Page:Modern Dancing (1914) Castle.djvu/39

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MODERN DANCING

body grace and refinement; and impartial critics who have been called upon to pronounce judgment upon them have ended by saying that there is nothing objectionable in any of them. They are, then, not immoral, not against any religious creed.

From the standpoint of health, dancing is fine exercise and keeps one absolutely fit. We ourselves can vouch for that, and we know of many people who looked fifty years of age three years ago and look less than forty to-day. They owe it all to dancing. These facts are significant. Other facts are equally so. There was less champagne sold last year than in any one of the ten previous years. People who dance drink less, and when they drink at all they exercise, instead of becoming torpid around a card-table. There are so many arguments in favor of dancing that reasonable minds must be convinced that the present popularity of dancing among people of all ages and classes is one of the best things that has happened in a long time.

Expert medical testimony as to the value of dancing is in its favor. Our modern physicians unite in thinking it a valuable health and youth preserver. Dr. Charles L. Dana, for instance, in his Text Book of Nervous Diseases and Psychiatry (8th ed.) says:

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