Excerpt from Dancing and the Drama East and West

Nowhere is the genius of the East more clearly manifested than in the theatre. Miss Bloch, who is herself a trained dancer, speaks with authority on what she has seen in the East, and it is remarkable that almost every one of her observations could be justified by reference to chapter and verse of the technical literature.

The comparison of Eastern art with science is likewise well-considered: for like the scientist, the Oriental craftsman aims at explicit demonstration rather than elegant procedure, and the intrusion of personal taste is to be avoided in art as the intrusion of personal bias is avoided in science. In setting forth the stories of heroes, or making the images of gods the Asiatic craftsman has no thought of art, as we now understand the word The primary qualification demanded of him was obedience: he was not required to be a creature of moods, but to know his trade.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.