er position, without the
least contortion, well adjusted to the steps; while the motion
of the arms, must be agreeable to that of the legs, and the head
to be in concert with the whole.

But in this observation I pretend to no more than just
furnishing a general idea of the requisites towards the
execution: the particulars, it is impossible, to give in verbal
description, or even by choregraphy or dances in score.

Many who pretend to understand the art of dancing, confound
motions of strength, with those of agility, mistaking strength
for slight, or slight for strength; tho' so different in their
nature. It is the spring of the body, in harmony with sense,
that gives the great power to please and surprize. The same it
is with the management of the arms; but all this requires both
the theory of the art, and the practice of it. One will hardly
suffice without the other; which makes excellence in it so rare.

The motion of the arms is as essential, at least, as that of
the legs, for an expressive attitude: and both receive their
justness from the nature of the passions they are meant to
express. The passions are the springs which must actuate the
machine, while a close observation of nature furnishes the art
of giving to those motions the grace of ease and expertness.
Any thing that, on the stage especially, has the air of being
forced, or improper, cannot fail of having a bad effect.
A frivolous, affected turn of the wrist, is surely no grace.

One of the most nice and difficult points of the art of dancing
is, certainly, the management and display of the arms; the
adapting their motion to the character of the dance. In this
many are too arbitrary in forming rules to themselves, without
consulting nature, which would not fail of suggesting to them
the justest movements. For want of this appropriation of
gesture and attitude, the movements fit for one character are
indistinctly employed in the representation of another. And into
this error those will be sure to fall, who deviate from the
unerring principles of nature; which has for every character an
appropriate strain of motion and gesture.

Nothing then has a worse effect, than any impropriety in the
management of the arms: it gives to the eye, the same pain that
discordance in music does to the ear.

There are some who move their arms with a tolerably natural
grace, without knowing the true rules rising out of nature into
art: but where the advantage of theor