58® 'BAN 
ceed to the principal performers, ought to continue the 
feene, not by a number of fymmetrical figures and ftudied 
fteps, butby that kind of. animated ex predion, which keeps 
up the attention of the fpedlators to the main fubject- 
for which the preceding adtors have prepared the audi¬ 
ence. Yet, either through ignorance, or in confequence 
of a vitiated habit, there are but few weli-fupported bal¬ 
lets. Dance is too often introduced for the mere pur- 
pofe ot dancing : the end is fuppofed to be anfwered by 
the mechanical motions of the feet, or by high jumping, 
and that the idea which people of real tafte may have cf 
a ballet is fully anfwered, when inactive performers are 
introduced in it, who mix and joftle each other, prefent- 
ing a confufed heap of pidtures, (Fetched without tafte, 
aukwardly grouped, and totally devoid of that harmony 
and expreftion, the offspring of the foul, which alone 
Can embellilh art by giving it life. In order to dance 
well, the body fhould be firm and fteady ; it fhould par¬ 
ticularly be free from wavering while the legs are in ex¬ 
ertion ; for, when the body follows the actions of the 
feet, it difplays as many grimaces and diftortions as the 
legs execute different fteps ; the performance is then rob¬ 
bed of its eafe, uniformity, harmony, exudtnefs, firmnels, 
perpendicularity, and equilibrium; in a word, of all thofe. 
beauties and graces which are fo elfential to make danc- 
- • V 
mg give pleafure and delight. 
Many dancers are of opinion, that to be foft and luxu¬ 
riant, the knees mud be bent very low. But in this they 
are moft certainly miftaken ; for a more than ordinary 
flexion of the knees gives rather a drynefs and infipidity 
to dancing; and a dancer may be very inelegant, and 
jerk, as it were, all his-movements, as well in bending 
very Low, as in not bending at all. The reafon will ap¬ 
pear natural and evident, when we refledt, that the time 
and motions of the dancer are ftridlly fubordinate to the 
itime and movements of the mufic : purfuing this prin¬ 
ciple, it is not to be doubted, that when the flexion of 
the knees is greater than what the air or time of-the dance 
requires, the meafure then drawls along, languifhes, and 
is loft. To recover and catch again the time which this 
unneceffary flexion had deftroyed, the extenfton of the 
knee muft be equally quick; and it is this fudden tran¬ 
sition which gives fuch a harflinefs and fterility to the 
execution, and renders it as difguftful as the oppofite 
fault of ltiffnefs and inflexibility. That luxuriant foft- 
nefs requires more to its perfection than merely an-exact 
flexion and extenlion.of the knees: the fpring of the 
inftep muft add its afliftance, while the loins muft ba¬ 
lance the body to preferve thefe fprings in proper bounds. 
It is this rare harmony of motion, fays M. Noverre, which 
procured the celebrated Dupre the glorious title of the 
god of dance. 
There are many dancers of an inferior clafs, who can 
difplay a great variety of fteps, without either judgment 
or tafte ; but it is very uncommon to find among them . 
that exaclnel's of ear (that rare but innate talent of a 
■ dancer), which gives life to and ftamps a value upon 
fteps, and which diffufes over all their motions a fpirit 
that animates and enlivens them. There are fonte ears 
■ftupid and infenfible even to the moft fimple, plain, and 
linking movements ; there are others, more cultivated 
or refined, that can feel and comprehend the meafure, 
but cannot feize its intricacies ; and there are others 
again to whom the moft difficult airs and movements are 
eafy and intelligible, and at once comprehended. It is 
neverthelefs certain, that a dancer may have a very per¬ 
fect and nice feeling, and yet not make his feelings intel¬ 
ligible to the audience, if he has not the art of command¬ 
ing thofe refources which depend upon a proper exertion 
of the coup de pied ; aukwardnefs becomes viftble where 
the exadteft proportion was neceflary ; and every ftep 
which would have been becoming, and produced the 
happieft effedt, had it been fmartly introduced at the 
conelulion of the meafure, will now be cold and lifelefs, 
• .1) A "N 
if all the limbs are in motion at once. It requires more 
time to move the whole body than to exert any Angle 
member ; the flexion and extenfion of the inftep is more 
readily and quickly made than the reciprocal motion of 
all the joints. This principle allowed, that the dancer 
is deftitute of precifion, who (fuppofing he poffeftes a 
mufical ear) knows not how to time, his fteps ; the elaf- 
ticity of the inftep, and the more or lefs active play of 
the mufcles, add to the natural fenfibility of the ear, 
and (lamp value and brilliancy on the dance. The joint 
charms of the harmony fpringing from the movements 
of the mufic, and tire motions of the dancer, captivate 
even thofe whofe ears are the leaft fufceptible of mufical 
impreftion. 
