- v - - " "
The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
Copyright, 1913, by the Star Companr. Great Britain nights neserved.
How Dancing Develops a Beautiful Figure
4 m
Second of
an Instruct
ive Series
of
Articles
by the
Weil-
Known
Dancer,
Ruth
St Denis
"For the woman untrained to flexibility in youth, curving the
handa is necessary."
p. hot - or
OmSAtuittiCt
N-v.
mi
"Curve the hands backward from
the" wrists and twist them
round and round."
'Tet the pliancy of the arms by slowly raising them and letting them fall to
sides. Drop one knee and turning slowly from side to side let the
arms describe half circles,"
"Bending the fingers
backward and forward
if they are inclined te
be stiff." .
yowr
No. 2The Arms and the Hands
By Ruth St. Denis
The Most Famous American Dancer
WHEN you begin to develop boauty
of arms end hands, begin at the
point bait way botweon your
shoulder blades. This Is no misprint, no
blander of copy roador or of any one 1bo.
I mean exactly that To develop tho arms
and hands begin to work equl-diatant bo
tween tho Inner ends of the shoulder
blades.
All movement begins In tho cheat The
Mainspring of graco Is not in tho arms
and bands themselves, but in tholr be
ginning point which is the point I havo
mentioned. As two branohoa of a troo
start at tho samo point and widen into
twin branches, bo the arms start from the
point equl-dlstant between the shoulder
blades, which is, in a sonso, tho motion'
centre of tho upper limbs. Think of that
point and work from it It Is silly to bo
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 your
sides. Then fancy them flowing so think
of something that flows, a stream, say,
and then with tho arms hold out at front
or at your aides, imitate the rippling of
the water. Don't carry it to the point of
snakellke resemblance, however.
Wf Qoo dancers and women in
private lite obviously imitate the
movements of a serpent This,
unless there is some special rea
son In fitness, such as an actual
serpent dance, is ridiculous. More
than that it is ugly. But flowing
water is beautiful. Try to repro
duce with your arm the effect of
ripples caused by a light wind on
the surface of water. These move
ments, as I have Bald, 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
with a ribbon and. you will see a
manifestation of all the ebullient
joy of a klUen 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 wilt
I have no suggestion as to their
exact angles with the body. I am
op.-jsed to mechanical methods In
postures. Natural action is al
ways graceful. Obstructed or Im
peded motion Is Invariably awk
ward. That is the reason that a
child )s the most graceful object
n atnr SJ4 wpman In corsets
I havo novor worn
I docllno to go to
is tho most awkward,
a corset novor will.
'Jail in flosh and in spirit.
for a young girl with pliant muscles
and tho unconsciousness of youth those
rlpplo actions, taken whilo walking or
dancing, aro onough to develop, tho arms
and hands to such roundness and fulness
as accord with their bodies. It they aro
Blender they do not want tho blcops of a
blacksmith. Nor, it they aro of rounded
flguro should they possosa plpo 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 tho body undue promlhenco
la to be vulgar. It Is equally true whether
you do this by dressing or by over exercise.-
.
Keep In mind that wo do not wish to bo
como a nation of athletes, but of perfect
human beings and' that symmetry, which
is harmony of each part of tho body with
orory other part, Is the beginning and a
largo port If not nil, of perfection.
Dut wo muat consider that not every
ope is trained to the natural oxprosslon,
which is graco, in her youth. Even in
childhood foolish mothers begin to hinder
expression and obstruct freedom with
clothes, while we ought to wear as tow
clothes as possible. Childhood and youth
are made stiff, unwieldy and weighty by
tight corsots, tight gloves, tight collars,
tight shoes and tight gartors. Tho body
Ioscb its flexibility, sb a prisoner lockod
into a bIx by nlno-foot cell grows cramped
of motion and wooden of posture. Too
many mothers are Jailors of tholr children.
For tho woman grown up,
this habit of mind and body
It is not onough to play that
tho arms aro wavelets and to
consider as a starting point
tho mtddlo of tho back be
tween tho shoulder blades.
Certain olomontary movoments
must also bo praotlsod by
thorn.
For them shaking tho hands
loosely from the wrists, up
and down, and stdewlso,
should bo practised. Far bet
ter it with theso and other
exorcises the various dancing
stopo, or at least walking to
rhythmic counts, bo practised.
For tho woman untrained to
flexibility in youth, curving
tho hands Is necessary. Curve
them downward from tho
wrUtB and baokward.
Twist them round and
round from the wrists, flrat by an outward,
then nn Inward motion; In other woraB,
away from tho body, then toward the boay.
Do this rhythmically, by counting slowly
or to Blow music. Personally I do not
caro for music with my pantomime. I
could do as well without It. But to some
porsons, rhythm, that is. rogular movement,
is impossible without music. Therefore
have muslo It you wish. Havo it in Blow
tempo, six eight time preferred. It you
havo no musical instrument, you can
whistle or hum an air in that measure,
But it you aro not of the lamo folk who
require muslo as a crutch tor their move
ments, count as you danco or walk.
Bonding tho fingers back and forward,
if thoy aro inclined to bo stiff, may also
be necessary to expressiveness of the
f
W the
"While sitting or lying down, nnd relaxing the other muscles, take the starch, so to
speak, out of the fingers by shaking them sidewise and up and down."
hands. It the fin
gers are at all
rigid, do this now
and then during
day. Whilo
sitting or lying
down and relaxing
tho other muscles,
take "the starch," so to Bpeak, out of them
In that way.
