tation of human thought and
ideals. Such are the civilizations of ancient Egypt, India, Greece and
Rome, where the conditions attained were as greatly in advance of
those prevailing at the time in practically all the other regions of
the earth, as are those of modern Europe and America compared with the
black tribes of Africa.

To the student of social customs in various ages it is significant
that the peoples of the most civilized countries were eager in their
search for the higher enjoyments, and that among them the dance was
regarded as one of the most important forms of self expression. Along
with the greater accumulation of wealth; the erection of great
palaces, temples and other enduring movements; the mastery of form,
line, and color by the sculptor and painter; the progress in music and
literature toward higher levels, came the recognition of the dance as
one of the greater arts, worthy of encouragement by rulers and
statesmen. The fact that at the period of highest civilization in the
four countries referred to the dance was held to be an important and
honorable art, is testimony to its inherent value as a means of
satisfying the universal desire for human expression of the beauty of
form and harmonious movement. It is not a mere coincidence that the
most enlightened peoples of all ages have regarded the dance not only
as an amusement or diversion, but as exemplifying the eternal laws
that bind mankind to its earthly environment. Poets, philosophers,
scholars, leaders and teachers of men, have at the times that they
have been most highly regarded because of their special qualities or
abilities, joined in rendering homage to the dancer as an
interpretative artist.

Coming down to modern times and our own country, it is found that as
America has vastly increased in population, wealth, knowledge and
material comfort, along with the widest extension of popular education
of any great nation on the earth, there has arisen a greatly increased
and steadily-growing interest in the dance, both as means of
individual enjoyment, and as an artistic entertainment ranking high
among all forms of creative effort. With the growth of great cities
and industrial centers social activities have been greatly multiplied,
and of these the dance is easily the most popular. At all seasons; at
the winter resorts of the South, or the seashore, and in the mountains
in summer, the story is the same; dancing is the one diversion that
neve