More on Eliot

in my very preliminary thesis research, i ran across this quote from a ballet review that Eliot wrote for one of the early issues of Criterion, the literary magazine he edited. quote is thus:

The difference between acrobatics and dancing may be observed in any music hall: it is a difference of total effect, of the faculty to which the performer appeals. The acrobat, however bad or good, appeals to the mind rather than to the senses. We admire his skill, we say, that is difficult, and we could not do that - or we are pleased by mere surprise or novelty ... There are acrobats ... whose juggling appeals to our sense of beauty of form; but this is an added gift. the primary appeal of acrobatics is to the mind. In dancing, the physical skill is ancillary to another effect; but the appreciation of skill is for the trained critic alone, not for the general audience.

Which is to say, that dancing appeals to the senses in its beauty. We can appreciate its beauty without understanding all the physical form and training required to create such beauty. I am delighted in this, both because I love dance, and because i love poetry, and poetry is the ability to make words dance, to incorporate music into language itself. And this pleases me.