1925-06-03 — Page 2

2

D'YE KEN

JOHN

THE ORIGINAL

HAIG?

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3RD,

OPALIEN

AGE

NEW DANCE TENDENCIES. INFLUENCE OF THE RIVIERA SEASON: NEW SIDESTEPS. When the London season opens and dancing begins in earnest we are likely to see some interesting developments, all, but distinctive-legacies in the main

Diserter

THE TYRANNY OF BRIDGË.

[BY MAX PEMBERTON, "Į

I am waiting for the professor who will hold an examination and grant diplomas to young people seeking to qualify as social successes. Papers, it'ñppears, would have to be set in many subjects. The art of firtation and of the mixing of cocktails and

certainly the bussion of bridge would are to be includel. Socially pur can- didates would have to prove that they! could talk horse-racing to duchesses and

WITH the frondents. The inglish influence prevails in mest of the fashion able ballrooms at Nice, Maute Carlo Mentone. Cannes, and other resorts along the Cote d'Azure, Many of the exhil-put-ball to archdeacona-but, unquestion tion dancers are English, and a fair presion that the chief social gifts of the ably, our professor would come to the cou- portion of the professional partners attendance in restaurant and casino ball rooms are English also. With a few ex- ceptions, the dance bands are French; hut these French musicians have learnt toleridge an udmirable game, especially when curl the Gallic tendevey to play fast and I n winning. Nothing better for the wet with jiggy rhythin, anul for all prav-afteracon in the remote country honses las tical purposes the music is the same as een discovered; and when we remember one dances to in town hall-rooms.

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day concern the making of lore and of no i

trumpe.

Here be is said that I myself think

the countless bores who but for bridge would have discussed with us such lively subjects as baptismal regeneration, or the later developments of relativity, we may take off our bals to the pustin.

MONEY-GRABBING OBSESSION.

Nevertheless, dancing on the Riviera has its effect on step, if not on style. Ang nunder of British visitors dance with Frenete professional partners and watch foreign exhibition couples, and the British professionals, too, get how ideas and pick up new tricks. In consequence, the This being admitted, there are yet cer- general run of dancing that one saw intain facts which are obvious and not to the trips between Mentone and Caunes be denied even by the devotees of an ad- during the winter was sensibly affected. mirable game. We can have too much A couple of years ago the new tricks of, une good thing and certainly we can Some mer, I might have been dropped when people have too much bridge. got home again from the sunny roasta foar, are obsessed by it, anit a great many Now they will stick for several reasons women. Look at the clabs dourishing in The chief being that fox-trotting and

nearly every suburb, at the strange and waitzing in the new manner has become weird ladies who frequent them; and then rather monotonous, and any variation that gives a new and piquant interest to these try to realise how some of these people live. dances is quite eagerly welcomed in ball „rooms at home..

Assuredly there is neither winter cor sum- mer upon their horizon. If they go to bed late, they do not rise early; and, as for bar- OXFORD WALK

ing any time for the usafol occupations of SPINNING AND **

Bife, they would flout the idea. No sooner is Spinning is one of the new things for lanch hurriedly swallowed than these people which the Riviera senson is mainly re-are off to the local bridge club and, but for a sponsible. It was dropped in town five hasty dinner or an occasional dance, they will years ago, and many of the younger generation have never done it, Un the remain at their clubs until twelve or one Riviera as it being indulged in--and o'clock in the morning, Recreation the by English Couples very freely. Done thing is nut. It is just a determined en- well it is effective and amusing: it is deavour to wip some of their deightours. astonishing in what a small, cramped money and to part with as little as possible space these swift, exhilarating, complete of their own.

I have watched soul of these young turns enn be done. But spinuing by in-

women closely in recent mouths and re expert or practiced couples means can nons, kicks, ethow bangs, and, quite posinained asfonished at their folly. Before sibly, falls. On the whole, it is perhaps they took-up bridge many of them were aware that they were alive. They played not a variation to encourage.

A very slow, dragging walk during lawn tennis decently, role horses upon which the couple may either hold then occasion, know the difference between a selves in the normal dance position or rose and a cabbage and coull, if the fact sway from the waist backwards and for were pointed out to them, perceive that the wards, is another innovation. I have

sun shone and the sky was blue. " heard it called the "Oxford Walk," and it seems to be highly popular with the of young man why goes in for "Ox- ford

trousers and the type of young woman who has her hair done a gui- It probably owes ite-inspiration to the now defunct Blues. We are going to see a lot of this fox-trot, curiation in

conn

town this year.

ECHELON DANCING Then there is echelon dancing," with the man occasionally slipping bis partner to one side, so that instead of dancing toe to toe they dance alongside on another for a few steps-still facing, of course, in opposite directions. Quite a number of daneers evidently find this an agreeable distruction; it has the additional advan tage of being very easy, once the knack is acquired.

