Athena Meets Venus: Visions of Women in Social Dance in the Teens and Early 1920s
Author(s): Julie Malnig
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Dance Research Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 34-62
Published by: Congress on Research in Dance
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AthenaMeetsVenus:Visionsof Women
in SocialDance in the Teensand Early 1920s
Julie Malnig
In a 1915 editorial of The Ladies Home Journal, social commentator Dorothy Mills pondered
the issue of the "woman question," and in a few vivid sentences summed up much of the
public's reaction to women's readjusted place in society during the Progressive era. What was
one to make of the fact that women were declaring the right to vote, divorcing their husbands
at a greater pace than ever and demanding fulfilling work outside of marriage? Said Mills:
The "New Girl"that some of us proclaim,and many of us don't believe in at
all and more of us dread, is not a fantastic creature, a third sex, a superwoman.She is the eternalwoman, with her love for man andchild hereternal
necessity, plus perhapsonly one thing: a certainawkwardrealizationof herself as more of a personality,a unit. Do you see how that can be the starting
point of an infinite variety of developments,of activities, of theories? (Mills
1915, 3)
Mills grasps for an image that illustrateshow contemporarywomen were assumingnew
professionalresponsibilitiesandgreaterpublicroles,butshe is clearlyconflicted.Couldwomen
assertthemselves publicly yet retainsome vestige of theirtraditionallyfeminine roles? Were
women metamorphosingbeyond recognition?This clearly was an anxiety expressed in much
of the popularjournalism of the time. And the images, as well, reflected a profound ambiguity
regarding women's status. Flipping through the pages of a contemporary women's magazine,
just what might a woman reader of the 1910s and early 1920s have encountered? Might the
images and iconography have conveyed anything about her desires and dreams? Might she
have found an image that would accurately represent her, or at least offer her the possibility of
a self she could conceivably inhabit?
One strikingmotif, in particular,came to dominatethe imagery of these popularmagazines: images that were drawnratherfreely from both Greek and Roman antiquitybut were
updated (and often misconstrued) for a contemporary audience. The way these mythological
references were placed into service reflected competing cultural views of contemporary wom-
Julie Malnig is an assistant professor in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New
York University where she co-directs the Gallatin Interdisciplinary Arts Program and teaches
courses in theatre and dance performance. She is the author of Dancing Till Dawn: A Century
of ExhibitionBallroomDance andnumerousarticleson the historyof social dance in the U.S.
She has served as Editor-Designateof Dance ResearchJournal for 1999, and will assume the
editorshipin 2000.
34 DanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall 1999)
anhood. Ubiquitousin the teens were Grecianimages of models wearingGreek-inspireddesigns, or sketches of contemporarywomen in ancient settings, symbolic of one version of the
"modem"woman as cultured,refined, genteel. Typically graceful and smart,this image suggests a modem-dayAthena who was at once clever andjudicious, culturedand well-rounded,
a woman who could as easily grow magnoliasas she could managethe householdfinances or
conduct a tango tea. Venus, her counterpart,was most often depicted as a young, sprightly
woman, who prefiguredthe early twenties flapper.Often a working woman, she possessed a
restless enthusiasmfor life and connoted a new type of female sexuality, characterizedby a
healthy and buoyant physicality. From promotionaladvertisementsfor movies such as The
Templeof Venus(featuring"200 classic dancers"),to corset ads featuring"America'sVenus,"
the images representedan engagingly playful sexuality.Both of these typologies, drawnfrom
images of antiquityand mythology, expressed an ongoing tension regardingexpectationsfor
women in Americanmiddle-classcultureandunderscoredthe often dichotomousroles women
were asked to serve.
In orderto discern what popularperiodicalsand their images suggested to a new generation of American, primarilymiddle-class women, who were grappling with the enormous
culturaltransitionfrom nineteenth- to twentieth-centuryvalues, I analyzed selected dance
magazinesof the teens andearly twenties, includingTheModernDance MagazineandDance
Lovers Magazine (1), alongside some of the most popularand prominentwomen's fashion
and general interest magazines of the same period, such as The Ladies Home Journal and
McCall's, two of the so-called "Big Six" women's publications.Although women's magazines had been popularsince the late nineteenthcentury,by the second decade of the twentieth century,they had come to assume a particularlyprominentplace in the lives of primarily
urban,white, middle-class women, serving as social, culturaland even moral guideposts for
their functioningin the expandingeconomy of leisure and commodity consumption(2).
Dance magazines,of course, served an appreciablysmalleraudience,andby today's standards could be considered "niche"publications,designed for specialized markets.Modern
Dance Magazine catered to a decidedly middle- to upper middle-class reader;and Dance
Lovers, in the category of "pulp"magazines-which were typically theme-orientedpublications built aroundaction stories, with a greatemphasison visuals (see Gaw 1942, 120-121)may have appealedto a combined readership.Dance Lovers was launched on the wings of
TrueStory, a highly successful confessional magazine establishedby BernarrMacfaddenin
1919. It contained many of the standardcharacteristicsof the pulp magazine, although it
aspired toward a more elevated style. (At twenty-five cents a copy on the newsstand, and
$3.00 for a subscription,TrueStorywas slightly moreexpensive thanmost pulps andpresumably reachedan audience of slightly higher means.)
What I have found particularlystrikingis how the dance magazines,thoughfew in number and shorterlived, came to mirrorthe styles, strategies and trends of the women's consumermagazines,throughadvertisingand articlesappealingto socially debatedissues of the
day-such as women's suffrage, health reform, sexuality and the new leisure culture-as
well as through alluring visual designs and romantic serial fiction. At the same time that
dance magazinespromoteddance andinformedreadersof the latestdance practices,they also
became tools in the dissemination of the "new"and evolving concepts of womanhoodthat
were alreadybeing discussed in the culture at large. Placing dance magazines side-by-side
with the women's and fashion consumer publicationsfacilitates a clearer understandingof
how dance magazines got swept up in an increasingly consumer-orientedculture and how
they came, in effect, to "sell" dance. Indeed, I arguethat the reason the ballroomdance pheDance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999) 35
nomenonflourishedas it didin theearlydecadesof thecenturyhadto do withits widespread
commercialization
in newspapers,booksandmagazines.Partof my discussion,then,concernspreciselyhow "new"orevolvingconceptsof womanhood,thatwerewidelydiscussed
in Americancultureat thistime,becametoolsin promotingdanceto womenreaders.
Threeclosely linkedphenomenaoverlapin thisessay:a burgeoninginterestandchange
in social dancepractices,resultingin the social dance"craze"of the teens;the rise of the
"new woman,"who was symbolic of women's fuller emergence into public life (particularly
into those spherestraditionallybelonging to men); and the ascendancyof the mass subscription magazine.My aims, then, are to explore the points of intersectionamong these phenomena andto demonstratehow they workedtogetherto create composites or "types"suggestive
of new roles, posturesandbehaviorsfor women. I examine how dance magazines,as cultural
vehicles, assisted women readersin imagining themselves as "new women," and I illustrate
whatthe images andiconographyrevealedaboutwomen's changingroles in dance. The ideas
of culturalhistorianMarthaBanta, in Imaging American Women,are instructivehere. Particularlyrelevantis her analysis of how the typology of the female image became pronounced
in the early decades of this century, as Americans were struggling to situate and identify
themselves within a new culture.Beyond merely confining women to stereotypes,however,
Banta explores how the "type"might have actually assisted women in locating themselves
within what she refers to as the "confusion of cultural signs that threatenedto engulf her"
(Banta 1987, xxx) in the heightened,visual consumercultureof the early twentiethcentury.
The centralmethodologicalunderpinningsof this essay bear some explanation.Determining with any true accuracythe attitudes,behaviorsand preferencesof a readingaudience-in
this case a female, white, largelyurbanmiddle-classpopulation-some seventy years afterthe
fact is a difficult proposition.For one, ascertainingverifiable statisticsproves difficult since
marketingdata from the period is scarce,especially since publisherswere not requiredto list
circulationand subscriptionfigures. Further,as magazinehistorianChristopherWilson notes,
"Wecannotaccountfully for readers'priorexpectationsor competingenvironments;norcan we
assumethatreadersadoptededitorialwisdomuncritically"
(1983,41).Whileit maybetruethat
we can'tknow withcertaintyhow womenmay have respondedor,indeed,changedtheirlives as
a resultof these illustrations,the researchercan, however,ascertaininformationby piecing together several strandsof information:how the magazines conceptualizedthe "new woman"
(throughadvertising,image and prose);the culturalpresumptionsmagazineeditors drew on;
andhow the magazinespositionedthe womanas a reader.
