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The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
i II I i i l I i mmmm I i i i n i m-J .
Copyright, 1813, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
How Dancini Develops a Beautiful Figure.
4
"V,
Second of
an Instruct
ive Series
of
Articles
by the
Weil-
Known
Dancer,
Ruth
St. Denis
is
"For the woman untrained to flexibility in youth, curving the
hands is necessary."
Phot? a
0TTO$AUOHlC
"Curve the hands backward from
the" wrists and twist them
round and round."
"Bending the fingers
backward and forward
if they are inclined te
be stiff."
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
WHEN you begin to develop beauty
of anna and hands, begin at tho
point halt way between your
shoulder blades. This Is no misprint, no
blander of copy reader or of any ono elso.
I mean exactly that To develop the arms
aai hands begin to work equl-dlstant be
tween tho Inner ends of tho shoulder
Made.
All movement begins In tho cheat The
mainspring of grace la not in the arms
end hands themselves, but In tholr bo
ginning point which ia the point I havo
BBtloned. Ab two branches of a troo
start at the same point and widen into
twin branches, so the arms start from the
polat equl-dlatant between the shoulder
blades, which la, In a souso, the motion'
contra of tho 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 your
sides. Then fancy thorn flowing so think
of something that flows, a stream, say,
and then with tho arms held out at front
or at your aloes, imitate the rippling of
the water. Don't carry It to the point of
onakellke resemblance, however.
Wf gee dancers and women In
private life obviously imitate tho
movements of . a serpent. This,
unless there ia some special rea
sea la fitness, such as an actual
serpent dance, ia ridiculous. More
than that it la ugly. But flowing
water la beautiful. Try to repro
duce with your arm the effect of
rlpploa caused by a light wind on
the surfaco of water. TheBe move
ments, as I have said, can be made
at the sides, or beginning at the
front extend to the Bides.
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 kitten with a ball of wool
for playmate. Holding this lmag.
fmvry strip of ribbon In tho band,
ahake It up and down, and watch
it- rippline in the air. Shake it
with the hands In front of you,
with hands at your aides and be
hind you. Let the arms flow
their wilt
1 have no suggestion as to their
exact angles with tho body. I am
op?sed to mechanical methods In
postures, Natural action la al
ways graceful. Obstruct! or Im
peded motion is Invariably awk
ward, Thai is the reason that a
child Is the most graceful object
Jn ;s4ifr ?4 ta oml
is tho most awkward. I haVo novor worn
a corsetnever will. 1 decline to go to
Jail in flesh and in spirit
For a young girl with pliant muscles
and tho unconsciousness of youth these
ripplo nctlonB, taken whllo walking or
dancing, aro enough to dovolop.tho arms
and hands to such roundness and fulness
ob accord with tholr bodlea. It they aro
slender thoy do not want the blcops of a
blacksmith. Nor, it they aro of rounded
flguro should they possess pipe atom limbs.
The Ideal of bodily beauty Is symmetry.
The American Idea has transformed It Into
an object of bulging excreacencet. To give
any part of the body undue prominence
is to be vulgar. It la equally true whether
you do this by dressing or by over exercise.-
,
Keep in mind that wo do not wish to be
como a nation of athletes, but of porfoct
human bolnga and that symmetry, which
Is harmony of each part of tho body with
every other part, Is the beginning and a
largo part If not all, of perfection.
Dut wo must consldor that not ovory
ono Is trained to the natural expression,
which Is graco, in her youth. Even in
childhood foolish mothers begin to hinder
expression and obstruct freedom with
clothes, while wo ought to wear as tow
clothes ns possible. Childhood and youth
aro made stiff, unwieldy and weighty by
tight corsets, tight gloves, tight collars,
tight shoos and tight garters. The body
loses Its flexibility, as a prisoner lockod
into a six by nine-foot cell grows cramped
of motion and wooden of posture. Too
many mothors are Jailers of their children.
For tho woman grown up,
this habit of mind and body
it is not enough to play that
tho arms aro wavelets and to
conBldor as a starting point
tho middle of tho back be
tween tho shoulder blades.
Certain olemontary movements
must alBO be praotlsed by
thorn.
For them shaking tho hands
loosely from tho wrists, up
and down, and sldewlse,
should bo practlsod. Far bet
tor it with theso and other
exorcises the various dancing
Btops, or at least walking to
rhythmic counts, be practised.
For tho woman untrained to
flexibility in youth, curving
tho hands la nooessary. Curve
them downwnrd from tho
wrlBts and baokward.
