Style no bar to dancing feet and energies

Press, 25 January 1989, Page 19

Style no bar to dancing feet and energies

By

ANABRIGHT HAY

Fifth position and the pas de Basque are two movements Highland dancing and classical ballet share.

A Highland and national dance teacher, Emma Brown, and a modern and classical ballet teacher, Gregory Zukerman, have spent the past week sharing knowledge with students attending the Christchurch Ballet Society’s summer dance school at Lincoln College.

Mrs Brown said that after Bonnie Prince Charlie returned to Scotland from Europe in the eighteenth century, Highland dancing became influenced'oy ballet, and fifth position and the pas de Basque were used in a number of Highland dances. The theory and traditions of Highland dancing were all part of a student’s training, Mrs Brown said.

She said Highland and national dancing were attracting many students throughout New Zealand and standards were improving.

Mrs Brown is the director of the technical committee of the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing and is particularly involved with supporting teachers. The Australian, Gregory Zuykerman, unlike Mrs Brown, is tutor-

ing at the Lincoln summer school for the first time. He has recently set up a small contemporary dance company in Sydney called Living Sculptures. While admitting he is used to working with adults, Zukerman says

he is enjoying tutoring at the summer school. He has been impressed by the standard and responsiveness of the students. Because the students had so much energy and enthusiasm they tended to expend it in the first few sessions and were

not used to pacing themselves, he said. Both tutors agree that the summer school, which ’Will end tomorrow with an evening recital, has given students a chance to learn and dance with new people.