In consideringthe effect of magazineson readers,the ideas of culturaltheoristJohnFiske
have been particularlyuseful. In discussing popularculture"texts"(of which the magazineis
one), Fiske contendsthattheirappeallies as much in what readersbringto the texts as in what
they contain.As Fiske notes, "Inpopularculture,the text is not an object of reverenceto be
understoodin all its coherence and completeness, but a resourceto be used...it remainsat the
levelof culturalpotentialuntilit is selectivelytakenup andinsertedintothesocialcirculation
of meanings" (1990, 332). Applying Fiske's model of culture enables us to consider how
magazinesmay have engagedthe readerin a process of self-identification,wherebythe reader
might measurehimself or herself againstthe images in the text, accordingto genderandclass
background,as well as social interests. Ratherthan a static productwhose images readers
merely copied, the magazine can be seen as a more malleable artifact,whose images might
incite or prompta multiplicityof readings.If, as Fiske contends, culturalmeanings are created "out of the conjunctureof the text with the socially situatedreader"(1987, 80), then by
examining a range of images-including photographs,illustrations,advertisementsand nar36 DanceResearch Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
rativetext-along with or even againstculturalideologies,we can beginto imaginemore
effectivelywhata readermayhaveseenor whatshe mayhavebroughtto the text.
The Culture of Looking and the Progressive Era
Somebriefbackgroundon the "cultureof looking"is usefulhere,to betterunderstand
this
emphasis on the visual and how it gave rise to the image of the new woman as well as the
images appearingin the magazines.The periodunderdiscussion-the Progressiveera, which
lasted from about 1890 through 1920-saw the culmination of massive social and cultural
changes which were wroughtprimarilyas a resultof industrialization,includinghuge shifts of
populationfromruralto urbanareas,increasedtechnologicaladvances,anever-growingmiddle
class and the emergence of women in public life (3). These developments, in turn, led to a
re-evaluationof social valuesandmores,includingrelationships
betweenthe
wide-ranging
sexes, women's role in society and concepts of morality and sexuality.As the cities became
meccas for industryandcommerce, a host of new social institutionsemergedthere-cabarets
andhotels,dancehalls,theaters,moviesandamusement
parks-wherepeoplemighttest and
new
rules
and
of
social
modes
conduct.
At
the
sametime, a proliferation
of visual
develop
imagessaturatedpublicandprivatelife-in the formof commercialadvertising,billboards,
posters,illustratedbooks andmagazines-encouraging manyAmericansto make these social
adjustments.CulturaltheoristStuartEwen notes thatthese new means of communicationand
display"pressedthemselveson people'sattentionandcreateda new visuallandscapeof possibility" (1982, 82). This emergentvisual iconographyappealedprecisely to people's desire
to purchasegoods andto participatein new leisurepursuits,whichwerenow availableto
more workingAmericans (4).
The magazinewas one of the primarymodes of transmissionof culturalvalues duringthis
time, in partbecauseof its abilityto communicateits message in such bold, visual terms.Technologicaladvances,such as high-speedpresses,the transitionfromwood-engravingto two- and
four-color
andtheuseof rotaryphotogravure
illustration,
(aformof mechanized
photoengraving
in whichphotographs
couldbe integrated
intothetext)all hastenedthe speedwithwhichthe
force.This new technologicalcapability,coupledwith
magazinebecamea majorpopular-culture
an increasinglypublicculture(thatincludedmore women), providednew venues for artistsand
illustrators.The social dance "craze"of the early to mid-teens,for instance,with its spate of
animateddances-from fox-trots and tangos to hesitationwaltzes, which were performedat
romantic,stylishclubs-was a regularlyfeaturedsubjectin boththe women's anddance magazines of the early teens. EdwardBok, famed editor of The Ladies Home Journal, promoted
women as exhibitionballroomdancers,in particularas arbitersof a new era in social dance, and
often devoted entirestories,in full-colorillustration,to the creationof theirlatest dances. Bok
used womendancersto promotean arrayof merchandise,fromdancecorsetsto designergowns.
As Bantanotes of this period,it was generallyan eranot only of rampantpictorializationbutalso
of the widespreadreproductionof images (throughthe new technologies)thathad the powerto
communicateand promote "ideal"concepts of femininity.These mass-producedimages of
women, circulatingin a varietyof contexts, became partof the visual "vocabulary"by which
women could come to see andknow themselves.As Bantaexplains(1987, xxxi-xxxii), the aesthetic renderingof women to projectnationalideals actuallyhas a long history.But duringthe
Progressiveera,Americanmuralists,illustratorsand portraitartists-many of whom were employed by the emergingmagazineindustry-were using the female formeven more liberallyto
inscribethe ethos of buying. HistorianWilliamLeach describesa 1911 Wanamakersmillinery
displaywhich featureda beautiful,genteel woman in the style of a JohnSingerSargeantpaintDanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall1999) 37
ing. The image purposefullyuses a beautifullyclothed woman,he notes, "to convey the idea of
luxuryor of abandonto sensualdesires,"a desireto whichthe new consumereconomy was now
catering(Leach 1993, 67).
The New Woman
Who was she, this so-called new woman?Was she a fictional creationof designers, advertisers and magazine publishers?A convenient marketingtool? A parodyof the late nineteenthcentury woman activist? In fact, the new woman representednot one but several groups of
women who were experiencingactualchanges in theirlives. For middle-class women, the rise
of urbanculture,which affordedgreaterphysical and social mobility and increasedentryinto
the workforce,spurredprofoundsocial, economic and political changes. From 1860 to 1920,
significant numbersof women entered the job market,usually as the result of economic necessity. In 1900, 5.6% of American wives held jobs; by 1910 this numberhad increasedto
10.7% (Harris 1978, 104). Major advances occurredin education as well; by 1910 close to
40% of students enrolled in college were women (Filene 1974, 238). Middle-class women
were becomingpoliticallyeducated,throughtheirinvolvementwith Progressivereformmovements, which resultedin an increase of women's forums, clubs and suffrage and civil rights
groups;and many working-classwomen became key figures in labororganizing(Evans 1989,
148-49; Rudnick 1991, 71-72).
Several types of new women became configured in the dance and women's magazines.
One was the generationof young, college-educatedwomen, the daughtersof abolitionistsand
reformers,"new women"in their own right who argued"for woman's moral superiorityand
her naturalrightto citizenship"(Rudnick 1991, 69). While advocatingwomen's participation
in social programsandchange for women in general,manyof these middle-classwomen were
tied to a bourgeoisethos of responsibility,duty andmorality,andstill viewed women's strengths
as a result of their capacities as nurturersand caregivers. HistorianCarol Smith-Rosenberg
notes that a second group of women, who were educatedin the 1890s, encompassedwomen
writersand artists(such as IsadoraDuncan),and while they were "politicalas the first generation ... placed more emphasis on self-fulfillment ... and a great deal more on the flamboyant
presentationof self' (1985, 177). Yet anothergroupconstitutedwhat may be termedthe "athletic woman,"a physically and mentallyagile young woman symbolized by the Gibson Girlthe ubiquitousfemale figure on a bicycle (5).
A final new woman image was thatof the chorusgirl whom culturalhistorianLois Banner
calls a "lower-classcompetitorto the AristocraticGibson Girl"and a precursorto the 1920s
flapper(1983, 176). A figure from both the worlds of the Broadwaystage and the movies, her
image becomes more popular in the early 1920s, when she is depicted as financially and
sexually independent,anddogged in pursuitof hercareergoals (Banner 1983, 183-84). Dance
Lovers, as well as movie magazinesof the period, are filled with stories of her rise to triumph
from the ranksof poverty or despair.
According to Banner-and indeed as the magazineimages bearout-the new woman cut
across class lines: she might be a married,upper middle-class woman, a productof the increasedeconomic expansionof the late nineteenthcentury,with greaterleisuretime; a middleclass "modem"housewife becoming skilled in "efficient"housework, as depicted in Ladies
Home Journal; or a single, working woman in the business, health or teaching professions.
Whatunitedthem, suggests Banner,was theirresponseto "anew self-assertionand vigor, and
a new sensual behavior,a desire for pleasure that flew in the face of the Victoriancanons of
duty and submissiveness"(1983, 187) (6).
