Dance time

This is the first National Dance Week since the United States has had a professional dancer in its First Family (though memories linger of how enthusiastically the Gerald Fords cut a rug). The occasion gets an extra lift from the fact that the President's son Ronald will be participating. But Americans are no wallflowers anyway when it comes to "celebrating dance throughout the country," which is one of the week's purposes. From the spectacular rise of ballet in recent decades to the current revival of tap-dancing, from the couples taking lessons in the latest steps to those recycling the past as the big bands echo --

Who would have it any other way? Apart from the sheer enjoyment, dance at its best is an art to remind us how the human body can surpass itself through discipline, thought, and imagination. When a ballerina soars, when a hoofer floats, we are all less earthbound.