Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], July 18, 1915, Image 41

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
WflllW Features by
Famous Artists and Author*,
(11 a?Crated la Colors'
fUdmumii OTiiu^^
New Discoveries?Things
not Found in Books?Oddi
ties from all over the World
part
SI X
July 1$, 1915
Copyright. 1913, by tha
; Star Company.
Great Britain Rlghti Reterved
The "CoT-rtNo ? Out " Costume ? Dance ? or- the ? Kaffirs ? nsi Zululand
Curious Ethnological T^.esearche.s'
Which Reveal the ?Sidr\ificarLce
of tke Ballet J^kirt.
Mile. Lydia Kyasht,
the Noted Russian
Dancer, Exhibiting a
Very Refined Form
of the Primitive
Ballet Garment.
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Here You May Note the Resem
blance of the Ballet Skirt to
the Zulu Straw Petticoat.
This Little Pirouette Is Very Much
Like One of the Tricks of
the Zulu Dancers.
'. h
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? 1
Mile, Balding of the
Paris Opera,
Showing- a High
Development of tho
Single Garment
That Originated in
Zululand.
By Professor C. Darwin Beasley
Of the University of London
The Zulu Maiden Would Find It
Hard to Execute This Giddy
but Graceful Twirl.
But This Alluring Gesture Is Quite
Like One of the Motifs in
the Colored Ballet.
HEN the thoughtless pleasure-seeker looks upon
the -conventional abbreviated skirt of the ballet
girl he little thinks that almost tho whole history
of human civilization Is told by that Insignificant
garment. To tho ethnologist tho dancer's costume and the
practice of dancing In general form a subject of Intense In
terest We find that dancing as a custom goes back to the
very beginning of the race, that If. was probably a factor In
the evolution of man from a lower state of existence and
that among nearly all primitive peoples It has a deep re
ligious and cultural significance.
It Is a most interesting ethnological fact that travellers
have found In an out-of-the-way part of Zululand. In South
Africa, a tribe of natives who practice a very elaborate
dance dressed In what very closely resembles a civilized
ballet dancer's skirt. Tho photographs received prove how
remarkable Is the resemblance.
1 believe that here we may Bee the real origin of our
ballet dancers' abort 6klrts, for these simple children of the
Jungle represent a primitive stage of culture through which
our early European ancestors must havo passed, probably
during the cave-dwelling period.
It Is certainly a curious thought that in this orude cos
tume we see the original of the dainty little skirt worn, for
Instance, by such a celebrated artist as Mile. Lydia Kyasht,
the Russian dnncer.
The Zulu girl's dancing skirt Is made from straw care
fully cut and arranged alter the fashion of the conventional
costume of our dancers. The shapely legs are left bare
except for bands of metal round the ankles. The skirt Is
called the "tu tu."
A headdress Is made from the Bame straw, and covers
the whole face, while from it rise long whlsps of the ma
terial, suggesting the form of some of our women's hats that
have lately been fashionable. The dancer can see between
the straws.
In the practice of covering the face we may perhaps
trace the beginning of the instinct of modesty. Among the
lowest savages this ii entirely absent, but In others we find
It in an Incipient form.
The Zulu dancers spend three months In seclusion pr?
paring for their coming-out dance. The wholo tribe watches
their performance with fervid Interest and becomes in
tensely excited as they proceed With It.
In dancing as practiced among these primitive people we
havo a good Illustration of Its original purpose. It was In
tended to stimulate tho mating activities of the race. Among
savages and primitive people tho men, wearied with hunting
and fighting, are often disinclined to assume the responsi
bilities of matrimony. Therefore the women dance to
entice them.
"Women have alVaye beon the dance-loving sex, both be
cause the exercise was often left to them in primitive society
and because It suits their physical and mental structure, it
enables them to give harmonious and legitimate emotional
expression to the neuro muscular Irritability which they
exhibit In a higher degree than men, and which might other
wise escape In more explosive forms,
There Is a groat class of pseudo-rellglous movements In
which the various hypnotic phenomena, especially those of
a contagious character, play so large a part that nearly
every Intelligent element disappears. Such movements ?re
very largely and sometimes exclusively manifested In
women. They are often marked by tho dancing mania.
"Tho Dancers," a sect of tho fourteenth century, which
arose at Aix-la-Chapelle and spread throughout Belgium,
present an admirable example of hypnotic dancing phe
nomena In which women played a prominent part. The
"Dancing Mania" began Immediately after the str&nge mid
summer festivals of St. John the Baptist's Day In 1374.
Men and women seemed to have lost all self-control. Sud
denly, whethev in public or private, they would begin danc
ing, while holding each other's hands, and would continue
dancing with extrome violence until they fell down ex
hausted.