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Interesting Sketches by Lupokova of a Plastic Pose Dance She Sucrijests as a Successor to the Tango.
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Lydia Lupokova, the Famous
Russian Dancer, Tells Why She
Has Given Up the Art and Gives Her Interesting Ideas of What Will Take
Their Place When One-Step and Its Kind Are Buried
LYDIA LUPOKOVA, the promlero dan
seuso of tho Imperial Theatre of St.
Petersburg and ono of tho fow rivals
of Anna Pavlova, has made a vow never
to dance again. Tho modern craze for tho
tango, tho one-step, the maxlxo and their
kind has driven her, sho says, Into retire
ment. Sho looks upon tho dance madness
that has swopt over America and Buropo
during the last year as tho "death agonies
of Terpsichore."
Lupokova predicts that dancing, as it Is
done to-day, will cease, In America at least,
within eight months. In Its placo will come
plastic posing porhaps tho very oldest
form of the art. Her observations and
conclusions, Interesting' and worth thinking
over oven If not acquloscod In, follow:
By Lydia Lupokova.
Formerly Premiere Danscuxe of the m
pcrlal Theatre- of Bt.Petcriburo.
I HAVE vowed never again to dance. For
tho best of reasons havo I made my
vow. Tho danco Is dying. In six
months It -will be dead. One should not
attach hersolf to a corpse.
Tho tango, tho one-stop, tho maxlxo, are
murdering tho danco. In tho tango you see
the death agonies of all dances. Through
the Summor it may drag a lingering life,
for Summer is tho silly season, but tho
Winter will come upon tho dance dead.
It will die because the foolish people
who have danced and danced and danced
will tiro of It. Of that which wo havo done
too much, the enjoyment with which wo
havo been satiated, wo tire. FirBt weari
ness, then disgust, then abandonment. That
is tho history of all Bonsatlons overindulged
In, and dancing Is only a sensation.
It Is well. I shall not raiso my hand, my
loot, nor my voico against the death of the
danco. Although I havo given all the llfo
I can remember to it, though I have boon
as devout at tho altar of dancing as over
priestess boforo her slirlno, I havo dropped
it, and willingly, for I, too, am suffering
from disgust. I havo seen a great art dese
crated, made foolish and absurd. I have
seen the garments of Torpslchoro trailing
In tho dust. I soo dancing everywhere. I
cannot escape It. It haunts mo like the
memory of a sin. I cannot bo well served
at table in restaurant or hotel, for thero
arc no moro good waiters. They have
turned dancing teachers. I know a tailor
who used to make thirty dollars a wook.
Now ho makes threo hundred a week by
giving tdngo lessons.
"It is very much money," ho said, "out
I shall take It so long as they pay It."
Thero is no uso doing things well which
everyone is doing moro or less badly and
for which thero exists no standard. Your
dancing In America, what is ltT One-stepping.
You say you tango, but you say that
becauso It sounds well. You do not tango,
tlse two persons in your country would
dance It the samo way; but they do not.
I have seen thousands dance what they
call the tango, and no two havo danced It
the same. It is a chaos of ono-steps into
which the dancer tries to Introduce indi
viduality and only murders grace.
The American is light upon his feet. It
!b remarkable how little ho seems to weigh
though ho weigh much. That may bo truth
fully said of him, but otherwise as a dancer
he is deficient sadly, almost hopelossly
for ho has little muslo In him. For him
tho sense of rhythm is rudimentary and
never seems to quite grow up. The dancing
sense is not in hlra, and he substitutes, In
itead, dancing nonsense,
He attempts the maxlxe. Merciful hoav
tns! Again the lightness of his feet and
nothing else. The maxlxe Is beautiful. It
equlres the dancing sense, music and
'hythm, and Americans have them not.
Therefore your maxlxo Is a burlesque.
The hesitation walti? You do it better,
)ut always there Is the careless, slovenly
lescent Into one stop which, as I have said,
& only a walk.
The turkey trot Is dead, and of what?
