, the Louvre and the minuet, are
at present the most universally in fashion, and will, in all
probability, continue so, from their being both pleasing beyond
all others, to the performers, as well as to the spectators, and
from their not being difficult to learn, if the scholar has but
common docility.

Youth being for learning this art undoubtedly the best season,
for reasons as I have before observed, too obvious to need
insisting on, the master cannot pay too much attention to the
availing himself of the pliancy of that age, to give his
scholars the necessary instructions for preparing and
well-disposing their limbs. This holds good, particularly with
regard to that propensity innate to most persons of turning in
their toes. I have already mentioned the expediency of curing
this defect, by the directing them to acquire a habit of turning
the knees outward, to which I have to add, that on the proper
turn of the knee, chiefly depend the graces of the under part of
the figure, that is to say, from the foot to the hip.

Frequent practice also of dancing, or of any salutary exercise,
is also highly recommendable for obtaining a firmness of body;
for a tottering dancer can never plant his steps so as to afford
a pleasing execution. It may sound a little odd, but, the truth
is, that in dancing, sprightliness and agility are principally
produced by bodily strength; while on the contrary, weakness, or
infirmity, must give every step and spring, not only a
tottering, but a heavy air. The legs that bear with the most
ease the weight of the body, will naturally make it seem the
lightest.

A

SUMMARY ACCOUNT

Of various kinds of

DANCES

In different Parts of the WORLD.

_Cantatur et saltatur apud omnes gentes,
aliquo saltem modo_,
QUINT.

In EUROPE.

As almost every country has dances particular to it, or, at
least, so naturalized by adoption from others, that in length of
time they pass for originals; a slight sketch of the most
remarkable of them may serve to throw a light upon this subject,
entertaining to some, and both entertaining and useful to
others.

In BRITAIN, you have the hornpipe, a dance which is held an
original of this country. Some of the steps of it are used in
the country-dances here, which are themselves a kind of dance
executed with more variety