This type of wallflower can be divided into any number. Bad dancing has
a habit of manifesting itself in so many ways that it is difficult to
say just what is wrong with each one.
Some young men seem to be totally unaware of the fact that the beats
in music should be considered. Take my friend Horace, for example. He
seems, when you watch him dancing, to know a great many steps but why
is it that the girls all avoid dancing with him. The reason is quite
simple. He does not know anything about timing himself to the music.
I can dance with him because I went to the trouble to find out that
he is exactly a half beat behind the orchestra. His is a very common
case and was in the beginning caused by his indifference to his foot
work. Dancing he considered a conversational medium. When he awoke to
the fact that he was not dancing with the more interesting girls he
began to learn new steps immediately. The result was that his former
indifference played him false.
And there is Lupine. Lupine could be such a good dancer if he were not
so acrobatic. It seems to be his pet delight to try the latest dancing
tricks on all the girls. Of course, they know he’s a good dancer but
they don’t like to be made foolish by his wild activities.
George, there, is really quite smooth but he doesn’t hold one in the
right place or very firmly. If you must dance you should learn that
to hold a girl by the base of her spine is not only uncomfortable but
highly impracticable. The better dancers usually take a firm grip
across the middle of a girl’s back.
Orville is not a good dancer because he not only takes short steps
greatly out of time but he invariably steps on one’s toes not less
than fifteen times during the course of a dance. Girls have ways of
discouraging all of these. The best method we use is by stiffening.
In fact, with these men we have a habit of becoming atrocious dancers
ourselves.