10,000 Watch Danish Gymnasts

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 1

10,000 Watch Danish Gymnasts

’ Grace, beauty, synchronisation, strength and colour were provided by the 24 Danish gymnasts who entertained about 5000 spectators at Canterbury Court on Saturday evening and a similar number at Lancaster Park yesterday afternoon. Prolonged applause greeted | every item, and the final (routine at Canterbuiy Court, men’s backward somersaulting, drew an ovation. Folk dancing, calisthenics, and gymnastics shared the

programme in about equal proportions, and the twohour performance did no more than whet the appetite of spectators. Probably the most popular item was the men’s gymnastics. The fluidity associated with top-class gymnastics was fully in evidence, but most impressive was the seemingly effortless strength in many of the routines. The most graceful item of Saturday evening was the girls’ routine with large rubber balls, but the men’s tumbling and vaulting were almost as graceful. Nowhere was their co-ordination better displayed than on the long vaulting-horse when

seven completed, and held for at least two minutes, full arm handstands upon it.

The girls provided a kaleidoscope of red, white, and blue, and retained the interest of the spectators for long periods with a minimum of equipment. If the routine with the bails was the most graceful, few could have realised so much beauty could be displayed with the aid of an ordinary skipping rope. On the wooden floor of Canterbury Court the giris made hardly a sound as they glided through a series of intricate movements. The folk dancing should

have been instructive for everyone there. Not only were the movements interesting, but the firmness with which the men held their partners made the dancing of a standard rarely seen in New Zealand. The stateliness of the dancing was matched only by its intricacy of movement. The evident pleasure the dancers got from it was quickly communicated to the spectators A mock fight came after the final dancing item, and this was both realistic and amusing. The two lovelorn swains fought it out while the flighty cause of it all found consolation elsewhere.