Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 12, 1915, Page 29

CE skating, or rather dancing on I skates, is the newest fashionable amusement. There is every indica- tion that the new craze, which already is country-wide in extent, will be taken up by people of all ages, and in all walks of life, with the same enthusiasm that has converted men, women and children into fox-trotters and tango-ex- perts during the past three or four sea- sons. Skating on ice is considerably more i difficult for adults to learn than dancing. : Dancing on the ice s a feat which only H expert skaters dare to tackle, Never- i theless, the difficulties of tho new fad seem to have had little effect on Its popularity, and the rinks throughout the country are now crowded -morning, noon and night with debutantes and society matrons who are determined .to become expert skaters and ice-dancers in the shortest possible time. ‘The dances which expert skaters are able to executs on the ice include the old-fashioned waltz, the ten-step, another form of waltz; the fox-trot and various modifications of the other dances which have become popular In recent seasons, While these ice-dances look extremely difficult to perform, the accomplishment follows easlly enough after the funda- mental figures of fgureskating have been acquired. A good figure-skater can learn now. figures with as much facllity as a dancer learns'new steps. The main thing that is necessary is to become 3 adept at ordinary figure-skating. Danc- it ing on ice will then follow easily enough, i although, of course, it will require a good | deal of practise. ] The foundation of all figure-skating is I the abllity to use the four edges of the it skates—the inside left, the outside left, the inside right and the outside right, | and to be able to skate backward on | either of these edges just as readily as ] forward. Daily practise on these funda- mentals is esSential to progress in fce- dancing. | The fact that the new amusement has { already taken a firm hold is evidenced | in many ways. Four of New York's | most fashionable hotels have already planned icerinks for the use of thelr patrons. ‘The Blltmore is the first to open its rink to the public. The Wal- dorf 18 said to be Investing in the neighborhood of a million dollars in a rink on the roof of its new annex. The Hotel Astor and the McAlpin are now arranging similar facilities. Some of the ¥ restaurants and cabarets which have ! hitherto made their dancing-floors their I principal attraction are preparing to sub- stitute jce for hard-wood so that those 3 who have danced may hereafter skate 8 instead. i Most significant of all, perhaps, is the 4 thorough manner in which New York, by Boston and Chicago soclety has taken y the lead In adopting the new fad. In New York, a club was formed several weeks ago by enthusiasts and its mem- bership Includes most of the debutantes of the season, the girls who are to come out mext year and some young married people. Among subscribers to the club are Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Mr. and Mrs. Cornellus Vanderbilt, Mr. and Mrs. Ed- win Gould, Mr. and Mrs, Irving Brokaw and a host of others whose names are very well known in the most exclusive social circles. This club has engaged the St. Ni¢holas Bkating Rink for Monday afternoons for the entire season, which lasts until the end of April. Professional skaters and instructors have been engaged to in- struct the members in the intricacles of fce-dancing. In Boston, expert skaters have been engaged by the Boston Skating Club, an exclusive organization, to teach soclety the new fad. Mr. and Mrs. A. Windsor Wills, Miss Eleanora Sears and Miss Edith Rotch are, perhaps, the most promi- nent of Back Bay fashionables who are leading the movement in New England. In' Chicago, the Sherman House som: time ago anticipated the present craze and installed a skating-rink in the Col- lege Inn, inthe basement, in place of the dancing floor. It was foreseen that dane- ing was losing its hold and that ice-ski inx was =olng to take its place. The change has met with great success. 'rme the zeneral public is golne to follow soclety’s tead and make skating the principal diversion this Winter is ine dicated plainlv by the unusually large pumber of peonle who have already taken up the sport at the rinks. At St. Nicholas Rink, for instance, rec- pord crowds have Ween in attendance at every session since the opening of the season on November 1. This rink ac- commodates 800 peovle on the ice at a re three sessions a day. of all ages are clamor- ing for ‘instruction or for a chance to practise and themselves in the new skating-dances The same situation prevails at thn g & record business, and jusiasm is ent in Detroit, of the park lakes, streams and out-door rinks. Then, of course, there will be sufficient outlet for all the pent-up enthusiasm which the crage Is bound to arouse in the meantime. Evidently that is what the manufacturers of sporting goods and apparel are relying upon mainly, for althqugh the indoor skating season is now a month or two old, the large skate factorles are still run- ning on a twenty-four hour schedule in three shifts inan effort to cope with the tre- mendous demand for skates which they are confident will materialize within the next two or three months. Up-to-date skating has brought with it its own special styles of wearing ap- parel. All the costume makers and manufacturers of wearing apparel have vied with each other in getting out at- tractive skating designs and the big re- tall stores have given considerable space in their advertising to the beautiful creations which have been made avall- able for followers of the new craze. This factor, in itself, it is believed, will insure the popularity of ice-dancing. Indeed, it has been suggested that women may be tempted to take up skating in order to wear the new garments rather than to purchase the new garments for the sake of skating. In line with this phase of th a serles of weekly fashion voted to garments speclally designed for skating has been arranged at the St Nicholas Rink. Already seyeral of the weil known women's specialty houses have exhibited thelr models at these dis- plays, and the remarkably effective cos- tumes which skating has developed are certainly