But the real, overflowing compensation came when that
little, lithe, hipless man in black jumped to his feet and stormed the
audience with a dance of hands and arms, feet and legs, head, neck, and
the whole body, which Mordkin in his finest frenzy could not have
equaled or approached. Whatever was fiercest and wildest in nature and
boldest in art was there, and now the house went mad with its
hand-clappings and table-hammerings and deep-throated "Oles!"
Another night we went to the academy of the world-renowned Otero and saw
the instruction of Sevillian youth in native dances of the _haute
ecole._ The academy used to be free to a select public, but now the
chosen, who are nearly always people from the hotels, must pay ten
pesetas each for their pleasure, and it is not too much for a pleasure
so innocent and charming. The academy is on the ground floor of the
_maestro's_ unpretentious house, and in a waiting-room beyond the
shoemaker's shop which filled the vestibule sat, patient in their black
mantillas, the mothers and nurses of the pupils. These were mostly quite
small children in their every-day clothes, but there were two or three
older girls in the conventional dancing costume which a lady from one of
the hotels had emulated.
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