There is one more form of dancing which may be briefly alluded to,
because it illustrates the hypocrisy of the average mortal as well as
the rarity of true æsthetic taste. Solo ballet-dancing is admired not
only by the bald-headed old men in the parquet, but there are critics
who seriously discuss such dancing as if it were a fine art; generally
lamenting the good old times of the great and graceful ballet-dancers.
The truth is that ballet-dancing _never can be graceful_, as now
practised. To secure graceful movement it is absolutely necessary to
make use of the elasticity of the toes—to touch the ground at the place
where the toes articulate with the middle foot, and to give the last
push with the yielding great toe. Ballet-dancers, however, walk on the
tips of their stiffened toes, the result of which is, as the anatomist,
Professor Kollmann, remarks, that “their gait is deprived of all
elasticity and becomes stiff, as in going on stilts.”
It speaks well for the growing sensibility of mankind that this form of
dancing is gradually losing favour. Like the vocal tight-rope dancing of
the operatic _prime donne_ with whom ballet-dancers are associated,
their art is a mere circus-trick, gaped at as a difficult _tour de
force_, but appealing in no sense to æsthetic sentiments.
These strictures, of course, apply merely to solo-dancing on tiptoe. The
spectacular ballet, which delights the eye with kaleidoscopic colours
and groupings, is quite another thing, and may be made highly artistic.