Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 29, 1915, Page 21

ncing ] Mile. Ymelda Juliewna Develofiinx with HerOwn Body an Idea for a Scul:tmd Figure, for Which an Appearance of Equilibrium Is an Important Pro A Russian Artist’s Odd Theory That Perfect Control of Your Body’s Gravity in All Sorts of Poses Gives You Better Command of All Your Faculties to Meet All Emotional N the art world,” as well as " ‘elsewhere, not..only "the term “Efficiency,” but “Al Efffciency,” peing practised as well as preached. Young - painters and deulptors, students of the great classics which depict the human face and form as influenced by aif- ferent emotions and physical effort, are no longer satisfied merely to greate graphic or plastic representa- tions of these moods and actions; they are teaching their own counte- nances and bodies to convey, first, the ideas which Ln:y wish to depict th brush or chisel. w“l‘hiu is a novel {llustration of “Al Efficlency” applied to art. The prin- eiple involved is stimulation of the creative impulse through galulng‘.b- golute command of their own bodles and means of physical expression, resulting in perfect co-ordination of all the mental and physical faculties. It will be seen lhflt the prlnclpla ap- lies almost equally to any vocation; ru anybody's efflcl;ncy a life will be roved by dancing. h“'llzl'ma a young Rus#man girl with German family connections, studying sculpture in Munich, has become such an exceptionally capable dancer —on the classic Greek lines of that art—that she has created a furor in the art and general soclety of the Bavarian capital. Although her pro- ductions as a sculptor have not yet won the critics entirely, her purely incidental ability as a performer of classic dances has spread her name and her fame throughout Germany. She is Ymelda Juliewna, and the photographs reproduced on this page speak for her beauty and intelli- gence no less than for the grace with which she adorns her dancing and posing imitations and creations. When she imitates the sculptured “Dying Gladiator” her sculptor's “mind’s eye” is fortified by the sen- sations in nerves and muscles of her awn body—this muscle is contracted just so, this other muscle flexed, nec- essarily, and so on. She becomes the “Dying Gladiator,” and will know better than before how to represent him on canvas or in marble. Everything we know and feel is learned by us through the medium of our five senses. Our five senses are all purely nerve and muscle ac- tions and reactions. All emotion is a complex of muscular and nerve phenomena. Just as a body in which all the muscles, nerves, etc., are in harmony in a healthy body, so the peculiar complex of muscular and nervous activity that we know as emotion will be pleasant and happy if it is harmonious. A carpenter to be Al efficient in his trade is one in whom every mus- cular action and reaction is perfectly timed to the result be desires to ac- complish. So of all other trades. Al efficiency in life is dependent upon exactly the same thing In no other way than dancing of a particular kind can this pecullarly subtle muscular harmony be gained. Rythmiec movements that counterfeit and emphasize and develop well- known gestures of grief emable one to build up a resistance against sor- row. Sorrow that causes people to commit suicide or to become {ll and shpormal is simply a case of mus- ewmmar ineptitude. It is exactly like & man who has not beem trained to wrestle trying to keep from being thrown by a trained wrestler, But if one in a series of well-thought-of dances counterfeitg all these expres- sions of grief, when zrief finally does come it finds a muscular harmony a3d development along the lines of a “Despair,” a Dancing Exercise by Mile. Emergencie:. Juliewna Designed to “Teach One Better to Bear Grief.” grief that prevents the mind from be- ing ovethrown. in the same way, if what we know as magnetism (which everyone craves as a thing which brings us friends and fortune) is to be developed, then a serles of dancing poses which will imitate joy, the pleasure of receiving great gifts, love, and so on, create a peculiarly subtle muscular strength which attracts just these things we want, The stenographer is able to take down dictation quicker and more accurately and to read her notes more quickly and more accurately if she each morning devotes half an hour to a dance which calls for ex- traordinary balance and quickness of motion. The lawyer and the judge are able to decide knotty points of law better if they have become tuned up in the morning by a half hour of slow, graceful, lozical, linked movements. Anyone is better able to meet the emergency of life if for a half hour or an hour every morning he or she will dance through poses which bring out perfect control of the gravity of the body, quickness, alertness, grace and beauty. Thus runs Mademoiselle Jullewna's very curious and new philosophy. Particularly is it applicable to people who create—sculptors, painters, writ- ers, ete. You see her posing in the abandon of a Satyr or a Faun, you will understand that when she reproduces those poses in clay she will “feel” the true outlines which gay and her eye might fall to grasp. Then, from Imitation she proceeds to cre- ation by the same method. What is grief? What s despair? What is fear, surprise, bappiness? Those emotions are to be expressed phys- feally. Well, “A1 Efficiency” en- ables her to get the right idea through {llustrations with her own body. A “For