38
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
Modern Dance Magazine
The Modem Dance Magazine (MDM), edited by noted New York City dance teacher G.
HepburnWilson, ran from approximatelyJanuary1914 to November 1918. With its focus on
social dance steps and music, dance schools, tips on etiquetteand newsy stories of "society,"
MDMresembledTheDirector, which was issued for one year in 1898 and was consideredthe
firstAmericandance magazine.However,the influenceof the early twentieth-centurygeneral
women'sandmass subscriptionmonthlieswas unmistakablein MDM'semphasison advertising
of productsthatrangedfromcustom-madecorsetsto permanentwave treatmentsto Gidding&
Companygowns. Like the women's monthlies,MDMalso containedinspirationaleditorials(on
the role of dancein culture,among othersubjects),illustratedarticlesand serializedfiction (on
danceanddancers).Its appealwas in largepartdirectedto women readerswith new purchasing
power,to makethemfeel partof a communityof like-mindedreaders.MDM was more expensive than the women's magazines;the cover price began at fifteen cents, the same as Ladies
Home Journal,but rose to twenty-fivecents aftera few months(the subscriptionprice rose as
well, from $1.50 to $2.50). This price increasesuggeststhata specializedmagazineof this sort
had some difficultymeetingits costs (7); howeverthe fact thatMDM-a definitenichepublication-lasted as long as it did shouldnot be overlooked.
MDM featureda variety of dance forms, from ballet to modern dance. The term "modern,"as used in MDM (andin otherdance literatureof the time), however,referrednot only to
the dance associatedwith the early premoderndance pioneers, such as IsadoraDuncan,but to
other forms of dance as well, such as interpretiveand aesthetic dance, Delsarte and social
dance, all of which were consideredpartof a modernethos of movement. Essays on Isadora
Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, touring stars such as Russian ballet dancersLydia Lopoukowa and
Mikhail Mordkin,and various folk dance forms all figured into the magazine (8). Much fanfare heraldedthe early issues, which referredto dance in eloquent, apocalyptictermsreminiscent of the writingsof Nietzsche, whose ideas werecirculatingduringthistime. "Joyis strength,
and the moderndance is the intelligent expression of the divine life at play,"exclaimed one
editorial (March 1914). The Progressivist spirit of renewal, ambition and materialprogress
was reflected in the magazine's subtitle, "A New Spirit in Art and Life."
At its inception,discussion of social dance, as well as iconographyof the "modern"social
dancer,dominatedthe pages of MDM. Wilson capitalized on the massive popularappeal of
ballroomdance duringthis time and promotedsome of the best-knownexhibition ballroomdance teams of the day, among them Irene and VernonCastle, Mauriceand FlorenceWalton,
andJoanSawyerandWallaceMcCutcheon.In fact, he cast them (as did Ladies Home Journal
editor EdwardBok) as symbols of a refined yet distinctly "modern"twentieth-centuryetiquette.In their greateruse of the waist and uppertorso, and in the intimacy made possible by
the closeness requiredof partnersto effect the steps, exhibitionballroomdancerssymbolized
a significant break in social dance practices in this country.Many of the early forms of the
social dances, however, such as some versions of the TurkeyTrot and the Grizzly Bear, with
theirungainly armflaps and awkward,jerky movements, had earlierprovokedoutcriesfrom
conservativesand some Progressivereformers.But once the dances had been "tamed"by the
Castles and other teams into elegant and streamlinedcouple dances, Wilson promotedballroom dance as a symbol of cultivationand grace, and as a seemingly timeless, ancientform of
beauty. It was an image that served well to assuage any remainingfears that contemporary
social dances might be uncouth.
A primetargetfor advertisersof the women's magazineswas now the "educated"woman.
She might be the young, single college graduatestrikingout on her own or startingher own
DanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall1999) 39
business, or a married,middle-class woman who had become increasingly"educated"in the
use of modem appliancesandhome technology.In an instanceof whatculturaltheoristStuart
Ewen has called "commercializedfeminism,"advertisementsdrew on the new woman ideology to teach women how to make the best use of the surfeitof marketproductsnow available
for the home (Ewen 1976, 160). The Ladies Home Journal took the lead in marketingand
advertisingtechniques,makingextensive use of color illustrationsandfeaturingfull-page ads
ratherthan groupingthem at the back, as practicedearlierin the century(Gaw 1942, 77). The
Athenianiconographybecomes increasinglypervasivein many of these ads, as young women
in sculpturalposes sportairsof confidence andcool intelligence. MDMfollowed this lead and
projectedto a similartype of educatedwoman reader.Ads rangedfrom those for cabaretsand
clubs (presumablyin which to hold dance parties)to dresses, skin-careproductsandtypewriters. Many ads in MDM, such as those exhortingreadersto become MDM subscriptionagents,
appealedto the self-enterprisingwoman. In one ad directedtowardwomen of the "newbourgeoisie," readersare told: "Decide upon what you want to do, grit your teeth and go to it."
Reflecting the rise and influence of the new corporatemanager,the ad continues: "It isn't
brains as much as push thattells" (December/January1916-17, 42).
Whethera strongbusinesswomanor hard-workingcareerwoman, the readermight have
been at the same time one of the "natural"women frequentlyenvisioned in the magazine.The
sources for these depictions can be traced back to the late nineteenth-centurydress reform
movementandthe influence of Delsartepractices,then standardtrainingfor young women of
the middle class. Although structuredin its drill-like form, Delsarteexercises were designed
to facilitate naturalmovementin accordancewith breathingand the body's organicform.The
ultimate goal was to achieve a freedom of movement that would both tone and energize the
body, while promoting an invigorated spirituallife (9). As Lois Banner notes, the general
Progressive-erareform mentality,and the concerns of both feminists and reformerswith the
healthfulnessof women's dress also "heightenedthe appealof naturalness"(1983, 202). While
the S-curve contour-a look accentuatedby a jutting bustline, a small, curved waist and a
protrudingbustle-was the predominantlook in women's dress in 1900, by the end of the
first decade, women began to shed layers of petticoats and their figures appearedmore symmetrical (plate 1). The adventof the shirtwaistblouse (a blouse-like shirt worn with a skirt)
and the influence of the empire-styled gowns of Paul Poiret coincided with the idea that
clothing could serve an active, moving, dancing body (Banner 1983, 148; Hollander 1978,
150). These designs were evident in the dress styles worn (and advertised)by many exhibition ballroomdancers,such as the Corticelli silk gowns with elevated waists and soft draperies modeled by IreneCastle, or the "tango-visite"of Joan Sawyer,consisting of a transparent
bodice and midlength, layered skirt. In each case the clothing effected a more naturalline,
contouredto the shape of women's bodies (plate 2).
The concept of the "natural"body suggested differentmodes of behaviorfor women. In
reality, women's dress had become more "natural,"less encumberedwith wires, slips and
other physical paraphernalia,so that women might actually achieve a greatersense of their
own "natural"body. The Venus prototypeof the healthily sexual woman that would figure
more prominentlyin the twenties emerged, in part,from these changes in women's clothing.
But the idea of the natural,as conveyed in the magazines of the early to mid-teens, largely
signaled thatnew women were morally and spiritually"elevated"from the rest of humanity.
As Bannernotes, both feminists and beauty experts at the end of the nineteenthcentury argued thatspiritualqualitieswere moreimportantto beautythanwerephysicalattributes(1983,
206). In MDM, this belief in women's spiritualcapabilitiesbecame aligned with the Progres40
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
IIFPr
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S m...
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;I, 2-37 Left, spring dresss
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trimmed with silk braid and with
l.-c. May 1900
;sx Straight-fronted corset,
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. S* . I
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Plate 1. Sampledressesand lingeriefrom the early 1900s, illustratingthe "S"curvefigure characterized
byan arched-backandsmallwaist.FromCostumeandFashion:A ConciseHistory.Revised,expandedand
undatededition by James Lever.CopyrightThamesand Hudson,Inc., New York,1995. Reprintedby
permissionof thepublisher:
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
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Plate 2. IreneCastle in a prototypicaldance dress of theperiod of chiffon-likematerialwith layeredskirt
and loose bodicefor ease of movement,ca. 1913. TheBilly Rose TheatreCollection,TheNew YorkPublic
Library,Astor,Lenoxand TildenFoundations.