Anothor 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 tho palm of your
flngors at the back of the hand and shake
it vigorously, but always In rhythm. I can
beat describe this motion by saying that
It Is a "wiggle wagglo."
While practicing the movements with
the hands and arms assumo easeful pos
tures. While resting on your couch relax
further by lifting ono arm and dropping
it beside you as though it were a heavy
weight of which you were ridding yourself
Lift tho other arm nnd drop It That move
ment in itself unlocks, as it were, the
tightened and imprisoned muscles.
While you Ho thoro "uncurl" your fln
gors The tendency Is to draw tho fingers
Into the palms of the hands and tighten
tho hand Into a flst Tired nerves Incline
us to that pugnacious way of presenting
our handB to the world. That Is one of
tho 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 bo
cleared before wo reach the state of grace
ful attitudes and movements.
You can practice tho 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 Bitting 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 whilo
dancing. There is no hotter time to exer
cise the arms than whilo practicing the
danco steps, for dancing is not a mere ex
erolse 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 nnd 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 tho waist, let tho arms describe
slow, graceful half circles.
Was the Delude Caused by the Fall of a Vast Watery Ring Like One of Saturn's ?
- ..... i jt r... m i . , ana noton an nf mnmmnthn And other animal
ONE of the last works ot
Isaac N, Vail, tho famous
geoogiat, is a very ingeni
ous booklot designed to show that
the deluge was caused by tho fall
of a vast watery ring from tho sky.
Mr, 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 ot the world
the Blblo says: "Lot 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 Armament 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 ot this ring is the
only phenomenon that could explain
such an enormous fall of water as
the flood ot Genesis, lasting tor
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 ot lite evidenced by geol
ogy. Thon the Ice contraction ot
tho ring aB it cooled would explain
tho 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
tho flood tho Lord said that He
would give man the rainbow as a
sign that no buOi calamity would
occur again, Mr., Vail Interprets
this to mean that a rainbow was
not possible when a watery belt
hung suspended over tho earth, and
that after the water disappeared
from between sun and earth the
rainbow became a possibility.
"Away out toward tho bounda
ries of tho solar system," says
Geologist Vail, "we may behold that
beautiful clockwork ot worlds, ot
which the planet Saturn Is the cen
tre. In addition to hlB eight moons,
three stupendous rings revolve
about him. two composed ot mete
oric and one (the inner) of aqueous
matter. There, 19,000 miles from
his surface, revolves an ocean, 8,000
mllef 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
'rakla 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 natura and philosophical
partition between tho divided
waters. Every man would Bee a
literal and true Interpretation of
that mysterious passage inscribed
on the very face of tho heavens.
The infidel would Bee himself con
fronted and denied by the book ot
nature on which ho bo 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? Wo turn again to Gene
sis; 'And God made tho firmament
and divided the waters which were
under tho firmament from tho
waters which were above tho firms;
mentj and It was so.' To him who
stands by the integrity ot the Mo
saio 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 tho
earth, for it waB Bald, Xet the
waters under the firmament be
gathered together that the 'dry
land mhtht appear.' Thn the
waters above were overhead. But
the language of science, unlm
peached and unimpeachable, is that
no such body of water could possibly
exist there unless It should revolve
about tho earth as a ring, or belt
"Geology tells us that there was
a time when the native heat ot the
earth repelled vast quantities of
vapor and mlsU from its surface.
These could not avoid being thrown
into belts by the rotatory motion of
tho earth. In fact. It might be said
that such formations aro the neces
Bary 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 aro characterized by
the presence ot aqueous belts, in
double or multiple layers, that must
successively condense and fall as
oceans upon those planets when the
heat that now holds them In space
ceases.
"And I 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 nave the plain
declaration ot Scripture that there
wera waters above and beyond the
firmament: since wo see waters so
placed above the surface of other
planets, and since BUch bodies ot
water must revolve anout tho cen
tral body, I claim that tho earth
In antediluvian times was surround,
ed by a huge belt ot waters. That
it was visible to the first inhab
itants as the last remnant of waters
falling to the earth. Theso waters
originally formed in and repelled
from that great laboratory, the prim
itive earth, skirted the boundaries
ot a vast and remarkable atmos
phere with, which tho 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 bellevod 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 began to
descend upon earth there must have
been In the torrid and temperate
zones a down-rush ot water, but at
the poles a down-rush ot snow.
This explains why we find In Siberia
and other Northern regions bodies
of mammoths and other animals
that were suddenly engulfed In the
Ice.
"From the retreating glaciers
their remains have been falling tor
thousands of years," says Mr. Vail.
"Whole cargoes of elephantine ivory
' (And other fossils are picked up from
vthe. surface or dug up from the
frozen soli. There only are they
found upon the surface.
"During the fall ot the waters here
supposed, on that part ot the earth
Bloping toward the North Pole, there
must have been a great rush ot the
same toward the latter. Everything
that could float would be swept
thither.
"The travels of Erman In North
ern Siberia have proved that such
a wave did sweep from the Altai
Mountains to tho Arctic regions.
Skirting the Northern Ocean, he
says, there are hills 300 feet high,
made up in great part ot whole car
casses ot 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 oft or crushed as if they
bad been thrown with great vio
lence from the south on a bank and
there heaped up "
t
