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 As
we pick our way along through our teens and early
twenties we often hear, as an excuse for bad behavior,
the catch phrase, "Things are changing."
Most of this behavior springs from laziness and
ignorance and never more than on the dance floor.
So
my chicks, before you accept the next invitation to a
dance, a ball, a private party or a night club - it
won't do any harm to have a little chit-chat about
dancing etiquette.
It
should not be necessary to remind you that it is
essential to find out what is being worn, whether the
dressing is to be formal or informal. It is a very
painful experience to arrive at a party dressed
formally and to find everyone informal, or vice versa.
At
a formal dance the girl precedes the man into the
room. The man does not take her arm. Then having
greeted the hostess, presented his or her partner,
made the necessary introductions (in a night club, for
example), they mingle with the others. Here the real
tests are to be met.
It
is very bad taste and ungentlemanly to forsake your
partner, leaving her without any escort at all. In a
night club this is unforgivable. Someone must be found
to keep her company no matter how disappointing she
may be. You must see that, if you are not dancing with
her, she has a partner. You still must escort her at
supper and for the last dance.
And
girls, a word to the wise for you. However old
fashioned it may sound it is still never, never right
to dance with someone who appeals to you when you have
already refused this dance with some other partner.
Explain the position, and he will come back to claim
another dance if it's anything more than filling in
time for him.
Remember
it is wrong to decline to dance unless you are ill or
unable to do the dance in progress - and you know what
the remedy is; in this case you will be making up your
mind to learn these dance steps at your first
opportunity.
A
man may forsake an inexcusably dull girl by thanking
her for the pleasure of a dance, and explaining that
he must find his next partner, or claim his obligatory
dance with the hostess. But he still must not leave
her stranded alone.
When
there are more men present at a party than girls, at
least every girl is happy. But she must accept
cut-ins, even on her dream man. At the end of a
number, if a bracket is being played without a pause,
when the couple are on the outer rim of the dance
floor near the boys, a man wishing to cut in will step
to her side and ask her partner "May I?"
The
partner must retire with good grace, and he may not
cut back the new man, but must wait until an
intervening partner has had a turn before claiming the
girl again.
If
you are cross because your favorite man or girl has
been commandeered by someone else, please don't let
ill-temper become uppermost and subject succeeding
partners to a frown and a grunt when addressed during
the dance. It might seem to be a hardship to converse
but after a few sentences have been spoken things will
seem much better.
Good
manners, as you will see if you watch closely, are
often the secret of an insignificant man's success -
they still count with the girls; and for the girls, it
is a well-known fact - we have proved it time and time
again - that men are far more conservative than most
of us would ever dream.
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