42
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall 1999)
sive-era notion of Progressto produce a concept of new women as inherentlyinstinctualand
attunedto the rhythmsof nature.The notion of the instinctualharkensback to nineteenthcenturyessentialist ideologies of women as spiritualmatriarchs,an image and idea thatcould
supporta conservative agendabut that still might successfully lend itself to the Progressive
philosophy of the spirituallyliberated individual. The "progress"espoused in MDM ("No
progressmeansretrogressionanddeath,"proclaimedone of Wilson's editorials[January1914,
3]) referrednot only to increasedmaterialbenefits, but also to a renewedemphasison self and
on the pleasureethos, in parta reactionto the routinizedconformityof the machine age (10).
"Natural"women, who were physically fit and psychologically and spirituallybalanced (as
well as committed to the self-improvementof society through their settlement house and
reform work), were viewed, in many ways, as well-equipped to temper some of the more
destructive,life-takingqualitiesof urbanlife. Many articlesin MDMdrew on these themes to
appealto women social dancers.In an essay entitled "Dancingthe Source of All HumanArt,"
MDM notes that "modem industrialismhas tended to discourage expression, has made our
pleasurespassive" (March1917). Citing Havelock Ellis to supportits claims, the essay lauds
the birth of the dance craze and decries the "monotony"of movement of late nineteenthcentury social dances.
The naturalwomen illustratedin MDM were often associatedwith a healthier,more civilized life, presumedto be characteristicof ancient Greek society. Whetherimages of young
women in tunic shifts strikingDelsarteposes or photographsof Greeksculptureon frontispiece
pages (as in a photographof PaulPhillipe'sstatue"GreekDancerandFlutePlayer"),this Hellenist idealreinforcedthe utopianculturalyearningfor a returnto a simpler,less hectic way of life.
Greekrevivalismwas still a popularartform in the United States,and Greekimageryand philosophy were frequentlyinvokedin the beautyliteratureof the time. But perhapsmost significant, interweavingthese images of antiquityin a magazinedevotedlargelyto the newer-styled
social danceformshelpedcreatelegitimacyfor the dancesandthe dress styles they fostered.As
Bannerhas noted of the effects of the classical revival generally,since it was viewed as "grand
andasexual,"it enabledartiststo "cloaksensualsubjectswithrespectability"
(1983,110).Simiof thebodyin its
larly,thesocialdancebodydepictedinMDMconveysa senseof the"nobility"
form.A photospreadin theJanuary1914issuefeaturedmodelsof regal,Athenian
symmetrical
of longflowingpanels,layeredandlooseatthehipsforease
bearing,wearing"Grecian
drapes"
of dancingcomfort.The text defendsthe slit skirtandnotes thatit was actually"introducedand
madecompulsoryby Lycurgus,the reformmayorof Sparta,"for "free-limbedSpartanMaidens
practicedin athletics"(11).
The images describedthusfar representedthe varioustypes of "ideal"beautyandbehavior
deemed acceptablefor women of this time. More interestingand relevant to consider than
whetheror not women followed these prescriptions,which is difficultto discern,is how these
images illuminatedthe ways in which women were taughtto view themselvesthroughthe media.Writingaboutwomen'sdidacticliteratureof the nineteenthcentury,historianFrancesCogan
notes that study of a popularlypromulgated"ideal"(conceptor image) can actuallyilluminate
"theway thatwomen aretaughtby popularlyheld assumptionsto thinkof themselvesandtheir
capabilities,dutiesandjust rewards"(1989, 16). Threeprevalentimages or "idealbeauties"that
"AmericanBeautyIllusMarthaBanta(1987) has identifiedof the so-calledturn-of-the-century
trators"surface in the magazinesand give us possible clues as to women readers'own selfexpectations; these include HarrisonFisher's "BeautifulCharmer,"J. Alden Weir's "New
England Woman" and Robert Wildhack's "OutdoorsPal." As Banta notes, "the Charmer
charms,the New EnglandWomanthinks,the OutdoorsGirlcavorts"(1987, 46) (plates3 and4).
DanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall1999) 43
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Plate 3. "The Beautiful Charmer," a popularized image from the turn of the century, based on an illustration
by Harrison Fisher: From Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History, by Martha Banta,
Columbia University Press, 1987.
44
Dance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
Plate 4. "The New England Woman," as Banta calls her, was based on J Alden Weir's portrait, "A
Gentlewoman " (on the right). To the left is an image of the so-called "Outdoors Pal" depicted by Robert J.
Wildhackin the December 17, 1910 edition of Collier's. From Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals
in Cultural History, by Martha Banta, Columbia University Press, 1987.
It is the way they were evolving, however, that is noteworthy: While the images were "modem," they continued to reinforce pre-existing late nineteenth-century values regarding women's
"duties" and roles.
The ambiguous nature of many of these depictions suggests a profound ambivalence about
how to present dthenew women of social dance. For instance, on the cover of the March 1917
issue ofMDM, Irene Castle, in a cameo portrait,appears as a cross between two ofBanta's types:
the dignified (one might also say matronly) "New England Woman" and the "Beautiful
Charmer." With her bobbed- hair and agile form, Castle was on one hand the quintessential
preflapper-era model; on the other, she was a vision of nineteenth-century purity, virtue and
goodness (plate 5). Indeed, in this photoengraving she looks quite serene, with her nearly beatific gaze and her short hair pulled back severely from her forehead. This image stands in stark
contrast to any number of the other images of Irene Castle, such as one in a series of illustrated
articles in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper from the spring of 1914, where she demonstrates the Tango Argentine with her husband, Veron. Here, she is sporting a stylish cap high-
lightingherfashionable"bob"andan impishsmile (plate6). While, as historianLewis Erenberg
has discussed,Castle was to a largeextentpositionedas the all-Americangirl, who sublimated
the eroticism of the social dances into a healthy sexuality (1975, 164-66), she was also someDance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999) 45
March
Price, 25 Cents
MODERN
:i
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MAGAZINE
DEVOTED
TOTHENEWSPIRITINARTAND LIFE
Edited Fy(q.lFGp(ernlflson,V.a.
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:
ON THE COVER-Mrs. Vernon Castle in one of her most recent poses.
INSIDE-Gordon Gray'sviews on the adaptationof steps for cinerr registration;"Mimi,"
a new waltz, in sheet music form; impressionsfrom the Civic Ball, and much instructive and entertainingdancing fact and fiction by writers of note.
No. Four
Vol. II.
Plate 5. IreneCastle,depictedin a moresedatepose, on the cover of the March,1917 issue of The Modem
DanceMagazine.TheDanceCollection,TheNew YorkPublicLibrary,Astor,LenoxandTildenFoundations.
46
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
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March12, 1914. Here,IreneCastlepossesses theyouthfulexuberanceof the "OutdoorsPal" (see plate 4).
GeneralResearchDivision, TheNew YorkPublicLibrary,Astor,Lenoxand TildenFoundations.
Dance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999) 47
thing of a reflectingmirror:Differentaspectsof her demeanormightbe accentuated,depending
on the natureof the publicationand the audience.At once, she was a spryAmericangirl, an
engaged marriagecompanionand a maternalguardianof "proper"social dance, dispensingintelligentetiquetteadvice (12).
The "OutdoorsPal," the "BeautifulCharmer"and perhaps another stock image of the
"GreekGoddess"came together in the image of Australianchampion diver-cum-moviestar
Annette Kellermann,who, duringthe mid- to late teens, frequentedthe pages of both dance
and general women's magazines. Kellermannpresagedthe spirit of the chorus girl, who became more dominantin the 1920s, in her less abashedpresentationof the body. But she is
decidedly an exemplarof the new athleticismand of a vision for women readersof a kind of
timeless beauty and grace, which was also embodied by Irene Castle. She was a darling of
physical cultureenthusiasts,and, accordingto Dudley Allen Sargent,the renownedexercise
specialist and medical professorat HarvardUniversity,she was "themost beautifullyformed
woman of moderntimes" (Kellerman 1915, clippings). Many considered Kellermanna perfect Hellenistic model of broad-shoulderedbeauty and vigor (13) (plate 7). Though she was
not a ballroom dancer, Kellermannmight have easily served as a role model for the many
MDM readersinterestedin social dance.