Dancing -is probably no where varied to fuch a degree 
as m the provinces of Germany; where, the well-known 
dances of one village arc ftrangers in the adjacent ham¬ 
let; their fongs of mirth and merriment have no lefs 
different airs and movements, though they are all marked, 
with that of gaiety. Their dances are pleating and en¬ 
gaging, becaufe the offspring of fimple nature ; their 
motions exprefs joy and pleafure; and the exadtnefs with 
which the whole is performed,' gives a peculiar agree- 
ablenef’s to their fteps, geftures, and attitudes. Do they 
fpring t a hundred perfons, affembled round an oak, or 
fame ancient pillar, -feize the time at .one'inflant, bound 
up, and defeend, with the fame exadtnefs. Do they with, 
to mark the .meafure by a coup-de-picdf all ftrike, with 
one content ; or when they catch up their women, you 
fee them all in the air at an equal height, nor do they 
defeend but at the.precife note that marks the time. 
The counter-point, which is doubtlefs the touch-ftone 
of a delicate ear, is to them an objedt of no difficulty ; ‘ 
hence their dance is fo particularly animated, and the 
nicety of that organ has the effedt of giving their dif¬ 
ferent motions an air of gaiety and -variety altogether 
.fixquifite. 
A dancer whofe ear is untuned to harmony, difplays 
his fteps without order or regularity, wanders from his 
part, and purfues the meafure without being able to 
reach it: devoid of judgment, his dancing has neither 
fentiment nor expreftion ; and the mufic which fhould 
diredt his motions, regulate his fteps, and guide his time, 
ferves only to expofe his imperfections and infufficiency. 
The ftudy of mufic iliould therefore be applied to for 
the purpofe of obviating this defect;, and giving more 
fenfibility and exadbnefs to the organs of hearing. 
DANCE (St. Vitus’s.) See Medicine. 
D AN’CER, f. One that practifes the art of dancing. 
—The earl was fo far from being a good dancer, that he 
was no graceful goer. Wotton. —It is a ufual pradticc for 
our funambulours, or dancers on the rope, to attempt 
fomewhat like to flying. Wilkins. 
Nature, I thought, perform’d too mean a part. 
Forming her movements to the rules of art; 
And, vex’d, I found that the mufician’s hand 
Had o’er the dancer's mind too great command. Prior. 
DAN'CHET (Antony), a French poet, born at Riom, 
in 1671,- of parents in an humble condition. He went 
early to Paris, and was a ftudent of rhetoric in the jefuit 
college of Louis le Grand, at the time of taking Mons 
and Nice. He wrote a Latin poem upon thefe victories, 
which his tutor thought worthy of being printed. He 
was foon. after appointed rhetorical profeffor in the col¬ 
lege of Chartres, which poft he occupied four years, and 
afterwards returned to Paris. During this period he 
compofed various pieces of Latin poetry. Fie then turned 
His thoughts to dramatic ccmpofition, and gave to tlie 
public a number of lyrical pieces, or operas, which 
brought him into notice. He likewife wrote foine tra¬ 
gedies and mifcellaneous poems. He was admitted into 
the academy of belles-lettres in 1706, and into the French 
academy in 1712; and he had a place in the royal library- 
