. Dancing with Helen Moller; her own statement of her philosophy and practice and teaching formed upon the classic Greek model, and adapted to meet the aesthetic and hygienic needs of to-day, with forty-three full page art plates;. and comfort, are an arbitrary, artificial creationexpressing only vanity and defying nearly every attributeof nature and beauty. Worse yet, when we reflect werealize that Fashion, the modem Goddess, has undoneall that was accomplished by the Olympian Goddess ofHealth—compressing and distorting the body and inter-fering disastrously with the important functions of th
. Dancing with Helen Moller; her own statement of her philosophy and practice and teaching formed upon the classic Greek model, and adapted to meet the aesthetic and hygienic needs of to-day, with forty-three full page art plates;. and comfort, are an arbitrary, artificial creationexpressing only vanity and defying nearly every attributeof nature and beauty. Worse yet, when we reflect werealize that Fashion, the modem Goddess, has undoneall that was accomplished by the Olympian Goddess ofHealth—compressing and distorting the body and inter-fering disastrously with the important functions of theskin. Nature, in clothing the lower animals never hasdone this; even her work of ornamentation has ever beenharmless from the health standpoint; nor can it becharged to vanity, for we know that the gorgeous tail ofthe peacock and the majestic mane of the lion serve thesingle purpose of attracting the female. History shows us quite plainly that the ideal ofhuman vigor and grace reached its zenith in Greece in theFifth Century B. C. The sculptured remains of that pe- Thirty-seven Example of a very young dancer unconsciously coordinating movements ofarms and torso with remarkably true and forceful expression of The Tyranny of Clothes riod prove to us that clothes had not yet been is one of several reasons why Greek sculpture of theFifth Century remains unsurpassed. We have only tocompare any figure of a Parthenon frieze with the bestsculptured representation of human activity in our owntime to be instantly aware of the woful decadence notonly of vigor and grace, but of beauty; and to be able tofix the whole responsibility upon clothes. All competentsculptors, painters and critics agree upon this: Nothingis more characteristic of the Greeks, nothing better illus-trates their quickness to seize on the profound beautywhich may transfigure common and familiar things, thantheir use of drapery. In drapery the sculptor saw notmerely the appropriate clothing
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherl, booksubjectdance