The way Kellermannappealedto readerswas throughprescriptionsfor physical exercise,
properdiet and a positive attitudein rhetoric,all of which fit well with both Progressive-era
reformandDarwinianideasof self-refashioning(14). She (orherastuteeditors)madeappealsto
severalconstituenciesthatcut acrossclass lines: for the middle-classhomemaker,the businesswoman and the young workinggirl alike, such perfectionof body was attainablethroughhard
work anddiscipline.Said Kellermannin the March1915 issue of Physical Culture:'True grace
of movementis the resultof thoroughbodily control-of makinghouseworkor any workan aid
in securingthis" (1915, 23a). There is no question,however,that Kellermann'simage is more
To promotea then-currentfilm,A
sexualizedthansome of the othernew womanrepresentatives.
Daughterof the Gods (1917), Kellermannappearedwrappedin a light body sheathso thatshe
appearedbare-breasted,with her long haircascadingsensuouslydown her body, like thatof a
pre-Raphaelitemaiden(plate 8). While in anothertype of magazinethe image may have been
risque,in the context of MDM-whose editorspromotedthe gracefuldancingbody as eternal,
timeless and essential to superiorhealth-the image was appropriateand instructive.While
otherpublicationsemphasizedher athleticsexuality,here Kellermann'sbody is used to depict
correctdance form and, once again, womanhoodis aligned with an elevated sense of art and
culture,to assuagefears of herpotentiallyexcessive sexuality.
Featuredalongside Kellermannand Castle in the pages of MDM was IsadoraDuncan.
Although Duncanherself actuallydisdainedthe ragtimedances (Daly 1995, 217), her discussion of the "modern"dances (referringto her brand of expressive dance) melded with the
magazine's emphasis on social dance as expressive, naturaland harmoniousin form. Duncan
was also positioned as a type of ideal woman (15)-the grandedame of an interpretivedance
style thatupheldthe idea of the integrityof the body as a sourceof knowledge and inspiration.
That dance could serve women's greatestambitionswas a theme of her rhetoric.In an article
in MDM entitled "WhatModern Women Want"-a delightfully ironic play on Freud's famous question-Duncan extols moderndance as "perhapsthe highest esthetic expression of
the WomanMovement[sic]"(1916/17, 11). In a photographaccompanyingthe article,Duncan
bears a beatific smile, a placid gaze and erect countenance,evoking the physically perfect
"New England"typology. On one hand, Duncan representsthe ideal of late nineteenth-century feminism, equatingwomen's essential, innateconnectionto the maternalwith her source
48
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
La Fameuse Annette KELLERMANN
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Although this notice was
for one of Kellermann's appearances in France, this same image was
prevalent in movie and women's
magazinesin the UnitedStates duringthe late teens and early twenties.TheDance Collection,TheNew
YorkPublic Library,Astor,Lenoxand TildenFoundations.
DanceResearch
Journal
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49
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Plate 8. A more suggestive Annette Kellermann posing for her film "A
Daughter of the Gods," in The
Modem Dance Magazine, March, 1917. The Dance Collection, The New YorkPublic
Library,Astor, Lenox
and Tilden Foundations.
50 Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
of strength.Yet her image andrhetoricalso suggestedthatwomen hadthe power andpotential
to harnessthis sense of beauty and to use it to affect theireveryday lives (16).
Together,Duncan and Kellermannprovidedcontrastingviews on the new womanhood,
each drawing on new and old ideals. For Kellermann,perfectionof form might be attained
throughmanipulationof the externalbody, in the form of diet, exercise and muscle building.
For Duncan, women might draw on their internalself, using dance to connect to their bodies
and thus propel them outward,into the world, with exuberantself-confidence.
Into the 1920s
By the late teens and into the early 1920s, the image of the chorus girl began to play a dominant role in the available typologies of new women being depicted in the magazines. The
chorusgirl had shedhernineteenth-centuryvoluptuousnessandhadgraduallymetamorphosed
into a zestier and somewhat more enterprisingversion of the nineteenth-century"Outdoors
Pal." She sporteda look that became typical for the time: dressesjust above the knee with a
short,flounced skirt,and croppedhair adornedwith a small hat or band.Althoughthe chorus
girl appealed particularlyto working-class and lower middle-class women, many of whom
were themselvespartakingof urbanamusementsin the formof dancehalls, movies andamusement parks (Banner 1983, 175-77), she had potency for middle-class women as well. The
February1917 issue of Modem Dance Magazine, for instance, featuredLucille Lee Stewart,
"theattractivestar"of the Ince Film Corporation,modeling the latest Gidding gowns. With a
noticeably higher hemline and definitely "peppy"look, she bears the typical marks of the
chorusgirl. The essay, noting the dress's divided skirtand"zephyr-weight"petticoatof accordion chiffon, noted that it will surely be adoptedby "the social belles of America,"so as to
spare the sight of them "cavortingin front of the camera in habilimentswhich remind us of
Catherinedi Medici or Mary,Queen of Scots!" ("The Costume of the Dance").
It was in Dance LoversMagazine (DL), the majordance magazineof the early 1920s, that
the chorus girl image took full hold. DL was a lively and curious mix of interviews with
dancersfrom the stage and screen;serializedfiction aboutdance, dancers,dance liaisons; and
essays and articles abouthealthand beauty,pepperedwith inspirationaladvice (17). DL covered a wide spectrumof dance activity that was popularat the time-the beginnings of modern dance as we know it today, dance in Broadway shows and in the movies, and forms of
ethnic dance-although there was still a decided emphasis on social and exhibition ballroom
forms. Ballroom dancing had experienceda temporarysetbackduringthe first world war; it
had lost its steam, in part,because of the breakupof so many renowned exhibition partnerships andthe incursionof new dance fads fromthe Broadwaystage. Yetby the early twenties,
the way had been paved for the new, "modern"forms of ballroomdance that had been introduced in the teens. Additionally,the new dance franchisesthat had emerged, such as Arthur
Murray'sstudios, which advertisedheavily in the pages of DL, createda new supply of social
dance participantsand kept the form alive.
Dance Lovers was the brainchildof healthand fitness guruBernarrMacfadden,who was
a productof the health-reformmovement of the late nineteenthcentury and the publisherof
the highly successful Physical Culturemagazine.Macfaddenwas a fascinatingandenigmatic
historicalcrossover figure, a man imbued with Progressive-erazeal who, by the 1920s, had
transformedhis health credo into a million-dollarbusiness. His philosophy of health, which
he gearedin the early yearsto the developmentof strong,brawnymen, was in partliberationist
in its desire to free the body from debilitatingculturalconstraintsand prohibitions(18). His
ace editor at the time, Vera Caspary,noted that Macfadden's magazines "endorsedsex in
DanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall 1999) 51
much the same way that Hearst's Good Housekeeping gives its seal of approvalto kitchen
appliances and foodstuffs" (1979, 90). Dance Lovers, in fact, may have been inspired by
Mary Macfadden,Bernarr'swife, who was interestedin Delsarte. Macfaddden'sdaughters,
known as the "Macfaddenettes,"were also often featuredin the magazine, posing in their
Greek-like chiffon tunics (Ernst 1991, 83). During its two-year life span, from November
1923 to December 1925, DL had a base of approximately80,000 readers, an appreciable
numberfor a "niche"market(19).
Accordingto MarxisthistorianRichardOhmann,mass magazines-particularlythose from
the beginningof the new century-appealed to "peopleaspiringto respectability,"makingthem
feel like a partof "themainstreamof culture"(1982, 90, 91). If this was indeedthe case, we can
see how DL conformedto a patternestablishedby the generalmonthlymagazinesof carrying
mattersof practicalconcernto readers.Descriptionsanddiscussionsof social dance,in particular,servedas a meansof instructingthe readeron one's social, personalandprofessionallife. In
the mail-order advertisements that proliferated during the '20s-which included Arthur
Murray'shome courses in dance ("How I Became Popular!"declaredone transformedwallflower)-young working women who were unable to afford dance classes were assuredthe
rewardsof confidence,poise and popularitywithinjust a few weeks' time (20). Because it is a
common publishingpracticeto printeditorialsand essays serving the natureof the products
advertised(see Gaw 1942, 120-21), alongsidesuch mail-orderads, the readermight also see an
article by Murrayhimself, posing with a film ingenue or demonstratingthe latest fox-trots.
Many advertisementsin DL, whetherfor bunionremovalor for betterskin, were matchedby
articlesthat supportedthe theme of women's health,such as perkyBroadwayspecialtydancer
Ada Mae Weeks-with a head of healthycurlsbouncingaroundher face-telling readershow
she dancedher way "Outof NervousnessandInto Health!"(Weeks 1924).
