"ACTS OF DANCING"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 284, 1 December 1944, Page 12

"ACTS OF DANCING"

is Methodist Resolution a Sign of Social Change ?

P.

A.

INVERCARGILL, November 16.

ERMISSION to hold "acts of dancing" on church property was granted by the Otago-Southland Methodist Synod to-day. There was a keen discussion on the moral aspects of dancing and the outlook of the Church, _"We play moral tiddleywinks," declared the Rev. W. H. Greenslade, Invercargill, who moved the resolution, ‘‘and our attitude is one of Gospel negations. Our laymen feel we are out of touch with life. Many laymen feel to-day that the time has come when the Church must rehabilitate itself in a worthy sense, centering life in the Church. We have gone wrong in having lopped from us arms which bring people into the church." "We only ask you to give permission to have acts of dancing on a social programme, not whole-night dancing," Mr. Greenslade added. "We can’t dictate to our Church members," said the Rev. A. E. Jefferson, Invercargill, "but when it comes to throwing our church premises open for dancing, that is another matter altogether." H. C. Vince (Dunedin) said that, as custodian of the Dunedin Town Hall and therefore an authority on modern dancing, he was firmly opposed to the motion. "I could tell you things about dances that would raise your hair," he said. "I am opposed to it from the bottom of my heart, and I live in the middle of it from day to day." Ba a x r- wondered last week, when we read this Press Association message from Invercargill, how many people were astonished by it, how many were amused, and how many thought it important. We couldn’t help feeling that the information, if there were any way of obtaining it, would tell us a great deal that is at present obscure: why people do or do not go to church; why there is unrest in education; why visitors find life dull in New Zealand; ‘and why servicemen on leave complain ‘that there is nowhere to go and nothing ‘to do. , Unfortunately the simplest facts are often the hardest to lay hold of. We can’t stop everybody in the street, or question everybody in a dining-room or a tram, and if we could we would not get trustworthy answers. But we thought it worth while to make a few simple tests. 40 Years Ago FIRST we tried a 60-year-old. Had he : seen the item, and if he had, what did he think of it? Was he pained, or just amused? "Well," he said, "I am too old to get shocks, but it did make me rub my eyes a moment. I suppose I thought that the rest of the world had changed with me, and that no one worried about such questions any longer." "You did worry once?" "Yes, I certainly did. Everybody did where I spent my youth; but that was more than 40 years ago." "Dancing was generally thought to be sinful at that time?" "Perhaps not generally; but certainly widely. We argued about it, and sometimes went further than argument. I can

remember being warned at church one Sunday that the sermon next Sunday would be about dancing and that those who didn’t like plain speaking had better stay at home. Of course nobody stayed at home, but some walked out’ in the middle of the denunciation, and the row went on for weeks afterwards. That was in a Presbyterian church, but I am not closely enough identified with them now to know whether it could happen again. But you would get a lot of interesting information if you looked in early newspaper files." That certainly was an idea, but we searched for a long tinie before we had any luck. Then we struck a patch, 77 Years Ago NDER the heading "The Music and Dancing Permits" the Daily Southern Cross (Auckland) of May 21, 1868, had a long report of a meeting held the day before, which began as follows: "Pursuant to advertisement, a number of clergymen and other gentlemen met yesterday at 11.30 a.m. at Mr. S. Hague Smith’s ironmongery establishment, Upper Queen Street, for the purpose of arranging the necessary preliminaries . . . to present a monster petition which had been prepared in opposition to that presented some time previously bearing the signatures of 1070 seamen, soldiers, tradesmen,

etc., praying His Honor the Superintendent and the Worshipful Justices for the district of Auckland to permit hotels to have music in the evenings . . . The total number of signatures to’ the counter-petition amounted to 575." Half-an-hour later the meeting went to the Courthouse and waited on the Resident Magistrate, 14 J.P.’s, and the Commissioner of Police. Not. Eye-Witnesses Here is the Rev. Dr. Maunsell presenting the address to the Justices: "I beg to avail myself of this opportunity of stating an amendment that has been made in the address by some of the people of Parnell. We cannot say that we were witnesses of the evils arising from the granting of these permits which we deprecate and therefore I have inserted the following: "That some of us have heard on the best authority, and others have witnessed, the evils of the singing and dancing assemblies.’ All of us have heard more or less of the great demoralisation resulting to the young of both sexes from these assemblies . . . etc." Dr, Maunsell then read the counterpetition, which thanked those authorities who had been trying to ‘stop the

