DANISH GYMNASTS TO GIVE DISPLAYS IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27488, 23 October 1954, Page 9

DANISH GYMNASTS TO GIVE DISPLAYS IN N.Z.

A party of 32 Danish gymnasts which will arrive in New Zealand in mid-January is expected in Christchurch on February 25, and it will give a number of performances here if there is sufficient support from sponsors. In Auckland, the public relations office has .guaranteed £3OOO for 11 performances within that province. Mr Herman Andersen, the advance agent for the party, which is completely amateur and non-profit making, explained that the group hoped to give about 30 performances in New Zealand, and then have a few days sightseeing, if funds permitted. The party had the blessing of the Danish Government. The party was going to Fiji for four weeks to become a team—it had been chosen from individual competition—and would then come on to New Zealand. Later it would tour Australia. The Australian Government

had granted the gymnasts free passages back to Europe. The average age of the men in the party was 25, and the girls’ average age was 21, Mr Andersen said. They had each provided about £l5O towards the travelling and holiday expenses, but the tour was a costly affair, for everywhere double bookings had to be made—a stadium for open-air performances, an enclosed building in case of rain.

Danish gymnastics had come from Sweden 80 years ago, and had been developed greatly since then, Mr Andersen said. Two successful American tours had been made since the war. Gymnastics was popular at all private and public schools, and people later joined clubs for winter indoor exercise. It was regarded as a basic training for all other sports, and at a festival a few years ago, there were T 1,000 or 12,000 competitors. There were two sorts of gymnastics—the Danish team work and the German individual variety. The touring party will concentrate chiefly on team work. Mr Andersen said gymnastics of the calibre the Danes produced was not only entertainment of a high order, but it was an inspiration to school authorities. It was also an excellent mpans of keeping young people out of mischief. Denmark’s gymnastic teams had often been prominent at the Olympic Games.

Gymnastics was taken very seriously, but there was no need for the gymnasts to follow diet of any sort, said Mr Andersen. If they did the exercises, he said, they could eat practically anything and plenty of it. Mr Andersen showed a film to representatives of the City Council, the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Association, the Education Department, the Physical Education branch of the department, and the Young Men’s Christian Association. He said he thought they were interested in the visit. In Sydney on April 1. the Danes will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen with a special display. Hans Christian Andersen was, he found, the only thing people in other countries knew about Denmark. Asked whether in New Zealand, people did not also know that Denmark produced butter, Mr Andersen shook his head ruefully and said “Only a few people.”