In his visualizationof the female form, Macfaddenstill seemed to yearnnostalgically for
a more idealized, voluptuousnineteenth-centurybody type. On one hand, Macfaddenstrove
for a new realism in his female figures; some of the starkphotographsof star-crossedlovers
or sparringspouses worked well as dramaticaccompanimentsto the real-life stories. On the
otherhand,his aestheticpreferencefor the magazine'sdance photos "ranto ladies with enormous thighs,"often tinted in brightpastels (Caspary1979, 92). Dance Lovers, as well as the
women's and general subscriptionmagazines, actuallypromoteda type of female beautythat
was coming into vogue in post-WorldWarI culture.Withoutthe steady drumbeatof Progressive reformthathadpromotedhealthlegislationwithinthe cosmetics industry,the Duncanesque
notion of beauty as reflecting inner strengthand soul devolved into more of an emphasis on
attractivenessand appearance.In the post-suffrageera, beauty became less associated with
women's moralsuperiorityand the notion of the "naturalwoman,"and more concernedwith
glamour(Banner 1983, 207).
A cultureincreasinglyfixated on consumerproductsas the means to personalandprofessional success comes to claim beautyas an entity every woman might own-and purchase.As
Bannerpoints out, with regardto 1920s styles, "Thenotion that every woman could be beautiful was a dangerousconcept, just as easily adaptedto the ends of business as of reform"
(1983, 207). Writingto the editor of The Ladies Home Journal in February1921, a married
woman from Pawtucket,Rhode Island, who was disturbedby these trends,noted:
Now that women have the vote and are getting into Congress and the House
of Commons...andare becoming bank presidents,captainsof industry,doctors, lawyer and dentists, isn't it abouttime they adopteda different attitude
52
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
towarddress and self-adornment?Surely it isn't as importantfor them now
to be beautifulor astonishingor dazzling?...We have lived long enough in a
phantasmagoriaof Zazas and Theda Baras.
Certainlythe rise of the movies, and of the new female role models created as a result, had
placed new emphasis on external beauty and glamour.But outwardadornmentwas also in
part an expression of women's desire for fuller sexual expression, a desire bolstered, for instance, by the circulationof the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis, whose quotations liberallypepperedthe pages of DL.
In a sense, Venus had overtakenAthena. In part as a result of the need created by the
movies for simple yet fashionablyclothed moving bodies, the use of Greekiconographydissipated, as the image of the animated and healthily sexual "Venus"came to dominate the
magazines-not a voluptuous Venus, but a sprightly, sometimes sassy one, wearing short
dance frocks with low waists thatflattenedthe hips (21). Readersof Macfadden'seditorialsin
DL-among them, "Dancingas a Developer of Body andMind"(November 1923) and "How
Beauty Is Developed ThroughDancing" (March 1924)-might still find sketches of young,
loosely clad women, with garlandedhair,andbodies in curvaceousposes or gauzy Delsartian
images. However, a predominatingfigure was now the bright-lipped,headbandeddancer,
gaily dancingwith her partner;or the young woman fending off unwantedgigolos, as in 'The
Romantic Adventures of a Dancing Venus," a serialized story which ran from November
throughDecember 1923. TheLadies Home Journal invoked a similarimage in a March 1921
advertisementfor "LaCamille"corsets, by depicting "America'sVenus";the young woman,
who was, apparently,a beauty contest winner,was attiredin the latest corsetry(22) (plate 9).
Eros had not supplantedlogos, however. In part,as a way to deflect any potentialcharges of
sexual impropriety,the chorus girl was also cast as a reasonedindividual,capable of making
independentchoices abouther life and career.
Whilethe imageof the stagedancersuggestsa new emphasison sexuality(cast as "charm"),
the culturalcriticism and issues in the magazines focus on the new woman's dilemma, either
between marriageand career,or marriageversus the potentialfor premaritalsex. Writingin
1923, McCall's health and advice columnistWinonaWilcox expressed some of this ambivalence and advocated strong marriages,yet not at the expense of women's emotional health.
She noted that "marriageis too huge a price to put upon misplaced love...few modern girls
would accept an unwilling mate in matrimony.Most of them would scorn the man who failed
to be frankabouthis feelings before it was too late" (Wilcox 1923, 72). The happy image of
Irene and VernonCastle, in the teens, suggested that domestic harmonywas indeed attainable, even simply achieved. But in the early 1920s, in light of suffrage, greaternumbersof
women in the workforce and new pressuresplaced on maintainingstable family lives, the
theme of reconciling independencewith marriagetook on renewed force.
Thus in the magazines,the image of the chorus girl is typically featuredalongside thatof
the young marriedwoman (she might be a housewife or have a job). The idea of the so-called
"companionatemarriage"of the time was depicted in many of the stories and images (23); in
this arrangement,men tendedto look towardthe home as a place of leisure andpleasure,as an
antidoteto the business world. With the popularizationof ideas from Freudianpsychology,
both husbandand wife came to view marriageas a site for harmonioussexual union (May
1991, 547). Predicatedon the breadwinnerhusbandandthe helpmatewife, the companionate
marriageupheld conservative values-on the surface. But the idea that a husbandand wife
could be friends and companions was modern in conception. An etiquette manualfrom the
Dance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999) 53
i ? ii&~il;2
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Plate 9. One of the manyexamplesof the "Venus"motiffroma corset advertisementin The LadiesHome
Journal,March,1921. GeneralResearchDivision, TheNew YorkPublic Library,Astor,Lenoxand Tilden
Foundations.
54
Dance ResearchJournal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
twenties urged couples to "meet each other's moods halfway" and noted that "the work of
adjustingthe laborsof each to those of the other,so that there shall be time for recreationand
social life together,shouldbe a matterof mutualeffort"(Ordway1920, 23, 25). It was still the
wife, however, who provided emotional fulfillment-an idea carriedover from the teensand as the magazines suggested, she might achieve this through her love of dance. In an
articlein DL ("My Wife Wantedto Dance, I ThoughtIt Was Wrong"),signed by "a reformed
husband,"a young man discusses his abhorrenceof social dancing and of his wife's protestations of his recalcitrantbehavior("Only elderly ladies have husbandswho don't dance,"she
complains) (Douglas 1923, 60). Througha humiliatingsocial encounter,he comes to realize
the benefits of dancing, and husbandand wife are mutuallyunited.
In many respects,domestic life in the early 1920s strainedunderunrealisticexpectations
for both women and men. As historian Elaine Tyler May notes, "new desires for leisure,
excitement and sexual fulfillment"dominatedimages of family life, and with the continuing
rise of consumerismand the new youth culture,couples looked to home life to fulfill many
needs andmoods (1991, 555). For some young marriedwomen, keeping the home fronthappy
was a constantpreoccupation.The divorce ratehad skyrocketedbetween 1880 and 1920, and
anxious wives took pains to hold onto husbandswho could potentially be lured by the pleasures of urbannightlife. Social dance, suggested DL, might be the glue to hold a marriage
together.In a 1923 article, "MarriedLife Is a Dance! Here's How We Dance It and Keep
Healthy and Happy,"NatachaRambovaand husbandRudolphValentinoextol the virtues of
domestic companionship.Says the couple: "Dancing is the outward, artistic symbol of the
perfect marriage.For, like marriage,the dance 'a deux' is a partnership.It is proximity.It is
keeping in tune and in time. It is the mutualsense of rhythm.It is sex" (Valentino 1923, 19).
Combinedwith the text, the accompanyingphotograph,in which the couple face one another,
hip-to-hipin a tango pose, exemplified the attainmentof harmoniouscompanionshipthrough
ballroomdance proficiency.
Illustratedin numerousstories and essays is the notion thatpost-suffragewomen, in their
revised feminine roles, are now capable of "handling"their men. Potentiallythreatenedhusbands, however, are seen defending and demonstratingtheir masculinity.In "Why a Perfect
Dancer Makes a Perfect Lover,"Latin ballroomdancerRamon Novarroexplains, "At first I
thoughtdancewas sissified,butI discoveredthatit gives a manstrength,poise, andteaches
one pantomime"(Novarro1924, 56). In these and similararticles,ballroomdanceis the
rallyingpointaroundwhichdomesticandsexualissuesbecomenegotiated.Consideringthat
female-readmagazine,the "message"here was thatwomen
DL was still a predominantly
themselvescoulddo muchto assuagemalefearsof women'scareersuccess(or sexualinterest)by cultivatingthismostnaturalinterestin danceandself-expression(24).Womenreaders
might"learn"fromthe discoveriesmadeby thesemaledancers,andmighteducateandinspiretheirownhusbandsaboutthephysical,psychologicalandsexualbenefitsof socialdance.
