BEAUTY AND GRACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 15

BEAUTY AND GRACE

GREEK LEGACY LOST ART OF MRS. DIANA WATTS Harmony, the ideal and the watchword of the Greeks, who achieved a perfection of bcdily development and mental poise, that is still the envy and wonder of the world, is the mission of Mrs. Diana Watts, of London, who returned to Auckland this morning: after a tour of the South Island. That we, in common with most other races, had lost the “sixth sense,” was the opinion stated by Mrs. Watts to a SUN man this morning-. The “sixth sense,” explained Mrs. Watts, was the sense of perfect movement achieved by the harmony of balance. It is in an endeavour to restore this art to an ungainly world that Mrs. Watts is now visiting- New Zealand, and lectures on the subject will be given while she is in Auckland. To appreciate the difference that exists between the beautiful Greek movements and the awkward, almost slovenly slouch that largely predominates to-day, one has only to meet Mrs. Watts. An original scholar with profound knowledge of Greek civilisation, Mrs. Watts has herself attained to that perfection of physical development and control which she describes. In addition to having studied the balance and movement of Greek physical culture from the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, 8.C., Mrs. Watts has also composed exercises illustrating the attainment of these harmonious movements. On this subject Mrs. Watts has lectured in England, France, and also in most of the British overseas Dominions, and is also the author of “The Renaissance of the Greek Ideal.” Mrs. Watts is the wife of General Rudkin, who has just returned from a series of lectures in the South Island on the Fascisti movement in Italy, and who is accompanying her on the tour. General Rudkin and his wife were the guests this afternoon at a reception given by Mrs. Boult, of Khyber Pass.