot
the triumphs she has won in London
and in New York, though wholly un
taught, in the ordinary acceptance of
that term. Miss Ramer is a Califor
nia girl who never danced profes
sionally until eighteen months ago.
She declares that a revolution In
dancing meaning the social diver
Dances That Kill- By Violet Romer
of nature, and the masculine side
of noble acts and emotions, while
women and young girls dance as the
sunshine dances between fluttering
leaves, as the leaves themselves
dance In the breeze, as white clouds
float across the blue ot the sky as
Joyous children gambol in their out
door play. J
Men will dance together Illus
trating little dramas out of the lives
of men; women will dance together,
as girls hold whispered confidences,
and men and women will dance in
mass symphonies' in dancing, in
which individuals are the instru
ments, but of which the mass is the
beautiful harmony-, the complete
satisfying picture. But over and
above all, the dance of the future
will interpret no morbid, grotesque,
vulgar, tragic or unoeautlful Im
pulse. Physically and mentally it
will be constructive, helpful, in
stead ot as now so largely destruc
tive, so generally harmful.
The present, vulgar, unbeautiful
dances are dying out already. Do
you know why? Because they are
dances that kill. I have watched a
roomful of young people executing
these strange, vulgai gyrations and
I have felt that the hand of death
was on the dancers. Their faces
are drawn and haggard and old.
Every dancer looks like a consump
tive. These are dances that kill.
They are exhausting. Every one of
them requires a human being to
perform with horse power. This
physical fact will kill such dances,
is killing them by rendering them
by degrees unpopular. They are
primitive dances. They remind me
of the Indian war dances, and so
they are. Those who join them1 are
taking steps in the whirl of death.
The doom of these dances is writ
ten also in the fact that they have
no beauty. They have only gio
tesqueness. That which is not beau
tiful is short lived. Recall the
statutes, the poems, the pictures
and the music that have lived.
Beautiful all of them! They have
lived by their beauty. It was their
loveliness, that supreme loveliness
which is trnth that has kept them
alive through the centuries.
A third reason why the Turkey
Trot and its hybrid sisters are ot'
brief life and will soon be forgotten
is that they , are of absolutely no
benefit. They are not even mildly
stimulating. They are exciting
only, leaving dancers and onlookers
worn out After the dance there is
only the flatness of exhaustion.
Such dances are without exhilara
tion while In progress and. after
ward. I think the great beauty of Mord
kin has influenced men to emulate
him. Their keen interest in the
prize fight wilt I think, be soon
succeeded by a profound Interest in
the art of dancing. , What caused
one causes the other. The root nf
Copyrtfht. 1912, oy
eion as well as professional dancing
is due because the practice and
the art cannot sink to lower depths
than they have now reached.
In this many people will agree
with her. And when you have read
why she believes that everybody will
be included in the beautiful, natural
dances of the future everybody and
his uncles and his cousins and hia
aunts perhaps you will believe it,
too.
each is admiration of manly beauty
and perfection. '
The movement, of the new
dances will be new and yet old.
What I wish to make you under
stand is that they will not he clas
sic dances. They will not he con
ventional dances, but will mirror in
themselves the waves, the winds,
the almost imperceptible movement
of growing things, the flight of
birds, the passing of clouds.
My vision ot . young girls in a
dance at school or in their draw
ing rooms at home is of the float
ing of white cloud, before a light,
playful wind. Or they might repre
sent the swaying of the tree
boughs in a high wind. But they
will be nature dances, all of them.
They will be untaught dances, as
are mine. Never in my life have
I had a lesson. They will be mere
ly each girl's expression of what
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American-Examiner. Great Britain
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Violet Romer'. : . ' H W .
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Rights. Reserved..,
Mis. Violet
she herself has seen in nature.
They will be original and Inspira
tionaloriginal with her and in
spired by nature.
The dance was dead. It shall
be resurrected. It will be more
beautiful than it has ever been and
the dancer of the future shall at
tain such heights that dancing will
uplift all other arts. By symbol
ism the dancer will teach human
ity the lessons it needs. For in
stance, the Andante Oantabile by
Tschaikowsky, showing the soul's
longing after the ideal, now uplifts
the soul of those who see and
those who dance, as the most In
spiring sermon ever uttered from a
pulpit.
The dancer of the future will
have a brain and use it. It, will guide
her every movement. She will
have the highest intelligence housed
in the freest body.
The nature dances of the future
will be danced by every one. The
stage may be to some extent an
inspirer and Instructor, because it
will set the standard, but every one
will be a dancer. It is a natural
thing to dance from babyhood.
But there will be no dancing
teachers in that time, which Is so
near. Dancing will be self-taught
and nature-taught. Instructors kill
spontaneity. '
I like to think of what girls can
do with the dance in that future
time, how they will interpret to
humanity all the highest longings of
a woman's soul Simplicity, beau
ty and truth will be the great les
sons taught by the dance of the
future.
May I tell you a little about my
self to Justify my vision of the
Romer, in One of the Nature
Predict. Will Be the Dance of the
Figures from the Remarkable
Shadow Dance Called the "Three
Maiden, of Chios" Which Startled
Paris. Development Along the :
Line, of Nature Dancing.
dance of the future? I know? it Is
possible because it is mine.
My father was a musician, my
mother a painter. I lived in the
atmosphere of beauty. From tbe
time I was eighteen months old,
whenever there was music I danced.
But neither my parents nor I gave
it much thought. I loved nature
and every day I used to wander
out to the Presidio and Bit for hours
looking at the sea and sky. I
studied the kindergarten system;
Froebel's philosophy gave me a
clue to the natural relation of man
to the universe.
One day my mother gave a lunch
eon to some charming women
friends of hers. One remembered
seeing me dance years before and
asked me to entertain them. Put
ting a record Into a machine I Inter
preted some of the motifs of grand
opera as I understood them. They
insisted that I dance before tbe
Papyrus Club, an organization ot
women. My dancing pleased them
and a professional debut was 'ar
ranged at the Columbia Theatre,
San Francisco.
Mr. Mark Klaw dropped in to see
"the little dancer who had never'
had a lesson." Struck with the
dancing of one whose only instruc
tor had been music, he arranged
an engagement for me at the Col
eseum in London. Having danced
there for six weeks I came to
New York to dance in "Kismet"
I have been a professional dancer
for only eighteen months. .
I was sea taught, sky taught,
music taught, kindergarten taught,
but never taught a single' dancing
step.
When I have finished dancing I
feel as refreshed as though I had
come out of a bath. Most dancers
breathe from the chest. I breathe,
as a singer, from the abdomen.
Thus I never tire, nor will any
natural dancer.
That is the reason I regard my
self as having a mission, as beias
a missionary of the natural method
of dancing. So do I believe that
dancing will express everything in
nature and every phase of human
life. It is the universal form of ex
pression and will soon be universal
ly adopted.
Dances Which She
Future.
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