CONTROVERSIAL DANCE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 11

CONTROVERSIAL DANCE

Katherine Dunham’s Comment “Please, don’t try to analyse the dance if we do decide to include it in the Christchurch programme.” That was the advice Miss Katherine Dunham gave when asked to comment in Christchurch on the withdrawal in Auckland of a number “Rites de Passage,” which is part of her current repertoire and has caused both criticism and praise from sections of theatregoers “Rites de Passage,” which Miss Dunham considers is an important example of the lives of young people in primitive communities, is an interpretative dance of the stage of puberty in males and the attraction of a young man for a young woman in this primitive society. The number was cut from the programme when it appeared in Auckland after complaints that it was ‘“sensuous and in parts indecent” had been made in local newspapers. Similar views were widely published in Australia, where the company enjoyed a successful season.

Defending the dance as an item which was of serious anthropological worth, Dr. W. R. Geddes, of the Auckland University College anthropology department, replied to the criticism, saying that “sheer ignorance” had prompted the outcry. He urged that the number be retained and he was supported in his request by numerous persons who Wrote to local papers. In Wellington the number was left in the programme and was praised by leading anthropologists “I know what conservatism can be like—l had a stern religious upbringing, but it is analysis of the dance that is causing most of the trouble. So few people seem to be able to feel something in its generalities. Too many people have been concentrating on the theatre notes,” Miss Dunham told a reporter when asked if she would include the number.