copation. The paralyzed man walks psychologically in a two-rhythm, while the normal man walks rhythmically.

General rhythm marks all the physical and spiritual manifestations of life. There is rhythm in all body movements. - All functions work in rhythm, the cyclic actions occurring in a rhythmic series. The structural arrangement of matter is in harmony with rhythm. We are, hence, rhythmical in our life habits. Rhythm underlies all art. Rhythm forms the basis of music, poetry, representative art and dancing.

Dancing as an art is comparatively a modern institution, but the simple, the natural dance is as old as time. Man danced millions of years before the dawn of history. The animal world danced before him. The animal's activity in life being taken up by two impulses, the impulse of the preservation of the individual and the impulse of the preservation of the species, or by hunger and sex, the dance naturally stands in the service of these two impulses. The

rhythmic movements and contractions of

the amoeba stand in the service of hunger. 시

In the higher animals the dance stands almost exclusively in the service of sex. Its object is to produce a state of tumescence. Peckham (cited by Ellis, Psych. of Sex, p. 35) counted one hundred and eleven circles, made by the ardent male of Saitis Pulex around his female. The gold pheasant circles continually for hours around his female in his erotic wooing dance. Ostriches have a strange habit of motion, known as "weltzing," when wooing the hen. The cock in the barn yard circles around the hen, spreading one wing with his outstretched leg and showing off his antics. The syncopating motions of the polar bear, executed with his head and limbs, may also stand in some relation to the erotic call of

the animal when at liberty among his ice fields. The elephant executes a kind of dance by walking certain regular measured steps on the same spot, in his case, as he has done in the Indian wilds while wooing his mate. The fall of the "chirp, chirp" in the insect's call measures off time and creates rhythm. The guinea hen's "cackle, cackle" is in the iambic form (--). The glow-worm celebrates every measure with a glow of light. The flashing of the firefly is synchronous.

Infancy, representing the anthropoid stage in the evolution of man, is full of rhythm and dance. The infant hops and dances in his mother's arms when a march is played, and the mother rocks her infant because regular motions are required by our own organism. We are rhythmic because the physical man demands it. All primitive men have their dances. The rhythmic movements found among all primitive peoples and in all civilizations have crystallized into the dance. The dance is first instinctive, later on it is studied, and it becomes art after it begins to obey cer

tain rules.

With the entrance of history the dance has reached a certain stage of development. We first meet it mainly in religious dances. The savage dances his religion. He does not pray to his god, he dances to him. Fitting dances are prescribed for all solemn occasions childbirths, bridals, funerals, seed time, harvest, war and peace dances. The sacred dances are the most ancient chorographic forms.

In Egypt at the consecration of the new Apis, the priests, dressed in splendid robes, danced around the altar, representing Osiris' mysterious birth, the amusements of his infancy, and his loves with the goddess Isis. At the death of the Apis, the priests

executed funeral dances all the time till a new Apis was found. Then dances of rejoicing were executed, as if Osiris himself had appeared. The priests danced around the altar, representing the sun, and the dance expressed the zodiac and the movements of the stars. The Assyrians had dances in honor of Baal, Astarte and Adonis. The Phoenician patera consisted in dancing around the sun emblem in the temple.

Among the Jews, sacred dances to the Supreme Being were executed in praise of God for some saving delivery of the people. We first meet with these religious dances (Exod. XV. 20) in Miriam and the women who went out after her with timbrels and with dances. Again we find the Israelites dancing around the golden calf (Exod. XXXII. 19). Jephtha's daughter comes out to meet her father with timbrels and with dances (Judges XI. 34). When the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, the king leaped and danced before the Lord (II. Sam. VI. 16). In the Psalm (CXLIX. 3) the poet recommends Israel to praise the Lord's name in dance. Praise Him with timbrel and dance (CL. 4). The Benjamites caught their wives among the daughters of Shiloh, who came out to dance in dances among the vineyards, at the feast of the Lord (Judges XXI. 21). Josephus (Liber XII.) narrates that the Maccabeans established a festival where dances were executed in praise of the Lord.

The Greeks executed religious dances around the altars and images of their gods. No religious festival was celebrated without dances. The Greek dances were also imitations of the motions of the stars like those of the Egyptians. The Greek funeral dance expressed dignity, sorrow, mystery and reverence. The choric odes of the an

cient Greeks treated of life and death, of love and friendship, etc. The dance of Hymen on the shield of Achilles ends in the final jubilation of the wedding (Iliad XVIII. 490). Orpheus is supposed to have brought the religious dances from Egypt. Some of the dances imitated the gestures of the gods and the extraordinary deeds of the demigods and heroes, such as the escape of Theseus from the labyrinth, Orestes' persecutions by the furies, the love affairs of Leda and Danae with Jupiter, or of Venus and Mars. In the dance of the Phæcians (Odyssea VIII. 265) the entire intrigue of Mars and Venus and their punishment by the deceived husband Vulcan is expressed by a dance while the singer recites the story in his song. These love dances form the transition from the religious dances to profane chorography. Venus was supposed to have taught the young people the love dance, which at a later period was danced by both sexes together, such as the dance "geranos." The Bacchantes are said to have instituted the first lascivious dances.

