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REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Much stud}' and careful training has 

 enabled her to achieve what seemed an 

 impossible success. She has no stage 

 properties, but in few words conveys to 

 the audience the setting of the play. 

 Then with dramatic art she acts and 

 works out the character. She has struck 

 out a line of her own, a refreshing thing 

 in these days, and her talent has already 

 received enthusiastic recognition in 

 America, from whence she now comes to 

 us. 



THl- RUSSIAN DANCERS. 



The advent of the wonderful Russian 

 dancers in London some time ago revo- 

 lutionised all our preconceived ideas of 

 stage dancing. The ballet had come to 

 be regarded by a large section of the 

 community as a thing accursed, a pre- 

 sentation of too briefly-clad artists, who 

 made up for lack in grace by much 

 pirouetting. A very difficult perform- 

 ance, no doubt, but a meaningless and 

 usually undignified spectacle. That 

 view was perhaps not justified, but it 

 was deeply rooted. Then came the 

 Maud Allen type of dancers, who had 

 at any rate the virtue of originality and 

 grace, even if they shocked the proprie- 

 ties. But it was left to the dancers of 

 the Russian Imperial Ballet to convince 

 English audiences that a ballet was not 

 merely a mechanical succession of steps 

 but could be made to interpret ideas 

 and sentiments. The result was an en- 

 tire change in the attitude taken up on 

 the subject of stage dancing. There are 

 many who would never go to see 

 a performance — just as there are 

 still folk who shun the theatre — but it 

 would be hard to find anyone who does 

 not admit that the dancing of the artistes 

 who have lifted the ballet from the 

 depths to which it had sunk was won- 

 derful and great. The revival of the 

 glories of the classic ballet is due to the 

 Russians primarily. The members of 

 the ballet there are under Imperial con- 

 trol. Their training commences at 

 eight years of age, and continues until 

 they are 31, when they are pensioned, 

 and go into retirement. Their dancing 

 brings back the grace and charm of 

 ancient Greece, and they have that natu- 

 ral jov and abandon which amongst 



MDLLE. ADELINE GENEE. 



present-day nations the Slavs alone 

 seem to possess. 



MDLLES. GEXEE AXD SCHMOLZ. 

 Mdlle. Adeline Genee has danced her 

 way to the top of the ladder, and has 

 been hailed by three continents as the 

 greatest dancer in the world. She is 

 from Denmark, and has often danced 

 before Queen Alexandra, who always 

 keeps a warm place in her heart for those 

 coming from her fatherland. Mdlle. 

 Genee has done a great deal to raise the 

 ballet from a mere show of noise and 

 bustle into something worthy of its 

 great traditions. She dazzles her audi- 

 ence by her marvellous technique and 

 her apparently effortless achievements. 

 Mdlle. Halina Schmolz captivates them 

 by the charm of her dancing, which is 

 the embodiment of all the imagination 

 can conceive of the gracefulness of 

 youth in its most beautiful form. Unlike 

 her fellow artist, she has not been long 

 before the public. Trained at the War- 

 saw Academy, she made her debut in the 

 Polish capital. Shortly afterwards, in 

 company with the world-famous Pav- 

 lova, she appeared in London, where 

 s ] ie achieved instant success. The ex- 

 quisite drawing which frontispieces this 

 number is the work of M. Virgil, of 

 Messrs. Virgil and Foulet, who, with 

 wonderful skill, has caught on paper 

 the great dancer's fairy-like pose on the 

 stage. 



