THE JUDGE SAID-.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 274, 1 September 1936, Page 4

THE JUDGE SAID-.

HEARD AT THE COMPETITIONS. BOYS SHY OF DANCING. “It is a great pity there are not more boys in the dancing section. I know what most boys think of dancing. They say it is ‘sissiiied,’ but I think it is great, and more boys should take it up.”—The dancing judge at the Ashburton Competitions last night. “We used to hear gramophone records of English choir boys singing and there was quite a rush to become choir boys. Any boy can be an English choir boy and can learn to sing like that. Then there was the boy bough; any boy who has average brains and average voice can learn to sing like that. In every English choir there are eight or ten "boys as .good as Lough, but it just happened that Lough’s teacher was a good publicist. People ask, ‘Why haven’t we get them in New Zealand?’ The answer is because you have not formed any boys’ choirs, and that because people think it is hard to got the boys in. But that is not so. Get hold of a teacher who is willing to let the ooys’ voices remain unspoiled, and you will soon have your choirs. I am not talking through my hat; I am talking horse sense. Not one boy in a hundred in this country is having his voice properly trained.”—The musical judge. “We have had a long string of girls appearing in the vocal section. Let us see in future an equally long string of perhaps plain but equally good boy singers. With the teachers Ashburton has, and full advantage taken of that fact, you should be able to bring forward, the talent that must be there.”— The musical judge. “The three girls who appeared in the skipping rope dance to-night tripped. I am sorry they did, but probably they were as nervous as I am at this moment!”—The dancing judge. “When the dancers in the sailors’ hornpipe hitch their trousers they must really hitch them. There is a story attached to that. When the sailer has completed scrubbing the deck he hitches his trousers, but as his hands are wet he uses his forearms for the hitching, so the dancers must do it that way—like this.” (Demonstration —laughter—confusion of speaker). “Well, you know what I mean, don’t you!”—The dancing judge,