It died last Winter of weariness, and waB
burled by disgust. It has preceded tho
others by a year. Next October I am cer
tain they will be interred In the graveyard
of memories of our follies.
Mourn not the passing of an evil thing.
' pronounce the dancing madness in the
Jnlted States an evil thing because it un
lermlnes the character. It destroys tho
lealth. The mind, though, suffers most
of all.
"Life will be stupid without tho dance,"
you say. But you, my dear sir or madame,
fare stupid with it. Think of the head
emptying process of whirling about a room
to tho accompaniment of lnano sounds I
cannot call them music for four or flvo
hours! How profitably might that time bo
spent at the theatre seeing a noblo play,
ono containing an Idea, or In a library, or
hearing or making good music. That tho
Americans aro an Intelligent peoples is
ovorywhoro granted In Europe, but tho
Impression has grown less. Believe me,
the nations that aro your enemies, secret
or open, would wish you to go on dancing
and dancing until your brains atrophied
from lack of use. By dancing you would
become a stupid people.
Tho effect of the modern dancing upon
tho health is apparent. Tho average per
Bon cannot "with safoty dance moro than
fifteen minutes a day. Yet young, dellcato
girls danco four and five hours ovory ovon
lng, or at loast"BOveral evenings a week.
Tho strain, oven upon a normal heart, Is
too great If tbft. heart Is woak, death
hangs by tho proverbial thread above her
head. But greater Is tho menace to tho
norves. Thb Americans can, loss than any
othor natipn afford , to tamper with tholr
aorvous systems, already over-stimulated by
their exhilarating climate and by overwork
and too groat ambition.
Tho offoct of tho tho dansant upon tho
churacter has boon to drag life down to
tho lowest sensuous plane. That sturdy
Benso of Independence and tho energy
utilized for the amassing of great wealth
degenerates In that atmosphero Into mere
love of sensation. Tho newspapers told
recently of a young wife running away
from hor home becauso shajiad mot at a
tango tea a young man whom sho preferred.
Her husband didn't tango. Moro Amorlcan
wives than you suspect prefer tango part
ners to husbands. Many a foolish or tow
loss alliance is predicated at tango teas.
only to day I hoard of a woman who was
neglecting her children
round as their bodies did. Many dancers
went mad. Tho Germans became disgust
ed. Dancing was dropped, was almost for
gotten. That, I predict, will happen hero,
and very soon.
A stop toward that end Is that your gray
haired women and gray-bearded men havo
Joined tho procession of follies.
Tho hoarts of those dear, misguided folk
nre unablo to enduro long tho strain. With
out doubt dancing will shorten their lives.
Sudden deaths need not surprise the fam
lllos of these mature dancers. And how
great tho loss to dignity. Tho light foot,
tho light heart and the not too heavy head
aro tho trinity of tho danco. In Europe
gray hair marks tho dancing limit. Hero
I should wish that it did for the silver
crowns mingling -with tho youthful golds
and browns and blacks provo that Indeed
dancing has reached tho point of madnosn
in tho United States.
Shall we say that a young woman who
has been giving these dansant and dinner
dances wonders how, "when tho crazo for
dancing has ceased, sho will entertain her
friends? I suggest that she assemble groups
of tho friends in plastic poses of Botticelli's
"Spring" and In tho lovoly Watteau groups.
Therein tho dancing postures aro taken
without tho dancing steps. Theso human
t pictures will educate in art while they stir
a nobler emulation than the present ono
of who can dip tho lowest In the "lama
duck."
Tho art of conversation has degenerated
to a fow Billy, hackneyed phrases because
of tho prevalence of the dance. Vocabu-
Greta
She was away Rosenthal,
from home all day becauso she wanted to the
dance. That maidens lose tholr heads over Famous
the danco Is not remarkable, but when tho German
danco begins to undermlno tho home by Dancer,
weakening the character of its cornorstono, In a
tho mother, It is time that tho madness Plastic
ceaso. Pose
History offers ono cycle upon cycle. Dance
Events aro analogous. Two hundrod years
ago In Germany there was much dancing.
