Page:Everywoman's World, Volume 7, Number 6.djvu/52

PAGE 50

EVERYWOMAN'S WORLD

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THE RHYTHM OF HEALTH

(Continued from page 12)

the pleasure we get out of it, for the sheer joy there is in it."

On the other hand, any experienced obstetrician will verify the statement that cases of extremely difficult childbirth (and not infrequently the fatalities resulting therefrom) usually are caused by injudicious over-development of the lower abdominal muscles to the point of an inflexible rigidity, due to an excess of strictly gymnasium work and other severe mechanical exercises which place an. unduly proportioned strain upon the muscles surrounding the pelvis. There are thousands of cases on record, the facts of which have been volunteered by mothers themselves, to show that the over-strenuous exercise of these muscles in youth, particularly in school and college work, in gymnasiums and on the athletic field, have rendered women liable to difficult delivery and fatal eventuality in childbirth, if not making them altogether incapable of normal child-bearing. And although these facts have been a matter of common knowledge to the medical fraternity for years, yet it is only recently that those in charge of the institutions of higher education for girls have taken cognizance of the need of a more modified form of physical exercise for the growing and developing girl. In this connection it is announced that one high school will, with the beginning of the next school year, adopt "natural" dancing as a regular course in the curriculum, to supplant very largely the work now done in the gymnasium.

Natural dancing gives a delightful and healthful exercise to every muscle in the entire body structure, as well as producing internal muscular activity which beneficially affects the collective system of vital organs. Also, it builds and strengthens the nerve cells and accelerates the circulation of the blood to and through the brain, thereby insuring greater efficiency of mental activity.

Aside from increasing the vigour and action of the vital organs, such natural exercise also stimulates the processes of elimination, which effectively acts as an insurance against auto-toxemia through toxic absorption, by freeing the system of all forms of waste matter. And there is no more potent factor in preventive practice than that of the effectual operation of the processes of elimination. And in scarcely any other way can these eliminative processes be so surely kept normally active as through the natural stimulation given to the vital organs and the muscular, nervous, and circulatory system, as promoted by the exhilarating exercise experienced in the practice of rhythmic dancing.

 

BUT such dancing, in the opinion of Miss Allan, must be essentially spontaneous and entirely free from any element of "mechanics." On this point Miss Allan has this to say:

"The moment that dancing becomes bound by rules and conventions, it lose the very rationale of its existence, Who, then, shall say that true dancing can be taught? As well might we try to teach the birds to sing, the butterflies to soar, by rote and measure among the glades and flowers. It was not with taught precision of scholastic method, it was not in ambition to realize perfection in a given mode, that we danced in the shady groves and sunlit meads of Argolis, or by the murmuring seas of the Sicily of Theocritus.

"The further I advance in the study and practice of natural or rhythmic dancing, I find that I am more and more attracted to the subject of physical culture. Almost immediately upon taking up this work I felt that a healthy, sound, well-tuned instrument was the first great necessity for the carrying out of this great work. My body was my instrument, and my thought was to test and find what was lacking, then to remedy the neglected parts.

"It had always been my habit to do physical exercises every morning after my bath; not set, one-two-three-four, hands-above-your-head, out-in-front-of-you, down-by-your-side kind of exercises, but just as the spirit moved me. So soon as physical exercises me mechanical—a matter of one, two, three, and a stolid expression or one of physical pain—their virtue is gone, from my point of view. Body and mind should be en rapport. Even in such a seemingly prosaic thing as after-bath exercises, the body should give expression to a thought. The better, the more poetic, or more musical the inspiration, the more graceful the physical expression.

"A drill sergeant is all very well for soldiers; dumb-bells and elastic exercisers for raising lumps of muscles on the bodies of professional athletes; but a woman who seeks grace of movement is best served when she strives to harmonize motion with inspiration, be it that of music, the graceful figure of some picture or statue that imagination has endowed with moving life, or memory of some nature picture, a wind-rippled cornfield, or the dance of autumnal forest leaves.

"With such things as these for inspiration and stimulus, time does not count. There is a joy in them all. It is not a question of five minutes by the clock at one, two, three, four, heels together, hands above your head, out, down. One forgets one's self, yet effort and the desire for perfection are there, the desire to give truer, more perfect expression to the inspiration, and to attain the unattainable—perfection.