And finally, there is quite a crop of new sidesteps, neat and intriguing. hut most of them needing assurance and un-

At

"Then, one day, they began to talk about. bridge. Somebody had taught then to play, and they knew enough about it to trump their partner's ace and not to revoke more than three times during the evening. Soon, you perceived, they danced leas and played cards more frequently. They began to develop the eye of the fernet and the claw of the hawk. There was no longer any sunshine in their sky, and if you told them that Shakespeare was "dead they merely remarked, "Oh! really?"

SAVAGE SPINSTER

This trend has cost many a young woman her good looks, and many more will pay that price for such an obsession. Even the Amazonian maiden, who used to have a forehand drive like Tilden's and could lift her husband over a gale, soon pales in that dim but not religious light, and need for a union to prevent the, abuse of the. lipstick quickly becomes apparent.

Sitting hour after hour in an atmo- usual adroitness to do effectively. sphere that is poisonous, drinking.cock. plaves like ne Café de Paris, the Ambas tails which curry more than a suspicion sadeurs and Ciro's in Monte Carlo, and of "3 dash," staring at the 'pips' the Metropole and Maxim's in Cannes,

developed while one could see the sidestep develop visibly with the eyes of a hungry raven, the through the season. Couples who had not new Melpomene: is

a sidestep in their repertoire in Decem- Cupid sulks in a secret orchard. No good her, by February had picked us and per- to him are these savage spinsters who would fected three or four. Sidesteps ove their merely cry "double if the last great "no popularity to the crowded conditions in trump were sounded. There is nothing most private and almost all club and re-human in these faces, and the devil himself, retaurant ballrooms, and to the necessari- for all I know to the contrary, may be dy restricted dance space of the enbarets. mixing the cocktails and answering the They are useful when one has to pause, telephone... mark time, or stop, or when the crush in

Men are not as bad as this, though thero

so great that the general movement is are weeks when bridge obsesses them and slow and the space too limited for they become a nuisance to their friends. straightforward free dancing: Style It is then that they fail to perecive how makes or mars the sidestep. It is very hard to do in a way that does not look merely tricky, which is the worst fault one can commit in latter-day dancing.

ACROBATICS.

many interests go to the making of the fall life, and that he who spends most of his hours at the card-table, is hardly con- tribating much to the common weal-or, indeed, serving any useful purpose...

PRISONERS OF DARKNESS,

Acrobatic exhibition dancing is another development which bas found a forcing In country houses an uncontrolled house in the Riviera season. Persunal passion for bridge is often a great nuisance. ly. I am not fond of the wilder types I went down some weeks ago to a fine old of show dancing which have enjoyed a house some thirty miles from town and vogue on the Risera, are the rage in Paris, much hoped that my host would be able to and are now coming to London. t fail show me the beautics of its antiguity, to appreciate the sight of a girl being Nothing of the kind, alaa, happened. No swang round and round, first high, then sooner Lad we finished lanch than some of almost brushing the foor, by a muscular the other guests, began to elamour for partner who grasps her by one ankle and

"bridge," and "bridge" it had to be. one wrist and himself twirls with her. I

And there we sat, miserable prisoners would rather see her dance Nor am I conacious of an extra thrill when un ex. of this fatal obsession, while outside there hibition couple, in the midst of a delight were daffydown dillies swaying in the fully dreamy waltz, suddenly give a tense kindly breeze and the cat was chasing little bound and turn a cartwheel, If yellow-kammers across the lawn. these extravaganees incet with.. welcome A great game, truly-but one which in town I am afraid that exhibition carries all the elements of a national peril. dancing is going to be spoilt for those Even the gamin of the gutter plays "pitch. who appreciate it at its best, Fortanate and-toss" in the sunshine and sometimes ly, not all dance couples have succumbed in the rain; the bookmaker shouts from the to the general trend.

LATE SIRDAR'S. ESTATÉRSK Major-General Sir Lee Oliver Fitz Maarice Stack, G.B.E., C.M.G.. Birdar and Governor-General of the Sudut, who was murdered in Cairo in November & the age of 56, left unsettled property in England of the gross value of $10,083, with net personalty £16,071.

1 profoundly distrust logic when up plied to politics, and all English history justifies uc.-. Austen Chamberlain,

ײן

top of a stool, and his ings are filled with good fresh air, we follow First League matches in the open, and we breathe while they excite as. But bridge makes us pri Boneta of darkness, and many a man in Hazley street must be growing rich be cause "she is overcalling her constitution and is going light every time."--Daily Mail,

Surely the Boundest policy is to take some of the surplus population of this country and to place them in the un developed parts of the Empire rather than retain them at home and demora line them with the Hole-Sir Edward Lucus.

1925

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