Modern DancingWritten by one of the most famous exhibition ballroom teams of the century, the manual covers a large variety of dances popular during the ragtime era, including the tango, one step, hesitation waltz, and maxixe. A large portion of the book is devoted to grace and etiquette, appropriate dance dresses for women, and music. Many photographs of the famous couple enhance the manual. |
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Common terms and phrases
arms backward ball-room beauty become better body called CASTLE charming continue corsets Cortez counts course crosses dancers dansant develop difficult direction ease effect exercise explain facing fact fashion feel feet figure follow forward front gentleman girl give grace HALF hand head heel Hesitation Waltz hold Italy keep lady left foot less look lovely manner marked Maxixe means measures mind Minuet modern dances move movement muscles naturally never original perfect persons PICTURES play Polka popular position possible present pretty properly require rhythm right foot round seen side simply Single SKATING skirt social square stage stand steps taken Tango teach things to-day torpid Turkey Trot turn usually VERNON CASTLE vogue vulgar walk wear weight woman women wrong York young
Popular passages
Page 34 - When I say walk, that is all it is. Do not shuffle, do not bob up and down or trot. Simply walk as softly and smoothly as possible, taking a step to every count of the music.
Page 142 - People grew accustomed to gather in front of their huts or around a large tree; song and dance, true children of love and leisure, became the amusement or rather the occupation of idle men and women who had flocked together.
Page 17 - ... social reformers will join with the medical profession in the view that dancing is not only a rejuvenator of good health and spirits, but a means of preserving youth, prolonging life, and acquiring grace, elegance, and beauty.
Page 118 - What is more, we are unconsciously, while we dance, warring not only against unnatural lines of figures and gowns, but we are warring against fat, against sickness, and against nervous troubles. For we are exercising.
Page 20 - ... allied to the legitimate physical need of healthy exercise and of honest enjoyment.
Page 144 - Do not wriggle the shoulders. Do not shake the hips. Do not twist the body. Do not flounce the elbows. Do not pump the arms. Do not hop— glide instead. Avoid low, fantastic, and acrobatic dips . . . Drop the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Bunny Hug, etc. These dances are ugly, ungraceful, and out of fashion.
Page 20 - all hoppings, all contortions of the body, all flouncing of the elbows, all twisting of the arms, and above everything else, all fantastic dips."55 Bodily contact between dancers was unnecessary, observed one instructor, proclaiming that the "new dances do not require 'hugging' and crossed arms to make them enjoyable.
Page 144 - Remember you are at a social gathering, and not in a gymnasium. Drop the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Bunny Hug, etc. These dances are ugly, ungraceful, and out of fashion.
Page 57 - French, who toned down its sensual character, and "it bloomed forth a polished and extremely fascinating dance, which has not had its equal in rhythmical allurement since the days of the Minuet.
Page 20 - Mr. Castle affirms that when the Tango degenerates into an acrobatic display or into salacious suggestion it is the fault of the dancers and not of the dance.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Modern Dancing |
| Authors | Vernon Castle, Irene Castle |
| Publisher | World Syndicate Company, 1914 |
| Length | 175 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |