t;
we have reached the reign of the _pas du tutu_, and, almost wish we had
arrived at the _pas du tout_.

During the last few years there has been a great stir in the dancing
world. Some time ago Isadora Duncan gave a private exhibition at the New
Gallery of certain dances in a style intended to be a revival of old
Greek dancing.

A little later Miss Ruth St Denis presented in public some strange,
quite beautiful, performances consisting of dancing, miming and
posturing supposed to suggest ideas of Indian life, and her finely
restrained, truly artistic work deeply impressed both the critics and
audiences.

Afterwards came Miss Maud Allan, alleged--no matter with what degree of
truth--to be an imitator of Isadora Duncan, and she made a great "hit,"
her most popular performance being a "Salome" dance, which was
considered by some people to be indecent. Certainly of her costume the
French phrase "_qui commence trop tard et finit trop tot_" might justly
be used, for she carried nudity on the stage to a startling degree. In a
good many other dances her work was rather pretty and quite
unobjectionable, but vastly inferior to the art of Isadora Duncan or
Ruth St Denis.

Isadora Duncan

The theatrical season of 1908 ended in a blaze of--dancing. At what is
generally deemed about the dullest moment in the year Isadora Duncan
appeared at the Duke of York's Theatre, and kept it open and well
attended for almost a month. The affair is unique in the history of our
theatre. One can imagine a playhouse running on the basis of a big
ballet, with a story, popular music, magnificent scenery, gorgeous
costumes, huge _corps de ballet_, half-a-dozen principals and immense
advertisement. In this case we have had more or less isolated dances to
music generally severe; for scenery only a background of subtle yellow,
taking strange tones under the influence of different lights; for
costumes only some beautiful, tranquil, simple Greek drapery; for _corps
de ballet_ a few children; for principals one woman, with an intelligent
face, but certainly no great beauty; and in the way of advertisement
very little, except some honestly enthusiastic press notices, and
fortunately nothing in the form of photographs of nudities or
half-nudities.

There has been a triumph of pure art under austere conditions, such as
can hardly be recollected on our stage, unless in the case of
_Everyman_--pure art akin to the theatrical, indeed parent of the dram