Conclusion
Dancemagazines,like the generaland women'smagazineson whichthey were modeled,
womenreaders,in new stylesof dance,and
clearlyfunctionedto educatereaders,particularly
to situatethemwithinanevolvingcodeof mannersandculturalbeliefsthatwascharacteristic
of the Progressiveera as a whole.In ModemDance Magazine,a publicationthatmadean
earlyforayinto advertising,imagesof dancingwomenin tangodips or Delsarteposes became engulfedin the entireculturallanguageand rhetoricof Progressivistthinking;both
womenanddancewerelegitimizedby beingpartof the new valuesof democracy,freedom
DanceResearchJournal 31/2 (Fall1999) 55
and "Progress."In the early 1920s, the female-dancertypology fell into two main categories:
the winsome girl-woman, filled with vitality and vigor, and the young wife, backed by a
popularizedversion of Freudianpsychology, tryingto meld glamourand grace. Both suggest
a struggle between two poles: respectabilityand sensibility on one side, sexuality and pleasure on the other.
This dichotomy,which was embodied in many ways in the images of Athena and Venus,
ran deep throughoutthe Progressive years, as women struggled with definitions of self in a
new, urban,industrialculture.Sweeping changes that had broughtabout women's entry into
public and business life, along with new sexual and social mores permittinggreatersexual
expressiveness, were at the same time accompaniedby a strong conservative force. Consequently,culturalreformers,as well as image makers,revertedto nineteenth-centuryideals of
piety and purity.The rhetoricused to describe the new social dance styles as graceful and
refined reflected the general culturalanxiety aboutthe presentationof the female body (25).
Appeals to health,hygiene, "personality"andGrecianetherealismall servedto presentwomen
and women dancers within the acceptableboundariesof their culture.
Several specific conditions account for the type of visualizations seen in many of the
magazines at this time: the rise of professionalillustrators,who depictedthe inhabitantsof the
new urbannightlife; an alreadyentrenchedartistictraditionof depicting women as national
icons; and, not least, a new class of businessmen,awareof the power of image andillustration
in their efforts to sell products (Meyer 1978, 25). Magazines, of course, possess their own
unique way of creatingsocial reality.As RichardOhmanncontends, "Magazinesmust project
a strange mixture of anxiety and optimism. If people have no anxiety, they will not need
magazines. If magazines offer no hope of solutions, accommodations,improvementof the
self or reform of society, they will be too depressing to read"(1982, 101). Many of the images, of course, undeniablyreflected and expressed the preferencesof the magazine editors,
publishersand advertiserswho used them to impress their own understandingof (women's)
reality. However, in reading between reality and representation-between the realities of
women's lives during this time and the images borne from those circumstances-we can
discern a perceptible evolution in image-makingthat may have offered women readersthe
idea of change.
It was a dizzying arrayof images for sure:from goddess, nymphandquick-wittedcharmer
to athletic Spartanand modern,companionatewife. While on the surface these images may
have seemed proscribed,predictive and limited in their range, they can perhapsbe read in a
variety of ways, within the context of their culture and the images that precededthem from
the nineteenthcentury.The image of the healthy outdoorsgirl, for instance, was certainlyan
improvementover her nineteenth-centuryneurastheniccounterpart.Even the types presented
in advertising-those images tied to ideas of health,confidence and self-improvement- did
indeed representhow public attitudesaboutwomen's lives might be changing,which, in turn,
might affect women's own self-perceptions.Also, as magazine images began to circulate
within other available consumer communicationchannels, they graduallyacquireda life of
their own and, as a result, came to signify a range of acceptable, adoptablebehaviors and
stances. For instance, as Bantasays aboutthe ubiquitousGibson Girl image thatsaturatedthe
contemporarymedia, while she "might not raise a finger to urge the vote for women...her
image as the type of American Girl became part of the process [emphasis mine] that altered
social perceptionsand formed new conceptions of what it was possible for females to do and
to be" (1987, 7).
Whetheror not women readersliterally modeled themselves on these images is less at
56
Dance Research Journal 31/2
(Fall 1999)
stake than what those images may have suggested to readers about possibilities for future
behavior. It is precisely in these subtle shifts in representationthat opportunitiesfor new
meaningsemerged;potentialmomentsof interactionbetween readerandtext, in Fiske's sense,
wherereadersmight insertandcreatetheirown, personalizedinterpretations.Indeed,as Banta
pointedly notes, young women of the period had to be "agile, imaginativepersons" (Banta
1987, 37) to keep up with the various types and make sense of them all. Irene Castle as the
"new woman"was often "disguised"as the old; Kellermann,the athletic "pal,"was also the
sexy screen star.But perhapsit was precisely within these evolving images, particularlymalleable during the Progressive era, that young women readers, and potential social dancers,
may have profitablyexperimented,as they adjustedto the perils and pleasuresof the emerging century.
NOTES
1. Throughout this essay these periodicals will be
referred to as Modem Dance Magazine and Dance
Lovers. Issues of both are housed at the Dance
Collection of The New York Public Libraryfor the
PerformingArts.
2. In addition to the The Ladies Home Journal and
McCall's, the other "Big Six" periodicals included
Woman'sHome Companion; Delineator; Pictorial
Review, and Good Housekeeping.These periodicals
served largely as guides for women to keep abreast
of the latest consumer productsand developments in
childcare and homemaking. The magazines did
engage with topical social and political issues of the
days, including women's suffrage, although each
periodicaladopteda slightly differenteditorialstance
(Endres 1995, xiv).
3. There is, of course, a large body of literatureon the
Progressive era. For more on the history and politics
of the period see Carl N. Degler, Out of Our Past:
The Forces That Shaped Modem America (1959);
RichardHofstadter,TheAge of Reform:From Bryan
to FD.R. (1955); ArthurLink, WoodrowWilsonand
the Progressive Era, 1910-1917(1954); Henry May,
TheEnd of American Innocence:A Studyof the First
Yearsof OurTime,1912-1917 (1959); JohnWhiteclay
ChambersII, The Tyrannyof Change:America in the
Progressive Era, 1900-1917 (1980); and Robert H.
Wiebe, The Searchfor Order,1877-1920 (1967). For
more on culturaland social aspects of the Progressive
era see Steven J. Diner, A Very Different Age:
Americans of the Progressive Era (1998); Lewis
Erenberg,Steppin' Out: New YorkNightlife and the
Transformationof American Culture (1981); John
Higham, "The Reorientationof American Culturein
the 1890s," in The OriginsofModern Consciousness,
ed. JohnWeiss (1965); andWilliam Leutenberg,"The
Revolution in Morals," in The Perils of Prosperity
(1958).
4. For more on the new urban,visualized culture see
William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power,
and the Rise of a New American Culture(1993), 4445.
5. For some of the most useful sources on the history
of the "new woman" see: Carol Smith- Rosenberg,
Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian
America (1985); Lois Rudnick, "The New Woman,"
in 1915: The Cultural Moment (1991); Sara Evans,
Born for Liberty: A History of Womenin America
(1989); and Rosalind Rosenberg, Beyond Separate
Spheres: Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism
(1982). For an interesting perspective on workingclass women's experiences see Kathy Peiss, Cheap
Amusements: WorkingWomenand Leisure in Turnof-the-CenturyNew York(1986).
6. Banner (1983) makes the point that, despite
differences in social, cultural and economic
experiences between middle- and working-class
women during the Progressive-era years, each in
unique ways was affected by the general changes in
expectations for women during this time.
7. Unfortunately, circulation figures for Modern
Dance Magazine were not available from the primary
sourcesfor this information-StandardRate and Data
Service andN. W Ayer'sDirectoryof Newspapersand
Periodicals. Publishers during this time were not
requiredto list circulationand subscriptionfigures.
8. Modern Dance Magazine also contained a variety
of articles and editorials dealing with dance and
education. For an interesting account of folk and
ethnic forms of dancing in the Progressive era see
LindaJ.Tomko,"FeteAccompli:gender,'folk-dance,'
andProgressive-erapoliticalideals in New YorkCity,"
in Corporealities, edited by Susan Leigh Foster
(1996).