Rome also had her religious dances. The dance of the Salier with the magister saliorum was in honor of the Deity. Later on the Romans received licentious dances from the Etruscans as depicted on the Etruscan vases. Such lascivious dances were an outgrowth of the love dance. Isaiah (III. 16) preaches already against lascivious profane dances. Job describes the prosperity of the wicked: "Their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound of the organ." Among the Jews the ordinary love dances were executed by the young girls among themselves, as described in the Talmud (Thanith 31). "The daughters of Israel went out on the fifteenth of Ab to the vineyards and danced,

by the accompaniment of songs, challenging the young men to marriage. The beautiful girls sang: 'Young men turn your eyes upon beauty, for the woman's province is to beautify life.' The girls of the nobility sang: 'Turn your eyes, young man, upon noble descent, for the woman has been created to be the mother of noble children.' The plain girls sang: 'Make your sale as commanded by the Lord."

"The

In ancient Rome the profane dances were carried out more with the body, vibratory and rotatory movements of breasts and flanks. The whole body expressed the emotion, not unsimilar to the dance of the nautch girl in the Hindu temple where practically all the muscles of the body function in the dance as described by Jacoliot (Les moeurs et les femmes, p. 276). "The nautch girl's dance is palpitating of passion and frenetic temptation. She excites herself by degrees, her waist trembles over her hips, her neck reverberates, all her muscles are in a universal tremor, her body cambers under the material excitation of a frenetic ecstasy. At times she moves away curved, the hair spread over her nude shoulders, crouching over the matting of the drawing room, writhing her limbs as a lascivious cat, darting at the onlookers of the dance her large, black eyes with a lightening full of fire. At times she directs her yearning eyes towards heaven as an inspired virgin in the splendid pose of invocation and ardor. At times she is a raving maniac in delirium, fainting away under mysterious delights. Then follow suddenly the most seductive, the mellowest, and most

1 Here, for the first time, we meet the dance in the service of matrimonial match-making, which function it has not given up to the present day. The dance is still the best and most efficient match-maker. Hence, if for no other, for this reason alone, the dance deserves to be cultivated with the greatest care.

attractive and inciting inflexions of the body, remaining for certain moments in positions to show to greater advantage the arching of her hip and the suppleness of her waist and its movements." Still these lascivious dances are religious dances. The Hindu dancing girls are married to their gods. The divinity is honored by these god-brides' measured cadences. Similar profane lascivious dances were executed in ancient Rome.

Among the early Christians the dance. was also a sign of adoration. In every church there was an elevated place called the chorus, where the priests executed dances in honor of Christ. By degrees church dancing fell into disuse. In the 15th and 16th centuries church dances had disappeared almost entirely and the only solemn dances left were the folk dances.

The folk dance expresses man's history, the chase, the hunt, the sowing of grain in the spring, reaping in the fall, the different trades. ferent trades. It thus gives an epitome of

man's neuromuscular history. Folk dancing utilizes the finer accessory muscles, it coordinates the muscles with the nervous system. In strong emotions man cannot remain quiet, and the dance is the best outlet for such excitement. The autointoxication of rapturous movement is an appropriate safety valve for the immense ardor of great emotions. The dance is also the means of transmitting to man's motor nervous system the impulse toward actions. Abulia, or absence of volition, is impossible in the dancer. The neuromuscular coordination of the dance thus has a great pedagogic value.

The dance was considered as a social discipline. Hence, with the disappearance of religious dancing in the churches, profane folk dancing came in vogue. At the

outset the folk dance consisted in movements in imitation of agricultural pursuits, of plowing, sowing, reaping, treading of grapes, threshing of grains. Later on, the different trades were told as stories in art form. Every guild, every craft formed organizations for the execution of certain dances. These dances were performed at festivals by the young members of the craft in imitation of their own occupations. Events in prominent families, weddings, births, deaths, birthdays, were also celebrated by these craft dances.

Parallel with the devotional or religious dances, and later on with the guild dances, were performed the emotional and particularly the love dances. In the early stages the dances were perfomed by one person. David danced alone before the ark, Salome danced alone before Herod. Later on, several persons danced together, but the sexes did not mix. Each sex danced its own peculiar dances. In the emotional dances, the two sexes united in the execution of the interpretative dances of the fundamental emotions, such as joy and sadness, defeat and triumph, love and hatred, etc. Especially did these mixed dances of the two sexes illustrate forms of attack and defense, of pursuing and overcoming, in the play of courting. It was not a gross sexual pantomime, but a representation of the chase in wooing. The Tyrolian Schuhplattler, e. g., represents the romance of such wooing. The female dances around the male at a certain distance from him, while he is showing off his antics by clapping his hands on his thighs and hips, and by striking against his elbows at a particular cadence. It is a seeking and fleeing, skulking and shunning, ending in the male catching the

1 The Scheffler Tanz executed in Munich every seventh year is a remnant of such craft dances.

female and swinging her high in the air to show his conquest. Then comes the caressing wedding waltz. The Italian Tarantella, the Polish Cachucha, the Hungarian Zardas, are all symbolizing the erotic act of wooing. The love dances of the Orient, such as the danse du ventre of the peoples of northern Africa, are gross imitations of eroticism. The woman rotates her pelvis backward and forward and the man thrusts his entire body forward. The seasonable ritual festivals among the Tahitians are celebrated by dances of a generative character, consisting of suggestive motions and wanton gestures. In the Hula-Hula dance in Hawaii, the woman executes the obscenest motions with her pelvis. In the Kaffir's dance every part of the body is being put into motion at the same time, the head, the trunk, the arms, the hands, the legs, the feet.