"assemblies" by restraining the legal granting of permits by one particular JP. (Dr. Horne). The counter-petition said: "We have witnessed with the deepest regret the many evidences of vice which have emanated from -these singing and dancing assemblies and which cannot fail, if they are allowed to be continued, to have the most pernicious effect upon the moral character of many inhabitants of this city." After a long address, Thomas Beckham, Esq. (the resident magistrate), read the original petition "which consisted of several very large sheets of cartridge paper, bearing 1070 signatures." It said: "Your Petitioners have been accustomed, elsewhere and latterly in this city of Auckland, after their day’s work was over, to enjoy @ little innocent recreation in the evenings where they could hear music and listen to a social song . . . Such amt its . . . tended in no manner whatever to a breach of the peace; but your petitioners firmly believe that many were kept from getting into the society of characters which would have a lamentable result . . . etc." Bad to Worse Here is what Mr. Beckham himself had to say on the subject of singing and dancing: "I have no hesitation in saying that dancing and singing in public houses are the means of scattering broadcast vice and immorality and I cannot help also stating that numbers of unfortunate girls, deluded to these houses, have thus fallen from bad to worse ..." Mr. R. B. Lusk, J.P., said "a few words," of which these are some: "For my own part, I should like to see some cheap concerts got up, and I should be glad to aid in imparting a taste for music of a good kind, but out of public houses. But in public houses, music is neither more nor less than a trap to entice men to drinking; and, with regard to dancing, it stands in a very much worse position. I can say distinctly that when the dancing is in such places no respectable person is likely to go there. Young girls who do not know what the danger is will go there, but most of them will be of that class who have no character to lose .. ." Finally a motion that the prayer of the petition be not Heard was carried on the voices. To-day : ELL, that excursion into the newspaper files had given us very interesting evidence of social attitudes towards this question in the past, so we moved into the present and confronted a young clergyman with the paper cutting about the Invercargill discussion. j (continued on next page)

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"Yes," he said, "I’ve seen it, My reactions? Well, I smiled to myself and wondered whether they had any better reason for lifting the ban than they had for imposing it. I used to board with an old couple who were absolutely down on dancing, but I could never get any Treason-any legitimate reason-for.their objection. "Their attitude was always, ‘You mustn’t do it, and don’t ask why not.’ And so the young folk of the Church used to slip out whenever they could and have a dance. It wasn’t anything wicked to them-just something they were told not to do... It’s no good forbidding young people to do a thing without giving them a good reason for 16,7 Youth Worker Next we went to a youth worker, "There is a fundamental issue involved in this controversy," he said, "for dancing is about the only way boys and girls can meet socially; after all, most of our secondary schools are not co-educational. Unless the sexes met freely during the ’teen ages, their whole relationship later in society would become chaotic. Can you imagine the reaction if we asked youth to come along and sew patchwork quilts? The primal motive for their coming together must be for enjoyment, but having established the motive and brought them together you can progress to a lot of other things-courtesy on the dance floor, decent relationship between ‘the sexes, duties of hostessing, and so on," Episode in a Girls’ Hostel There were about a dozen girls in the hostel sitting-room in the early evening. At the piano one girl was playing "Mairzy Doats" and two others were dancing. Footsteps were heard outside the door and the couple broke apart, The music hesitated for a moment and then went on. When the matron had gone again,the' pianist remarked vehemently, "Why they object to dancing, I don’t know." "Ridiculous, I call it," said Anne, and put her head back in her book. Rae was new to the hostel. "Don’t they believe in dancing?" "They say it’s immoral,’ said Hazel. "Well, I suppose you could make it immoral if you liked. But you could do that with a good many other things as well." "A South Island Methodist Synod has given permission for ‘Acts of Dancing’ to be held on Church premises. That means that two or three dances can be included in the social. programme now." "How silly! What’s the difference between that and an evening of dancing? Anyway, ‘Acts of Dancing’ sounds like committing some sort of crime." There was a pause and a’ quiet girl in the corner said, "I’ve never been allowed to go to dances. Or to have a long frock either." : "Gosh!" said Rae, "What a life!" Soon they were discussing the latest film, for apart from the fact that dancing wasn’t allowed in the hostel, opinions on this topic affected them little and interested them less. In any case, on Saturday night most of them would be off to a dance somewhere or other. At a Bible Class It was the day after the Synod’s decision had been released, and 15 boys and =

girls, their ages ranging from 12 to 16, were discussing plans for their Bible Class social. Enthusiasm ran high over the programme, "We'll have mostly games and competitions, with a few dances." "Yes, proper dances. We did folkdancing last time, but it’s not nearly as much fun." "That’s right. And we must have someone to play for us." Not to one of them did it occur that there was anything wrong with dancing, or that it was an activity ane didn’t connect with the Church. It was just a normal gl thing which one took for granted. e