DANCING

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1926, Page 4

DANCING

A STOUT DEFENDER

WELLINGTON, Feb. 12

In these days when dancing is being attacked by moralists it is interesting to note that moral aid is forthcoming for the dancing art from the Rockefeller Foundation’s medical surveyor of the Pacific, Dr Lambert.

! On the grounds of public welfare Dr j Lambert welcomes the swing back in , the Cook Islands from the old dance 1 suppression tendency of the mission to a healthy form of dancing “sponsored I bv the Government.” He reports: “On J almost every island of the Cook group there are clubs encouraged by Government agents, where, under proper supervision and during proper hours on given days in the weeks. European dances are bold, which are attended by ' as clean and well-dressed a lot of young folk as one could wish to see. I was told by observing people that these dances had the effect of diminishing the drinking of lni.-Ji beer and hail bad a beneficial effect on the morals of the youth. On Aitutnki on C'hrismas and Boxing Days I saw old dances, repre- * seining the migrations of the Polyj nesian race. On the whole it must he good for these people to dance, and it. ' seems to make them happy and contented. Tt is inevitable with the advent of civilisation that dancing, formerly suppressed by the missions, must return. Tt is best that it came sponsored and controlled by the Government in a proper way.” On the subject of missionary influence Dr Lambert remarks on tho co-exist-ence in the Cook Islands of “two difteien philosophies of education. The fonn of education adopted by the New Zealand Government had developed in the lower group, which is more accessible. better situated for trade and more populous, while the upper group has remained under llie education of a different outlook and organisation. While the education of the natives in the south has come under the influence of the culture, ideals and practices of European teachers, that ol the peoples of the north still is in the hands of the London Missionary Society. whose influence must necessarily tend in different directions from that of the Schools Department of a. State Government, ft is probable, however, that before many years the Schools Department will be entirely responsible for the education of the. natives of the whole group. Recently the Government lias subsidised the eliorts oi the mission, which, however, still undertakes lhe training of teachers lor the. northern island. As the work ol these teachers is now to lx* supervised by the • Superintendent of Schools lor the Cook Islands, there will be necessarily 1 some modification in the outlook and ' curriculum of these schools.

SERMON BV REV. T. W. ARMOUR. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 15. “There are people who are olfended when they see what they think to ho an innocent social pleasure pilloried. They say it gels rill of stillness, induces a gentle excitement, the cause of which they have never cared to analyse, that it provides plesaurnble intervals in humdrum lives.” This is an extract from a sermon on “Modern Dancing” which was delivered by the Rev. I'. TV. Armour to his congregation in Knox Church last evening. The preacher said that at the last General Assembly a special committee bail been set up to make a report on the matter of modern dancing. This report alfirmed the principle that each must he guided by his ow n conscience, lie had been interested to find that this deliverance of the Assembly had arrested the attention of the young people, who had found in it ambiguities which they asked him to explain in a sermon, lie thought it well to respond, and was sure that lie would have sympathetic attention in dealing with what was a difficult and delicate Mibjeil. Youth disliked lhe .shaded borders ami preferred the blunt “Tlion shah" or “Ti'.ou shall not.” But it was m,t ibe nay of Christian ethic- to manufacture sins. Laws were not wiittcn on stone, hut on the fleshly tables of the heart, and learnt as duty according to the will of God. It had to lie admitted that very little clear guidance ns‘to any relation with inc.Jci'n dancing could be got from (lie Scriptures. The few mentions of dancing in the Old Testament seemed to Inn,- been either part of religious ritual or simply the expression of exuberant- feeling, fn the parable of the Prodigal Son the elder brother heard the sound of music and dancing, but

from that it was not to lie imagined ' that he heard an orchestra and saw > people paired off in dance. Jl over • the Jews danced they danced apart. • This was true still of dancing in the ’ East. There was little direct, guidance cm ; the matter from the Scriptures, because the purpose of dancing then was different from that of to-day, and" the dance for social pleasure was not thought of then. Yet down the eoniurios it would lie found that protests Intel been raised against dancing. The Alhigenses reformers before the Reformation spoke of Fi as a thing of the devil, and the condemnation had not always been confined to puritanical sects. Even to-day, many people not narrow-minded were tilled with, apprehension concerning modern dancing and were anxious to free themselves Irom any association with it. There were reasons for this. In Lite first place objectors became conscious of the hidden potentialities, just as in the case of alcohol. It was possible to trace the tendency more easily in the drunkard than in the modern drinker, so it was possible that j extreme cases would have to bo taken to discover wlfat was really involved. The Indian medicine men. the dervishes of Africa and the Shamans of Siberia discovered that, by prolonged dancing, they could get- themselves into an ecstasy of sell'-inloxicatioii. Indian braves and Zulus danced lo work uti “Dutch courage.” It might he difficult to see the relation between litis and modern dancing, hut the extreme case had to ho borne in mind. Anything which, endangered solf-conl rol had to lie watched. Through physical exercise many people got a muscular and nervous stimulus which, constituted a moral danger. Hnvelcok Ellis had said that a girl who had waltzed fifteen minutes was in the same state as n girl who had drunk champagne, fn this region it was possible to find the ex-

phuintion why dancing had such a fnsj vitiation for people of less stable life, I why it was that girls who fell under the dancing spell bail little pleasure for loss sober joys, It might also explain the Assembly's reference to the excesses and abuses of the dancing craze. ‘ ''There is another aspect which T 1 must refer to it T am to he frank.” he •said. “It is delicate, but when men , ami women are together the primitive instincts have to he reckoned with. Tl is natural for them to come together for social intercourse as is seen by the fact that when they are separated unnaturally. ns in barracks and harems, they are fraught with social peril. The control of the primitive instinct is the foundation of all that is host in society, and the lack of control the foundation of all that is worst. We cannot but reflect what is the design of some of the modern dances. AYo must form our I own judgments, for a mere ban upon dancing would exclude anything from the children’s innocent 'ring a rosey,’ to that kind of thing which it is a shame to mention. The ultimate ver- \ diet in the matter will he the same as with alcohol. Those who don’t see the harm in drinking a little wine feel that they must deny themselves to help the weaker.”