Page:Social Dancing of To-day (1914) Kinney.djvu/28

8 with the principles. Embellishments are easily added, once the structure is solidly built.

The instruction that follows was prepared under the careful supervision of Mr. John Murray Anderson. To vast experience in the teaching of our new dances Mr. Anderson adds the results of profound study of the seventeenth century court dances, toward whose beauty and dignity the dances of to-day are tending. The photographs were made from the work of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. Their dancing, wide as is its scope of step and expression, is notable for consistent dignity of movement and posture. These photographs may be studied with full reliance upon their value as guides to the style of each of the dances described.

To the beginner, the diagrams and text will serve as a grammar, by whose guidance the steps can be put into practice. Familiarity will accustom the limbs and body to the mechanism of the steps, and the mirror will go far in revealing the faults inseparable from any new undertaking that requires skill. At that point the photographs have their special value.

As soon as the student is reasonably conversant with his grammar, he should begin to avail himself of opportunities to put his knowledge to practical use. Also, if he wishes to dance with distinguished grace and style, he should put himself for a term under the eye of a capable teacher. Ambitious professional performers, possessed of the knowledge and skill derived from years of concentrated study of their art, periodically submit themselves to rigorous coaching. The amateur, though measured by much less exacting standards, has commensurately