9. For more on the history of Delsarte see Nancy L.
Dance Research Journal
31/2
(Fall 1999)
57
Chalfa Ruyter, Reformers and Visionaries: The
Americanization of the Art of Dance (1979) and
Elizabeth Kendall, WhereShe Danced (1979, 24 and
61). For an interestingdiscussion of the ways Delsarte
becameincorporatedinto middle-classwomen's lives,
see JudyBums, 'The Cultureof Nobility/TheNobility
of Self-Cultivation" in Moving Words:Re-writing
Dance (1996).
10. T. J. Jackson Lears, in No Place of Grace:
Antimoderism and the Transformationof American
Culture, 1880-1920 (1981) provides a cogent
discussion of the strand of thinking during the
Progressive years-an antimodern one in his
estimation-that worked against many progressive,
modernisttendencies. It was a belief that society had
become "overcivilized,"and as a resultpeople sought
"more intense forms of physical and spiritual
experienceembodiedin medieval or Orientalculture"
(1981, xiii). Of course this philosophy took many
different forms, from a cultish emphasis on health to
a proliferationof materials, books, magazines, ads,
etc., devoted to the renewal of the self.
11. Dance historian Ann Daly notes several other
sources for the inspirationof the Greek motif, among
them the Greek games at various American colleges
and the influence of the neoclassical architectureof
the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Discussing
Isadora Duncan, who used a strategy to justify her
interpretivedance similar to the one Modern Dance
Magazine employed to promote social dance, Daly
notes that "the status of dance in Greek culture gave
dancing a legitimacy it desperately needed for
acceptance by her [Duncan's] audiences." Daly
continues: "Hellenistic enthusiasm indicated the
renewed aspirationsof a burgeoningnation, without
a pedigreed past"(both quotes in Daly 1995, 103).
12. Irene Castle's numerous published pronouncements on social dance form and etiquette
supportedthis image. These statements appearedin
newspapers and magazines of the time. They were
prescribed,as well, in her book written with Vernon
Castle,ModemDancing, which servedas botha dance
manual and etiquette handbook. See Mr. and Mrs.
VernonCastle, Modem Dancing (1915).
13. Typical for the time, both health reformers and
beauty experts frequently compared good-looking,
healthy women to the Venus de Milo. Banner notes
that it "runs like a leitmotif throughout the beauty
literatureof the nineteenth century"(1983, 110 and
139). This means of comparison continued into the
early twentiethcentury,as well.
14. These ideas and theories about beauty attributed
58
Dance Research Journal
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(Fall 1999)
to Kellermannalso reflectedthe contemporaryinterest
in eugenics (which was related to current theories
about mind-body control). Banner refers to the early
twentieth-centuryeugenicist Cesare Lombroso who
believed that "facial types reflected individual
character"(1983, 204).
15. It is worth noting here that by the teens Duncan
herself had disassociated herself from ideas and
rhetoric about the Greek ideal that had formed a
cornerstone of her dance philosophy in the 1900s
(Daly 1995, 178). But MDM still invoked her name
andimage in service of this ideal, which assistedthem
in legitimizing ragtime and jazz dances. For a
discussion of the alternativemodels of female beauty
thatsupersededIsadoraDuncan (namely IreneCastle
andAnnette Kellermann),see Daly 1995, chapter7.
16. Daly notes that Duncan was an enthusiastic
follower of Ellen Key, a Swedish reformerandauthor
of Love and Marriage and Renaissance of
Motherhood.Also, after the tragic death of her two
children,in 1913, Duncanwas "enshrinedby the press
andthe publicas a great,grievingmother"(Daly 1995,
168). In "What Modern Women Want," in MDM
(1916/1917, 17) Duncan is quoted as extolling
women's capacity for motherhood, which she
consideredan illustrationof women's internalstrength
and beauty. Daly explains that Duncan's feminism
cannot be seen as necessarily representinga schism
between "nature"and "culture,"a concept known to
contemporaryfeminism, since culture at the turn of
the century"was not necessarily coded as masculine"
(1995, 172). Relevanthereis the fact that,for Duncan,
nature was allied with a notion of the transcendent.
As Daly states, explicating Duncan's philosophy,
"dance is not about mere self expression; it is about
the expression of the transcendent... throughthe self,
which she conceptualized as not just the individual
but the individual interconnected with the cosmos"
(1995, 136).
17. Dance Lovers was the precursor of Dance
Magazine, also owned by Macfadden, which started
publishing in 1926. Although the data is sketchy, it
appearsthatMacfaddenpublishedthe magazineuntil
its demise in 1931. For more information on later
dance magazines see Rita Kirk Powell (1976).
18. For more on BernarrMacfaddensee RobertErnst,
Weaknessis a Crime:TheLife of BernarrMacfadden
(1991); Vera Caspary, The Secrets of Grown-ups
(1979); John Tebbel, The American Magazine: A
Compact History (1969, 238-39); and James C.
Whorton, Crusaders for Fitness: The History of
AmericanHealth Reformers(1982).
in thesameyearMovieMagazine,
19.By comparison,
a popularfilm monthly,listeda circulationfigureof
100,000, while the circulationfor Dreamworld,
anotherof Macfadden's
pulps,waslistedat 150,000.
exhibition ballroomdancers (Irene Castle, Joan
Sawyer,Mae Murrayandothers)led a quietrevolt
heavycorsetfavoringlooseragainstthe traditional,
to
reveal
the body's line. See The
fittingclothing
Dance Lovers, and its successor, Dance Magazine,
History of Underclothes, C. Willett and Phillis
wereprobablyableto stayin existenceforas longas
they did because they rode on the coattails of
Macfadden's
publishingempire.
([1951] 1992).
Cunnington
20. This advertisementfor ArthurMurray'shome
dancelessonsappearedin the January1924issueof
DanceLovers.Themailorderadvertisements
began
to proliferatein the mass subscriptionwomen's
magazines during this time as well, notably in
of social
McCall's.Fora discussionof theattainment
danceprowessas meansof assimilatingintomiddleto Glory:
classculture,see myarticle,"Two-Stepping
Social Danceandthe Rhetoricof Social Mobility"
(1997).
21. For a fuller discussionof the influenceof the
motion pictureson women's dress styles of the
twenties see Anne Hollander,Seeing ThroughClothes
(1978, 153-55).Hollander,discussingthe penchant
for the thin physiqueof the twenties, notes that
"[h]ealthyinnocence,sexual restlessness,creative
evenmorbidobsessiveness
zest,practical
competence,
in size ten"
andintelligence-all seemedappropriate
(1978, 155-56).
22. Theevolutionof the corsetis perhapsone of the
of changingconceptsof
mostintriguingbarometers
As
the
solar
femininity.
plexusareabeganto assume
greatervisibilityin socialdance,thenatureof corset
advertisements changed. As Hollander notes,
"Corsets,famousfor being discarded,were in fact
(1978,338).As earlyas theteens,
simplyremodeled"
23. Manymoviesduringthistimedepictedthemesof
in variousplotssuchas stodgy
the"modemmarriage"
husbandsbeing transformed
by theirnew, modem
themselves(using
wives,oryoungwivestransforming
the chorusgirl image)to keepthe attentionof their
potentiallyerranthusbands.See ElaineTylerMay,
"MythsandRealitiesof theAmericanFamily,"in A
History of Private Life (1991, 551-52).
24. Fora fascinatingaccountof thetwentiesas a time
of metaphoricmatricide(whenthe motherbecame
thesymbolforwomen'sculturalascendancy)
seeAnn
Douglas, TerribleHonesty:MongrelManhattanin the
1920s (1995), particularly
chaptersix, "The'Dark
Legend'of Matricide."
25.As dancehistorianandsociologistHelenThomas
notes,drawingon theideasof ElizabethKendalland
Nancy Ruyter:"To enable dance to become an
occupation in which 'respectable' middle-class
attitudesaboutthe
womencouldengage,traditional
the
female
body-had to be
body-particularly
brokendown"(1995, 47). I wouldsuggestthatthis
attitude,while particularlyprevalentamong the
middleclasses, also affectedworking-classwomen
in socialdancing.Whileworkingwho participated
class women'ssocialrealitywas different,they still
andprohibitions
laboredundersimilarproscriptions
regardingthebodyanddancing.
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