Twist them round and
round from the wrists, first by an outwara,
then an inward motion; in other words,
away from tho body, then toward tho 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 1b, regular movement
la impossible without music. Therefore
havo musln it you wish. Have it in Blow
tempo, b1 eight time preferred. It you
havo no musical instrument, you can
whistle or hum an air in that measure,
But it you are not of tho lama folk who
require music as a crutch for their move-''
ments, count as you danco or walk.
Bending tho Angers back and forward,
it they aro inclined to bo stiff, may also
be necosBary to oxpresBlveneBs of the
bands. If the fin
cers are at all
rigid, do this now
and then during
the day. Whllo
sitting or lying
down and relaxing
the other muscles,
take "tho starch," bo lo speak, out of them
in that way.
Another meana of loosening or "tin
starching" the stiff, inexpressive hand is
to hold ono hand in tho other and shake
it Place your thumb in tho 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 Baying that
it 1b a "wiggle waggle."
While practicing the movements with
the hands and arms assume easeful pob
turB. While resting on your couch relax
"While sitting or lying down, and relaxing the other muscles, take the starch, so to
speak, out of the fingers by shaking them sidewise and up and down.'
holding one with the other and shaking it
while you aro lying on your bed composing
yourself for Bleep 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 whllo
dancing. There is no better time to exer
cise the arms than whllo 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 aro 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 tho waist let the arms describe
Blow, graceful half circles.
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 He there "uncurl" your fin
gers The tendency is to draw the ftngors
into tho palms of the hands and tighten
the hand lqto a fist Tired nerves incline
us to that pugnacious way of presenting
our hands to tho 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 be
cleared before wo reach tho state of grace
ful attitudes and movements.
You can practice the raising and drop
ping ot the hands and shaking them from
tho wrists, pressing them back and forth,
Was the Delude Caused by the Fall of a Vast Watery Ring Like One of Saturn's ?
ONE ot the last works ot
Isaac N. Vail, the famous
goooglst, is a very ingeni
ous booklet 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 ot the Bible. In
describing the creation ot the world
the Bible says: "Let there be air
in the midst ot water, making a
division between tho two waters."
Mr. Vail argues that this must
mean that there was a watery body
suspended in tho 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 planot
Saturn. The tall ot this ring ia 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 rfog, 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. Then the ice contraction ot
tho ring as it cooled would explain
tho glacial period, which science
showB to have prevailed upon our
planet Finally the ring fell, and
that was the flood.
Tho Bible also tells us that after
the flood tho Lord said that He
would give man the rainbow as a
sign that no BU,h calamity would
occur again. Mr., Vail interprets
this to mean that a rainbow was
not possible when a watery belt
hung suspended ovor tho earth, and
that after the water disappeared
from botween 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 of worlds, ot
which the planet Saturn is the cen
tre. In addition to his eight moons,
three stupendous rings revolve
about him. two composed ot mete
oric and one (the inner) ot aqueous
matter. There, 19,000 miles from
his surface, revolves an ocean, 8,000
miles broad and 100 miles thick
aa oceaa 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
tvndllv understand how two bodies
of water could be separated by a
'rakia,' an expanse by a Armament
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 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 book ot
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! Wo turn again to Gene
Bis; 'And God made the firmament,
and divided the waters which were
under tho Armament from tho
waters which were above the Arma
ment and It was ao.' To him who
stands by the integrity ot the Mo
salo 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 waB said, Xet the
waters under the firmament be
gathered together that the 'dry
land mlsht appear.' Then the
water above were ovorhead. But
tho language of science, unlm
peached and unimpeachable, is that
no such body of water could possibly
exist there unless it should revolve
about the earth aa a ring, or belt.
Geology tells us that there was
a time when the native heat ot the
earth repelled vaBt quantities ot
vapor and mlsta 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 worldB from their primitive state.
"Tho 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 tall as
oceans upon those planets when the
heat that now holds them in space
ceases.
"And I presume it will not bo 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 liave the plain
declaration ot Soripture that there
wera waters above and beyond ths
firmament; Blnco we see waters so
placed above the surcaco oi omer
planets, and since Buch bodies of
water must revolve about tho cen
tral body, I claim that the 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 ot waters
falling to the earth. These 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 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 began to
descend upon earth there must have
been in the torrid and temperate
zones a down-rush ot water, but at
tho poles a down-rush ot snow.
This explains why we And in Siberia
and other Northern regions bodies
of mammothB and other animals
that were suddenly engulfed in the
ice.
"From the retreating glaciers
their remains havo been falling for
thousands of years," says Mr. Vail.
"Whole cargoes of elephantine Ivory
'ipni other fossils are picked up from
the. surface or dug up from the
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 be 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 300 feet high,
made up in great part ot whole car
casses ot mammoths and other
mammals 'cemented together by
layers ot 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. it they
bad been thrown with great vio
lence from the south on a bank and
there heaped u
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