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The mirror of the graces; or, the English lady's costume: combining and harmonizing taste and judgment, elegance and grace, modesty, simplicity and economy, with fashion in dress; and adapting the various articles of female embellishments to different ages, forms, and complexions; to the seasons of the year, rank, and situation in life: with useful advice on female accomplishments, politeness, and manners; the cultivation of the mind and the disposition and carriage of the body: offering also the most efficacious means of preserving beauty, health, and loveliness. The whole according with the general principles of nature and rules of propriety
(1811)
On the management of the person in dancing, and in the exercise of other female accomplishments, pp. 174-202
Page 182
189 ixRRnoP OF TIM GRACES. from the waist upwards, that they nightly see at balls, and I need not describe more cir. cumstantially. For these ladies to suppose that they are fine dancers, because they execute a variety of difficult steps with ease and precision, is a great mistake. The motion of the feet is but half the art of dancing: the other, and in- deed the most conspicuous part, lies in the movement of the body, arms, and head. Here elegance must be conspicuous. The body should always be poised with such ease, as to command a power of grace- ful undulation, in harmony with the motion of the limbs in the dance. Nothing is more ugly than a stiff body and neck, during this lively exercise. The general carriage should be elevated and light; the chest thrown, ot, the head easily erect, but flexible to move with every turn of the figure; and the limbs should be all braced and animated with the spirit of motion, which seems ready to bound through the very air. By this elasticity per- vading the whole person, when the dancer moves off, her flexile shape will gracefully
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