use in my art work,” she says, “I try to develop the dance from the conventional forms to a free movement that expresses not merely motion, but harmonious col- org and supreme grace. I find the €reatest inspiration in the ancient sculptures after the schools of Phidias and Praxiteles. Of course, s a student I went through the usual period of copying with crayon and clay. But there was something lacking. I had no real understanding of the meaning of those expressions of face and of body. My work was purely mechanical, guided only by the eye and accomplished with such technique as I possessed. “At first, almost unconsciously, in seeking for a better understanding of my subjects, 1 began to give phys- lcal imitations of them. I would try to express with my own countenance and my own body those emotions, those stresses of muscles and those free and graceful movements of body and limbs. This experience supplied the need | had feit. My hand was moved by a truer instinct, my work improved rapidly. “Quite naturally 1 passed on to pantomime and dancing—to physical Copyright, 1915, by the Star Company Qurselves A Dancing Pose by Mile. Juliewna. Designed to Give Control of the Mind Through Command of the Body’s Gravity, Ymelda Juliewna Impersonating the Emotion of “Pleasurable Surprise,” Which Develops Magnetism. depictions of all sorts of emotions. These efforts proved fascinating, much more so. 1 am convinced. than if | had been practising those arts for their own sake alone For, when I felt that my own physical demon- stration of a certain emotion was true to life, 1 could set to work with confidence on a permanent record of it “What eventually happened was as astonishing as it was unexpected My fame as an artist was still to be won, but as an exponent of classic dancing 1 found myself on the top wave of success. But that is doing me uo harm It is only another proof that my real work is the real gainer by the experience. By and by, 1 hope, my art works will en- Great Britain Rights Resarved A Startling Manifestation of Mille. Juliewna's Ability to Convey a Sense of Ease and Perfect Poise of the Body Practise in Which, She Claims, Enables One to Withstand Emotional Shocks. tirely outelass in public and eritical estimation my posing and dancing ability.” At the present time Mlle. Jullewna finds her incidental gifts as a dancer especlally useful. She is In great demand at society entertainments for the benefit of the various classes of sufferers by the European war. A year ago at the outbreak of the war she was Summering in the Bavarian Highlands, and was unable to leave Germany, either for her home in Russia or to visit relatives in this country. So she returned to Munich and proceeded to make herself use- ful in charitable ways. She made her bow as dancer for charity at an entertain- ment arranged by Munich artists. Her success was instantaneous. So- clety welcomed her eagerly, The general public applauded her spirited and graceful dancing to the echo, and connoisseurs of that art praised her work in the highest terms. The Munich masters of dancing and of music marvelled at her ac complishments, knowing that her vo. cation was sculpture, and that she spent her days in the exacting stud fos and practise exacted by the fa mous master whose atller she fre quented as a student, 8Bhe had kept to herself her practise of posing and classic dancing, and had not ven- tured to mention her theories as above set forth When her secret leaked out, and her first public appearance as a dancer had brought her so much en- viable celebrity, every great master of music and dancing in the Bavar. ian capital placed his abilities at her service. That she bad no idea of becoming a professional dancer made no difference tu them: her theories about “Al Efficlency” in her chosen art interested them all the more. a public Here was a new aliance of ¢ muses, entirely in Iine with the cher ished aim of Richard Wagner, who had achieved his first great successes under the patronaze of a Bavarian King, anil whose name every resi dent of Munich is proud to honor. Mlle, Juliewna found herself, quite unexpectedly, supptied with the ablest and kindliest masters and critics. No longer compelled to teach and criticise herself in her efforts to give physical expression to fundamental emotions, she made rapid strides in the art which she still held merely supplementary to her vocation of sculptor. The quite remarkable photographs reproduced on this page furtner demonstrate Mlle, Juliewna’s ability Lo win the attention of masters In their different fields, They were taken by WRichard Worsching, of Starnberg, whose camera is famous in Burope for producing genuine art effects These reproductions show how faithful Mlle. Juliewna is to. her sculptor’s ideal of perfect poise. With her own body she displays. re. markable control of its gravity—in every instance there is conveyed. the sense of equilibrium, without which the art of the sculptor is as futile as that of the dancer, Classic dancing for the sake of classic dancing has some distin- guished modern exponents, among whom Isadora Duncan probably 'is most widely recognized. All these teachers and apostles of the art of dancing are pains-taking students'of classic sculptures, for these are the source of their dancing ideas—the foundation of the art which they are reviving. But it seems to have re- mained for this Russian girl to re- verse the process, to make the art of dancing serve the mobler art of sculpture.