DOCTORS ON DANCING

Hokitika Guardian, 15 June 1929, Page 1

DOCTORS ON DANCING

Doctors are constantly recommending various forms of exercise to their patients, but they seldom recommend darning (writes one of their number in a London daily). Perhaps they are afraid that their own exercising grounds will become over-crowded, for it is a fact that numbers of medical mo.i take to dancing seriously.

I realised this for the first time a ifew nights ago when 1 sat comfortably in a large first floor drawing room in I ’:.: let street and watched the g 'rati ms of my host, an eminent neurologist, and his portly wife. There were 12 oilier couples and a professional ilist. net ress.

Almost every branch of medicine was represented. Mr Orthopa'dic Surgeon danced with Mrs Aniesthetist, and Dr Lungs revolved carefully with l ady Gymocologicnl Expert. Dr X., the •famous radiologist, was enlarging his knowledge of the Charleston at the expense of Mrs IL, the wile ol a wedkuown heart specialist, and ” eyes and “ears” and “nose” and “throat” were represented by another energetic and middle-aged couple. Between dances I talked with a lady doctor who told me that these classes took place twice a week. “We all value the exercise,” she said, “ for dancing has several peculiar merits. It does not only exercise the legs. Properly carried out the modern dance is a splendid exercise in the co-ordina-tion df many muscles, including some of the abdomen and of the back. 'lhe less you know of it and the harder you have to try, the better the exercise. “There is the delight of feeling course M’ following properly the rhythm ol the music, and. there is the sense of harmony with your partner, whose arm supports and guides you. We regard dancing as an ideal exercise foi the middle-aged, and it can he indulged in even by the old, il they take it the right way.” She rose and embarked on a lox-trot with a massive representative oi cranial surgery, and 1 sat [Hindering on the strange results of time which had evolved.this solemn exhibition in Harley street out of one of the natural expressions of the' emotions-the dance.