"All the drudgery of formal practising and training is lacking. At the same time, the body, by an almost unconscious process, grows more and more responsive to inspiration, a more ready instrument of expression. I have never in my life practised with one eye on a clock or to the tick of an imaginary metronome, any more than when my thoughts turned toward fitting draperies I contemplated pink tights and a stiff skirt like an inverted tea saucer.

"Francois Delsarte's theories teach us that every fibre, every vigorous impulse, every muscle, and every feeling should have its existence so well defined that at any moment it can actually assert itself. His teaching rests on the inseparability of body and spirit, which, united, results in an harmonious existence.

"FOR example, he compared the human being to a musical instrument, the back being the keyboard, the spinal column the keys, the various members and muscles the strings. The player of the instrument is the soul, which is designed to transpose the movements of the body into music.

"During the later period of my studies in Europe, I continued to give rhythmic physical expression to my fancies and the inspiration of silent music or the memories of pictures or nature. My joy in trying to give expression to my idea seemed to make the idea grow, and soon it would be dominating my thoughts. Perhaps of all the great painters whose works I have studied, Botticelli has influenced me the most. His lyrical imagination, his love of the wind and all things which the wind stirs—trees, draperies, floating hair—so wonderfully expressed in his paintings, and his pure love of the human form, never defiled by a descent to meretricious art, had deeply impressed themselves upon me. But if he inspired pose in those formative days, I was thinking more of the Greek dancing girls when I turned my thoughts to my draperies. And on those lines I fashioned my first dress, I used butter-cloth for the dresses that I designed and made myself, if 'made' the right word for what was really no more than an arrangement of draperies and clasps and girdles, with an eye to soft fold and undulating lines."

Authorities in the field of physical education for young girls seem to agree that less than ten per cent. of young women of twenty have normal bodies. Also, that if more girls practised nature dancing, there would be far less cases of "nerves," as well as far fewer instances of girls who "go wrong." Nature dancing teaches the girl to love a beautiful body and to regard it as the temple of her soul. It is declared that if all young girls had to dance regularly as a part of their education, most of them would be possessed of bodies of which to be proud, and in addition, rhythmic dancing teaches the natural expression of the tight to live rightly and of the joy of living, inculcating high ideals in the dancer.

One teacher of dancing believes that systematic instruction in rhythmic dancing—given preferably out-of-doors or in a breeze-swept room—will develop the highest degree of perfection in the figure of a girl, and that a girl who achieves a dancing figure need never wear corsets; further, that a girl who dances skips the awkward age, since rhythmic dancing gives mental and physical poise, as well as grace.

 

AS for the middle-aged woman who does little or no housework and who devotes most of her time to social affairs, there is but one hope—and that is dancing—not the modern ballroom dance, but the nature dance, which gives real exercise by bringing into play every muscle of the body. Shortly after Greek dancing was introduced as a regular course of exercise in a large ladies' college, the director of physical training of the institution said: "Every one should cultivate the rhythmic motion of nature dancing, should train the body of wholesome self-expression of joy, happiness, and kindred feelings, to inculcate a true spirit of artistic ideals in the soul, aside from the great benefit to be derived from it as physical exercise. There are, of course, other forms of helpful exercise, but as nature dancing embodies the best in all of them, it is to be recommended as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, adjuncts to human happiness. In the rhythmic dancing exercises, air freely reaches the lungs, the spine is not humped, and the organs of the body are not forced into positions where they crowd each other. Isn't it reasonable to suppose that a woman could do any sort of household work better if she felt physically fit, and dancing had taught her the secret of taking positions, either while standing or sitting, which would not punish here by making her physically uncomfortable. However, while we fully appreciate the wonderful benefits due to the physical exercise secured in natural dancing, yet we also to develop a great deal more in a girl than form and muscle, vitally important as they are; for in all our rhythmic dances there must be an atmosphere of poetry and music, and all must follow one ideal to the end of exhibiting the highest and purest artistic sentiment, which will influence and direct their vision of artistic ideals through life."