Peoplo danced and danced and danced.
And by and by tholr brains began to go
3k s -Ajms
:l4
' larles .will be compensation for the passing M
'-' - Ji of tho dance. supplied by walks. Walk an-hour jf; :,. ABMi
' r'- A plea tor universality of the danco and a half every day at whatev- 1flH
-A f - V3U is that It has caused persons of sedentary cr salt is natural. Rldlne. swim- 1h!f- 'iP5
A Figure Which Lupokova Thinks Will Be the Successor of the One-Step. A
. Plastic Pose Imitating the Faun.
larles .will be compensation for the passing
of the dance.
A plea for tho universality of the danco
is that It has caused persons of sedentary
Nhabltq to take exercise they needed. But
that is untrue. The exercise la taken in
crowded rooms where the air cannot be
froah and where, if you breathe fresh air,
you court a draught and the colds that
come in Its train.
No, the needed physical exercise con be
supplied by walks. Walk an-hour
and a half every day at whatev
er gait is natural. Riding, swim
ming, tennis are all better exer
cises thnn dancing, because of
their better environment.
And bo I have foresworn my lllcwork
daucing. I shall earn my living, instead, in
the drama. I have packed my ballet skirts
and ray slippers "with the wooden toes.
Lydia
Lupokova
the
Premiere
Pcnseuse
of
the
Royal
Theatre in
St. Peters
burg, Who
Has
Forsworn
the Dance
Because
of Its
Decadence.''
They aro tho symbols that in America, la
the year 1914, dancing made men and
women mad, and that after that dancing
ceased.
Why New York and Boston Are Doomed to Sink Some Day Beneath the Ocean
1 wnovi rrtvTm - ....
,vr ,, ,OT1,ng ?r tho coast. His studies of until now It Is whero wo know it. years. Engineer Freeman has also level and be a munlclnalitv hl.rh mnHk. , . .
nave calculated mat New yorx. '! Mm up and down From a geological standpoint, this atudied New York and vicinity with walled against the enemy, the sea. sons In thl Vav Tvnf,11
Boston, Philadelphia and all the L,,a,5t,0.Soas.t, U,ne,.:?'nd tho m10ro has haPPned in comparatively re- reference to tho same thing, and re- Galveston has already felt the en- might be saved Yrorn Hr), City
uosion, r miaaeipnia ana au we h,,.Ti 11 . , " , uihjucu m luuiyaruutciy ru- roierence 10 uie same tnmg. ana re- uaiveston Has already lelt the en- micht ba savsrt fmm H.t, ,, r. .
othor cities along the Atlantio coast Sj2SSUR l t,tUdy th0u,moXe 'J0' cPnt M"": .U, ha a11 been dtmo Prta th,s conviction that the same croachment of tho waters, and has a very long time u wo I,m ir
will 1i,,ii, v i,.ti, Tif VKS.beCOmo Wlth the d Blnco th0 glac,al period' Th,a rlng3 desree of subsidence has teen going been forced to build Itself a sea wall, bly becomf 1 ,nr,.H iT11
111 eventually sink beneath tho . line of all that region. it Into tho present period and makes on there. The OeoloKlcal Survey makes ton, h U ,f6 A 8"rr?.un.ded by 3
ocean. They have observed that y"" "havoAt anfe J? ull he,ttCl,0n n6W Jn fact' U 18 Tho original mouth of the Hudson graphical maps. On these lines aro wo "id beat with an ever neVS
thero has been a steady sinking of toML?,',,1 1,no "vely known to be going on now. River is now SOO mUes out to sea. run at given elevations. For in- advantage It ml-hi ,nfftS,,S
tho whole coast, and they eay that it There l a ft ? fmm ?mh Jh,ore 18 an anclont 8,11 ln tho The ships follow Its old channel in stance, a line may be run about byirtlflcfnl mean bK
