Rhythmic Dance

Before you listen to your child's talk and his artless phrases, discern them in the rustle of his garment as he performs his first dances; and before he explains to you his obscure thoughts, seek their meaning in those innocent movements which his speech is powerless to render, and which his tender body fills out.

In every movement a child makes there is a natural dance. He sways like the trees in the gardens of life, scattering here and there phrases his little tongue and artless language could not utter, and issuing them as lovely swayings that draw all eyes to him and stir laughter, casting over the atmosphere around him an enchanting wave of merriment, gladness, and ease.

Children's movements may not resemble the dances of trained adults, but they are without doubt a firm foundation for the building of artistic gifts; they are an expression of the stirrings of the soul, a translation of the child's emotions and feelings, which he breathes into the air with a captivating artlessness and purity.

Children are able to dance while still in the nursery class, but at this stage they need a little guidance and a few easy instructions. The trainer should play a light piece of music, to whose rhythm the children are led to bring out their natural movements without special direction; and suddenly you see them as angels soaring on wings of ether. They set off with the laborer in his field, or accompany the sparrows to their nests, imitating "the sleep of the sparrows" in a charming dance; they turn into butterflies caressing the sun's cords with their wings, or a mirage embracing the raindrops; they sip the drops of dew; or they express, without knowing it, tales and legends told to them some time before. They are sparrows, butterflies, or angels come down to earth — and earth failed to draw them onto the face of its soil, so they hung high, very high!

If you watch the dance of a little girl of five, you will observe the display of the various psychological factors that follow one another in her movements: she loves, then hates; she fears, or doubts something that creates dejection in her feelings, or a confidence that shows forth merriment and delight.

There is no doubt of the importance of observation for grasping the child's psychology and treating its complications during the period of school upbringing. Here is Samir, hesitating to join his companions in their dances because they did not accept him as their leader; and Layla has withdrawn far off, eyeing her little friends shyly, weeping because she cannot declare the reason for her refusal to take part. Here, ignoring the boy completely brings the desired result: he comes back to himself and suddenly cries, "I too want to dance!" And the vexation fades from Layla's eyes when the dance of the lost child draws her in, and she runs to play the part of the searching mother.

Nor is it any secret how dance exercises the supple muscles of the child's body, besides bringing out the direction of his feeling and clarifying his thinking; and this is the most suitable period for social mixing, which prepares him to walk the paths of life without stumbling or confusion. And as the child grows, he goes further in learning the rules of the various dances and masters them, savoring the taste of this magnificent art.

There is also the "folk dance" practiced among most nations, however far apart they lie and however different their customs. As for the modern advanced schools, they teach dance like any subject the pupil must master; it is like mathematics, history, and languages. In modern dance there is art and polish, which merge with the pupil's thinking, so that he becomes able to distinguish the kinds of dances on hearing the rhythm of the music, having thus built his gifts on the foundations of childhood's primitive expression. Dance in the modern schools is counted among the effective agents in the performance of a moral mission, being regarded as a foundation of moral and physical discipline; it also lifts the veil from talents formerly hidden, and it draws before the spectators symbols loftier than any other expression, to reveal the hidden things of hearts!