eline Genee (fig.
66) and Mlle. Anna Pavlova (fig. 67); the latter, with M. Mordkin and
a corps of splendid dancers, are from Russia, from whence also comes
the important troupe now at the Alhambra with Mlle. Geltzer and other
excellent dancers. The celebrated company at Covent Garden, and Lydia
Kyasht at the Empire, are also Russian. It is not surprising that we
get excellent dancing from Russia; the school formed by Peter the
Great about 1698 has been under State patronage ever since.

Notices of all the important dancers from Italy, Spain, Paris, or
elsewhere, performing in England in recent years, would occupy
considerable space, and the reader can easily obtain information
concerning them elsewhere.

That the technique and speed of the classic dance has considerably
increased is historically certain, and we must hope that this speed
will not sacrifice graceful movement. Moreover, technique alone will
not make the complete fine-artist: some invention is involved.
Unfortunately, some modern attempts at invention seem crude and
sensational, whilst lacking the exquisite technique desirable in all
exhibitions of finished art.

Before concluding it is almost imperative to say something about the
naked foot dancers, followers of Isidora Duncan. Some critics and a
certain public have welcomed them; but is it not "sham antique"? It
does not remind one of the really classic. Moreover, the naked foot
should be of antique beauty, which in most of these cases it is not.
Advertisements tell us that these dance are interpretations of classic
music--Chopin, Weber, Brahms, etc.; they are not really
interpretations, but distractions! We can hardly imagine that these
composers intended their work for actual dancing. One can listen and
be entranced; one sees the dancer's "interpretations" or
"translations" and the music is degraded to a series of sham classic
postures.

The idea that running about the stage in diaphanous costumes, with
conventional mimicry and arm action, is classic or beautiful is a
mistake; the term aesthetic may cover, but not redeem it. There is not
even the art of the ordinary ballet-dancer discernible in these
proceedings.

On another plane are such as the ballets in "Don Giovanni" and
"Faust." Mozart and Gounod wrote these with a full knowledge of the
method of interpretation and the persons who had been trained for
that purpose--the performers fit the music and it fits them. This
opera-ballet is also m