not calculated to deter women from falling into line. The social opportunities which the new craze affords are considerable. Al- ready two elaborate Ice-Teas or “dan- sants a glace” have been given by Mr, d Mrs. Irving Brokaw, in which the skating stage of the Hippodrome was engaged. On these occasions, the guests of the Brokaws to the number of about 100 participated in the general ice-dancing and were then entertained by Mr. Brokaw, probably the most accomplished amateur figure-skater {n the world. Lawrence Waterbury, of polo fame, and Raymond Townsend, of New Haven, who gave a special exhibition of fancy-skating, their partners being the famous Hippo- drome professionals Charlotte, Katy Schmidt and Ellen Dallerup. ‘A large contingent of Boston soclety folk were present, bringing with them Mr .and Mrs. Muller, German professional skaters, who have been engaged by the Boston Skating Club to teach Back Bay folk the new accomplishment. The New York guests included Mrs. O. H, P. Belmont, Mr. 'and Mrs. Oliver Harriman, Mr. and Mrs. Elbert H. Gary, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Scott. Burden, Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Vander- bilt, Mrs. BargerWallach, Mr. Irying Brokaw (©) Underwood & Underwood. Mrs. Cass Ledyard and Mr. J, H. Alexander Mr. Foxhall P. Keene, and a host of others equally prominent in soclal circles. Just how the new craze started no one is able definitely to explain. Per- haps the largest single factor ip arous- ing finterest in skating, however, has been the wonderful exhibition given by Charlotte and her associates at the Hippodrome. The Ballet on Ice was brought from the Admiralpalast, at Ber- Mn, by Mr. Dillingham and has been uni- versally admired. The Shuberts have helped to foster interest in she new diversion by converting the “Castles in the Alr" cabaret, on top of the Forty- fourth Street Theatre, into an Ice Palace, where every evening a skating troupe dis- plays its ekill on real ice, Particularly significant is the fact that some of the most accomplished of the _ Copyright, 1915, by the Star Company _ professional dancers who have hitherto been featured at the Broadway cabarets, sensing the drift of things, have taken up dancing on ice and are not only giv- ing exhibitions but instruction. Eileen Molyneux and Olifton Webb, of the Town Topics Company, for instance, who made such a hit as professional dancers, have shown equal skill at fox- trotting on skates in the rinks. Norval Baptie and Isabel Butler, at the in the Air, bave similarly forsaken hl old-style hardwood dancing for the more graceful and more difficult feat’ of ice- dancing, Preparations to accommodate the thou- sands of skate-mad enthusiasts who will be clamoring for a chance to display their skill, or lack of it, as soon as the first freezing weather sets in, have been Great Britain Rights Reserved Kathleen Pope and George Kerner and made at the various public tennis courts in different parts of New York City and the vicinity. A two-foot embankment been erected all around these courta and as soon as the temperature drops sufficiently to justify a hope of freezing weather, these grounds will be flooded. ‘The problem of providing sufficient in- door rinks to accommodate the enthus- {asts when the weather is not sufficiently cold to freeze the lakes and out-door rinks is not a very difficult one. The ease with which the Hotel Biltmore in- stalled its rink, using the regular refrig- erating plant for the purpose, will point the way for other institutions. Jt s not unlikely, too, that the imitation ice used by certaln vandeville performers for their skating stunts and which consists of a certain composition which is lald down ifn blocks, may be utilized by roller skating rink proprietors to convert their houses into icerinks. This imitation ice 1s sald to be almost as good as real ice for figure-skating and dancing purposes, although it retards speed to some extent. “Don't worry about lack of facilities for ice-skating,” declared Mr. Brokaw, when this phase of the present craze was suggested to him. “The sport has aroused such a trem- endous storm of enthusiasm that it is not unlikely that too many -rinks will spring up over night. Everybody seems suddenly to have gone jce-mad. “For years I have tried to arouse en- thusiasm in this m graceful of sports and now that the boom has come I'm most afraid the thing may be overdone. There are so many people who are tak- ing up skating mow who will never really amount to anything. They are ‘olv at it in the wrong way. ou see them at the rinks golng around and around like so many mice on & tread-mill instead of endeavoring to (C) Underwood & Underwood. Mis. Katherine Dahlgren and Mr, R. S. Emmet. (O) Underwood & Underwood. Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth At Robert Goelet's Skating Party perfect themselves in the only feature of ice-skating that is really worth while— figure-skating. “Of course, I realize that we must learn to crawl before we can walk, but when 1 see skaters who have been able to skate for years and are still content to roll around in the ceaseless grind of rink-skating instead of tryicg to accom- plish something in the way of figure- skating, it makes me a little discouraged, “Plain skating is a very important preliminary to flgureskating. Unless the fundamentals of good skating are ac- quired right from the start, graceful figure-skating is forever out of the ques- tion. It is almost impossible to correct the bad habits which faulty skating brings with it. So many skaters never get beyond the preliminaries. That is unfortunate. Perhaps the renewed in- terest in this most graceful and health- ful of all sports may bring about a gen- eral improvement in this respect.” Mr. Brokaw has made skating his hobby for years. He is the author of the only authoritative work on the art of skating, and he has always been active in every movement to further the interest of the sport. He is an active member of the new society skating club et the St. Nicholas Rink, and he gives frequent amateur exhihitingg, ] i, R SO Tie OMAHA SUNDAY BEE MAGAZINE PAGE,| .1 Dancing on lceSkates theLatest Fashionable Society Now Busy with ‘‘Ice Teas” “Dansants a Glace’’ and Not Enough Skating Rinks or Instructors to Meet the Demand