FOLK DANCING POPULAR AT LYTTELTON SCHOOLS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 11

FOLK DANCING POPULAR AT LYTTELTON SCHOOLS

Folk dancing, which is popular with most New Zealand primary schools, has a special appeal for Lyttelton children. There are two reasons for this.

First they dance, particularly at West Lyttelton School, in sight of the harbour and the world's shipping and this gives their folk dancing an international flavour. The musical accompaniment is frequently punctuated by a ship's siren, the thud of a propeller, the rattle of an anchor cable or a seagull’s screech. These are commonplace to these children. The other attraction which is unusual is that the three schools at port, Lyttelton West, Lyttelton Main and St Joseph's Convent all combine in an annual folk dancing festival. At ibis festival even the parents have a try. Before the festival, the three schools learn a bracket of three folk dances which they dance as a combination at the festival. In addition to this, each school learns three separate folk dances and at the festival each school teaches the others a folk dance from its own bracket of three.

The folk dances of many countries are performed but Lyttelton West concentrates on English and Scottish dances, St. Joseph’s Convent has no particular leaning and Lyttelton Main likes American square dancing. Perhaps because of its compactness, Lyttelton’s children are thrown together more than city children, and this particular combination between the three port schools is just one feature of their co-operation, desire for cooperation, so urgently stressed today.