Is .rolne mat lis sMmtmVnt thre Wrtrln ZXZi hundred to Charlestown Navy Yard, at Boston, leaving port even now. It Is not Manhattan Island at a level twenty will be put toll impois blanofmnn
This fs one of tha minHsSu coast at which h Z PJf0f wlth rerard to which ther6 ,a deflnlte known ho" lon " was when tha feet above the water at the Battery. The waters will fouSwove? the filu
faS5 contained 15 nvim JS&l set deroe? ot hM,?nly ,nforraat,?n aB to its elevation. It mouth of the river was not far out It would submerge the Customs of New Jersej and 0 wSnd
Du Puv nti hnSk "iinria Sam water t? niil ok .1 nCVho waa put m plac6 aoventy years ago. In tho ocean. But It Is almost a cer- House and extend up Broadway They will even beat bwk thrm.rt
m..?"1 Wnru..i ,p M! r dia f?i 5 ralIl ab?.Ut ,three hu' Iu elevation was given with relation talnty that when a similar time has nearly to Wall street From the east the Delaware and 1 the Ch..aS2S
Wonder Worker' (F. A. Stokes Com- area feet deep. Then it nlunees sud. ,i. oh i m r, i ' a ..,. m 1 1, 1 j v. ii j . u.u nesapeake
dnn v nnH t,DMm.. . - w" " " -uw.. mu 6Ci. ueyonu tne city and put nff
Ml-l-UUIL J fcCU UlUCO UB IHr Tl' 1 . M rilfnpnnun n enrmi nillnv Ifinrt- An..nl r, In.nnnn rm- V n thnn nlmnet tn Va.B.II .t.OBl I, ll'nulrl t . I ... . ww.
the to tho oceans bottom. The men of m.,rv vik i th t),i ciiu.i.. min nno,r.n k. .... nornw i.h h,f.Qon ,u " " i?e mam Pa
J1J ii LhUre3ii.hTe H!ced. th,s 81,1 has BUnk Beven-tenths of a foot, merged. Baltimore will disappear City Hall and the East River. Far- find Itself a city dowa to a wall ft
to some lino tnrouchnnt thn inncth nt nn. n.uv. n.. 1 j i. . .u- . : . n... , j .... . . ' uu " u " 1 wen lar
pany).
How long will it be before
ocean flows over our cities?
rfll-v iinr-Artnln ArnnrHtnp
, , , ,. " . , .. . . ., ,. - . -- -o i nit tciauuu 10 iuo iiauiututB iv iiuout mo euiuu iimtj, uuu eruak par- iuoi uji 11 wuuiu suuiuuro a liar- oui irom tne malnlnnd fn.iij
geoloKlsts it mav take thousands of coast lino and find it nimiiof n tv. t ..vi r.. u... n. .1 u .u """niana. uradually
lears. but then othors estimate that along. The geologists say that the man, the engineer for the Charles Mississippi Is bringing down great create great havoc. desert it and repair to the then WT
U will he sooner. continent once reached nut Hint fr ni. o. a ,-i,. ,1,1. . 1.0 a .,j ,j nVl "'5p,r ?. ine then main-
C, , . , njt .l T " . . . . uuiu, ian.ua 11to no a JaikllD uoiJlioitn iu tniav lis uw uuu vuuu- - v v. -nn.vt ..uuiu laiiu. X uo Waiern Will AVAtlfllAllv Ian
. A- Pnvls- the Government peolo-and that thoro was tho coast line, proof that Boston harbor and the city terbalance the decline. So low is wipe Manhattan Island out entirely, away tho great walls that Kh.nP
F-h..!8 thYX.Per Wl'0 ins bieenic h.iradualJdeuoHn?. throu8h e about It has sunk seven-tenths of a New Orleans that It will be one of Of course. If these depressions came built to keep out the sea and
looting evidence concerning tho sink- ages has caused that line to retreat, foot Into the sea in tho last seventy tho first cities to sink below the sea on very gradually the water fronts tumble in among the sirs??
Copyright, 10H. by the Star Company. Great Britain IMrhta Rrvd.
among the skyscrapers.
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