In the civilized western countries, especially among the urban populations, the dances for generations expressed emotions consistent with modern life. These dances served as the fittest outlet for such emotions. They were soothing and beneficent to high-strung nerves, affording the most serviceable form of exercise. Especially upon the woman, the dances had a hygienic and at the same time fascinating influence. The dance being an exceedingly complex act involving constant readjustment, it contributed to the wholesome development of her nervous system. The dance being the natural expression of joyous emotion, it gave the woman more pleasure than any other kind of motion. The sensation of all kinds of motion evokes pleasure, hence the love of the rocking cradle, of the swinging hammock, of the flying horses, of skating, rowing, coasting, and of rotating rapidly on their feet until dizziness results, as often met with in children. In dancing, the ex

citation is general; it touches every vital organ. By the way of identification, if the onlooker is in a state of appetence, he will experience pleasure at the mere witnessing of rhythmic movements, such as the ballet. Even the erotic wooing dance, running thru the gamut of love, adventure, defeat, sacrifice, redemption, was seldom danced to satisfy an erotic need; married couples often danced whole nights for the mere love of rhythmic motion. Artistic dancing may arouse the highest and deepest feelings. The dance is able to draw us out of everyday life and to lead us to a dream world, where we can escape for a moment the thought of our frail mortality, of the prospect of annihilation. The will-to-live induces us to cling with eagerness to the perpetual motion of the dance as an image of our eternal continuance and the negation of the inevitable dissolution. We dance to forget, as we take opium for the sake of oblivion. The dance is an artificial paradise.

The round dance which followed craft dancing had a great social significance. It contributed to the decline and decay of the elaborate complicated dances in courts of nobles and kings. It removed the difference between the folk dance and the salon dance. Now everybody dances. There is no more an onlooker and performer as in the ballet. The dance is no more a show, it is a social pleasure. At the same time, it has the great social value of bringing couples together who would never have the opportunity of such a close acquaintance. The dance is the best matrimonial agency, says Masson (Révue Mondiale, p. 403, V. 136, 1920). The dance is a muscular flirt. The couples seem to look out indefatigably for the endosmose of love, two beings fused into one.

The round dances were simple and state

ly. They represented a rhythmic series of motions expressive of emotions, even the final triumph of the act of wooing, symbolized by the jubilant embrace of the waltz,1 was not expressed by a too close physical contact between the dancers, but by curves and lines of grace and beauty. In polite

The same cry as it is being raised against the modern dances by a meddlesome group of reformers has been raised against the waltz, e. g., Abbe Gaulthier in his treatise (Traité contre les danses, 1769). The puritanical zealots declared the waltz to be a dance originated in hell and invented by Satan to corrupt the human race. The idea of a strange man placing his arm around a woman's waist was unheard of. The fanatical bigots knew, or at least, divined, that the woman's waist region, between the rim of the pelvis and the lower rim of the thorax, is one of the erogenous points of her anatomy, altho they were entirely ignorant of the "why."

With the exception of a few select, humanity goes thru life almost blindfolded, and even the few whose observational power is exceptionally very keen, do not know the why of their observations. Every observing mother, e. g., knows that the strength of her young infant's grasp is out of all proportion to the general weakness of his little frail body. The reason for this phenomenon is that the baby represents the anthropoid stage in the evolution of the race, when man's ancestor swung himself from branch to branch, from tree to tree, by the mere strength of his arm and by the strong grasp of his hand.

The nurse knows that an infant may lie comfortably on his back in the cradle and still cry for hours, but will quiet down the moment she takes the baby on her arm. Why? Because, on her arm the infant is actually sitting in his natural position, in the same position his ancestor was sitting on the bough of the tree in the primeval tropical forest generations ago. In both cases the infant's behavior is due to an inheritance from the anthropoid stage.

In the same way the erogenous nature of the female waist-zone owes its significance to the mnemonic representation of stimuli, received by the ancestress in a much older period, during the quadruped stage of the evolution of the race. The quadruped embraces and holds fast his female with his fore limbs above the pelvic rim. This rim represents the waist-line in man, in his erect position. The erogenous nature of the female's waist segment is sex determined by transmission from the remotest antiquity, from a much older stage than that during which the infant received his stimuli.

All these things were unknown to the bigots, but they did know of the erogenous nature of the female waist segment, hence they raised a tremendous cry against the waltz and the other round dances.