The dance a primitive emotional expression. Importance in Egyptian religious ritual. Biblical allusions. Its high place in Greek civilisation. Origin attributed to the gods. Employed in observances religious, civic, and private. Practice decreed by Lycurgus for military discipline and cultivation of national stamina. A feature of Plato’s “Ideal Republic.” Ballet in drama. Interacting influence between dance and sculpture.

Simplicity of early Roman taste and manners enforced by poverty. Vulgarity with riches. Degeneration of dancing with other arts, under Empire. Acrobatics, obscenity. Ballet pantomime. Pylades and Bathyllus.

The Christian Church lifts dance from degradation. Ballet d’action in ritual of worship. A cause of disagreements between ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Seises of Seville Cathedral preservers of dance in religious service. Moralities, etc. Mechanical effects. Ambulatory ballets.

Visual music: dance steps are notes, an enchainement is a phrase, a dance-composition is a song, the ballet is an orchestra. Ballet dancing, as such, not based on imitation of nature; a convention, analogous to ornamental decoration. Intent: perfect beauty of line and rhythm; abstract qualities exploited. Importance of pantomime unsettled.

Early eighteenth century finds ballet profiting by many favourable influences. Royal patronage. Public enthusiasm and discernment. Great-minded artists in co-operation. Fortunate accidents. The Vestris, father and son. Noverre, “the Shakespeare of the dance.” Boucher, designer of stage decoration. Gluck. Costuming.

Gaditanae in Roman literature. Spanish dancing resists Roman corruption, Gothic brutality. Favouring influence of Moors. Attitude of the Church. Public taste and discrimination.

Folk-dancing an expression of social conditions. Scotch nationalism. The Sword Dance; the Highland Fling; the Scotch Reel. Motives, basic steps. Reel of Tulloch. The Shean Treuse. England: Sailor’s Hornpipe. Morris Dances. Recent revival of old dances. Ireland: Jig, Reel and Hornpipe. Intent, steps, devices of tempo. Irish festivals; Gaelic League. Sweden: recent revival of old dances. The SkralÂt; Kadriljs. The Vafva Vadna; the Daldans. Holland: the MÂtelot. France: la BourrÉe, la Farandole. Specimen freak dances: the Perchtentanz, the Bacchu-ber. The Schuhplatteltanz of Bavaria. Balkan region: the Kolo. Degeneration of dancing in Greece. Russia: Cossack Dance, Court Dance. Slavonic character and steps: the CzardÁs; the Mazurka; the SzolÓ; the Obertass. Temperament.

Symbolism, decoration, pantomime, story in the dance. Sensational mismanagement in Occidental countries. Mimetic dancing a substitute for newspapers. The Dance of Greeting; welcome, blessings, etc. Structure of Arabic choreography. Handkerchief Dance of CafÉs; candour. Flour Dance. Popular narrative dances. Fantasia of Bedoui; religious outbreaks. Dancing for tourists; the AlmÉes. Dance, Awakening of the Soul. Animate sculpture. Oriental technique. Sword Dance of Turkey. Dervishes. LezginkÀ of the Caucasus. Ruth St. Denis; Nautch; Spirit of Incense; the Temple; the Five Senses. Antiquity; carvings in India and Java. Hula-Hula of Hawaii. Priestesses trained for religious dancing. Japan: dancing for all occasions. Abstractness of symbols. Dances of war.

Sterilisation of ballet by struggle for technical virtuosity. Ballet in opera. Vulgarisms and counterfeits: the Can-Can; contortion; high kicking; skirt-dancing; insipid prettiness. A revival of good work; falsifications of it. Loie Fuller, silk scarf, electric lights. Serpentine and Fire dances. Imitators. World’s Fair of 1893; stigma on Oriental dancing. One class of managers. Obscure preparation of a new force.

Isadora Duncan, complete idealist. Her metier. Russia: dissatisfaction with ballet. Duncan in St. Petersburg. Secession from Imperial Academy. The romantic idea; choreography, music, painting united in a radical new school. The Russian ballet. Paris, United States, England. Influence and reception. Management in America.

Selection of pupils. Consecration to work. Contract, obligations after graduation. Advantages to the government. General education. Technical training: Italian ballet technique, music, drawing, acting, pantomime, plastic gymnastics, fencing. Care of health. Age of Academy. Russian ballet as distinguished from French-Italian; law-governed freedom. Addition to emotional scope. Recent ballet pantomimes.

Revived interest in dancing. New forms of dance suited to the present freedom of individual expression. Rapid changes. The Turkey Trot. New names for slightly altered dances already familiar. The Argentine Tango; significance. Detailed instruction for performance of the One-Step, the Boston, the Hesitation Waltz, the Tango, the Brazilian Maxixe. Tendencies toward revival of old court dances.

Re-establishment of great dancing in the United States; will it take and keep a high plane? Loose standards of judgment. Dependence upon commercial management. Managers; their varied influences. Need of endowed ballet and academy. Difficulties of ballet organisation in the United States. Insufficient training of American ballet dancers. Ballet in operas; unimportance under old traditions, changing standards. Metropolitan and Russian ballet; ground gained and partly lost. Russians under other auspices. Ballet school; impositions upon it. Need of academy with dancing as primary purpose. General organisation; departures from scheme of Russian Academy.