The main intention
was carried out, which was to combine the work of the dancer
with the words of the production and the responses of the audience.
The present rhymer has no ambitions as a stage manager.
The Poem Game idea, in its rhythmic picnic stage, is recommended to amateurs,
its further development to be on their own initiative.
Informal parties might divide into groups of dancers and groups of chanters.
The whole might be worked out in the spirit in which
children play King William was King James' Son, London Bridge,
or As We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. And the author of this book
would certainly welcome the tragic dance, if Miss Dougherty
will gather a company about her and go forward, using any acceptable poems,
new or old. Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon is perhaps
the most literal and rhythmic example of the idea we have in English,
though it may not be available when tried out.
The main revolution necessary for dancing improvisers,
who would go a longer way with the Poem Game idea,
is to shake off the Isadora Duncan and the Russian precedents for a while,
and abolish the orchestra and piano, replacing all these
with the natural meaning and cadences of English speech.
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