After that the tango seemed literally to trail us. We could not escape
it. While we were in Berlin the emperor saw fit officially to forbid
the dancing of the tango by officers of his navy and army. We reached
England just after the vogue for tango teas started.
Naturally we went to one of these affairs. It took place at a theater.
Such is the English way of interpreting the poetry of motion--to hire
some one else to do it for you, and--in order to get the worth of your
money--sit and swizzle tea while the paid performer is doing it. At the
tango tea we patronized the tea was up to standard, but the dancing of
the box-ankled professionals was a disappointment. Beforehand I had been
told that the scene on the stage would be a veritable picture. And so it
was--Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair.
As a matter of fact the best dancer I saw in Europe was a performing
trick pony in a winter circus in Berlin. I also remember with
distinctness of detail a chorusman who took part in a new Lehar opera,
there in Berlin. I do not remember him for his dancing, because he was
no clumsier of foot than his compatriots in the chorus rank and file; or
for his singing, since I could not pick his voice out from the combined
voices of the others. I remember him because he wore spectacles--not a
monocle nor yet a pair of nose-glasses, but heavy-rimmed, double-lensed
German spectacles with gold bows extending up behind his ears like the
roots of an old-fashioned wisdom tooth.
Come to think about it, I know of no reason why a chorusman should not
wear spectacles if he needs them in his business or if he thinks they
will add to his native beauty; but the spectacle of that bolster-built
youth, dressed now as a Spanish cavalier and now as a Venetian
gondolier, prancing about, with his spectacles goggling owlishly out
at the audience, and once in a while, when a gleam from the footlights
caught on them, turning to two red-hot disks set in the middle of his
face, was a thing that is going to linger in my memory when a lot of
more important matters are entirely forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account