THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

It is true, the young people have learned to dance within the last twenty years or so, and dance with great enjoyment and quite proportionate vigour. It is equally true that the young women (rather remarkable always for their prevailing comeliness) have learned, like other young women in other places, to study the fashions of female dress.

Atkinson/Parish

At Padovani Beach the dance hall is open every day. And in that huge rectangular box with its entire side open to the sea, the poor young people of the neighborhood dance until evening. Often I used to await there a moment of exceptional beauty. During the day the hall is protected by sloping wooden awnings. When the sun goes down they are raised. Then the hall is filled with an odd green light born of the double shell of the sky and the sea. When one is seated far from the windows, one sees only the sky and, silhouetted against it, the faces of the dancers passing in succession. Sometimes a waltz is being played and, against the green background, the black profiles whirl obstinately like those cut-out silhouettes that are attached to a phonograph’s turntable. Night comes rapidly after this and with it the lights. But I am unable to relate the thrill and secrecy that subtle instant holds for me.

Camus/Algiers