WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES.

New Zealand Women's Institutes have done much to make community life more pleasant, and those who are taking pains to keep abreast of new developments in the movement will no doubt hear with some interest about a new country dance—for folk dancing is certainly one of the recreations most indulged in in women's institutes in England. The tune and instructions for an old folk dance,, bearing the name of "The Tartar," and dating back to the reign of Charles 11., has been discovered between the leaves of an old book in a small country bookshop in Nortliants. Country dancing, which was first revived in England just before the war, has now made such a rapid development that almost every county has its own instruction centre, with a travelling expert. Enthusiasm is not confined to country districts only, but has also spread to the towns. Throughout the counties the various dancing clubs are organised to meet periodically, so that dancers may be selected to form a troupe, which once a year gives an exhibition at the Albert Hall in London. A special team, composed only of inhabitants of the village in which the M.S. was found, wilj perform "The Tartar" next year, and no doubt New Zealand visitors in 1931 who like folk dancing will take steps to see this historic revival.