THE COMPETITIONS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 117, 14 November 1919, Page 3

THE COMPETITIONS

DANCING SECTIONS

LAST EVENING'S FINALS

Yesterday was a particularly successful day at the Musical, Elocutionary, and Dancing Competitions Festival, and the pleasingly varied- evening programme was enjoyed by a record attendance tor the festival. Further results of yesterday afternoon's preliminary contests are as follow :— Sword dance (boy or girl, 12 and under 16 years). Recalls : Master William Brown (Newtown), Miss Theliiia M'Kenzie (Wellington). Seventeen entries. Irish jig (boy or girl, under 12 years). Finals : Master Ronald Brown (Newtown), 70 points, 1 ; Miss P L. H M'Millan (Wellington), 67 points, 2; Miss D. M. Currie (Brooklyn)* 62 points, 3. Twenty entries. Sheauntriubhas (open class, over 16 years). Recalls : Miss Jean M'Kenzie. •(Wellington), Miss Jean Jelley (Wellington). Eight entries. Character dance (12 and under 16 years). Recalls • Miss Iris Inglesby (Wellington), Miss Roma Bitossi (Wellington), Miss Emily Turner (Christchurch), Miss Thelma M'Kenzie (Wellington) ; highly commended, Miss Mavis King (Wellington). Twelve entries. Character dance (under 12 years). Recalls : Miss Sinclair Breen (Wellington), Miss Clara Nichols (Wellington), Miss Betty Can* (Wellington). Seven entries. Humorous character sketch (lady or gentleman), own selection. ' Recalls : ■Miss Nora Lea (Hataitai), Miss Maisie •Burt (Lower Hutt), Miss E. R. Aiteheson (Lyall Bay). Fourteen entries. THE EVENING'S FINALS. The first item of the evening's programme was a children's play, "The •Sewing Society,"in which Misses Betty Menard, Dorothy M'Doweli, Molly Madden, Eileen Searle, Marjory Dempster, Verona Nash, and Mavis Winsor attempted to forget their tender years for the time being, and to discuss after the ■manner of grown-ups at such a gathering matters wbieh really did not concern them. The Highland dancing classes, swords, and the sheauntriubhas were enthusiastically received, and, generally speaking, these sections were considerably more popular with the audience than were the posturings and posings of "classic" and snch-like classes. There is a snap, precision, and swing a,bout ■Highland dancing which appeals to all, ■whether they roll their r's or no The judge, Mr. N. Mackenzie Forbes, of Wanganui, placed Master WilMain ■Brown first in the swords with 80 points to his credit. Miss Thelma- M'Kenzie gained second place with 77 points. The awards in the sheauntriubhas were : Miss Jean M'Kenzie, 79 points, and Miss Jean Jelley, 73 points. The jndge of the elocutionary classes, Mr John H. Hopkins, said that the piece set in the open class recitation for ladies, 'The Bobolink," was not altogether an interesting one from the point of view of the audience, and, moreover, did not give the ladies much scope for their talent; it was not a very difficult piece of work, and required a light humorous treatment, the main requisite being a suggestion of the note of the bird Miss Mabel Gallichan, he considered, had given the best rendering, refined, and with bright expression. Her points aggregated 82. Miss Bessie Thomson, a Dunedin competitor who has been very successful in several classes, was placed second, with 80 points; her expression had been very good, and she had contrived to suggest the atmosphere of the piece, but had been just a little too I serious towards the end. Miss Fanny Kutner had lost points through treating the piece' too seriously, but she was placed third, with -78 points. Mr. J. E. Perry, who won the gentlemen's humorous recitation with an aggregate of 79 points, was complimented by the judge on his really bright work in "Prof. Wind-Bag's Elocutionary Class." It had, said Mr Hopkins, been quite a new recitation to him, and was probably original. Be that so or not, it was a clever piece of work, and showed to perfection how elocution should not be done. He had enjoyed it, and he was sure that the audience had1 also. Mr. Lionel Inch, who essayed a recitation by no means new, quite a hardy perennial, in fact, "The- Vicar's Presentation," gave a fair characterisation, gaining 75 points and second place. The third award went to Mr. Howard Moody, Lyttelton, for his skit, "The Play," his points totalling 71. His work was only moderately successful. The singers in the final of the tenor sacred solo, said Mr. Gregson, did not achieve anything like the standard of the sitiging in the previous tenor test, "Lolita," and generally the work had been somewhat disappointing. The first place went to Mr. Harry E. Lobb, with 125 points, for his interpretation of "Then Shall the Righteous," the second to Mr. J. Pereival Dodds, who had given a fair rendering of "How Many Hired Servants," gaining 122 points, and the third to Mr. Montague W. Gillmore, with 120 points for his work in "The Sorrows of Death." The soprano solo was a much more enjoyable class. In this section the singers were given the option of singing Campbell-Tipton's "A Spirit Flower" or the "Waltz Song" from "Tom Jones" (Edward German). Miss Cbrrie Aslin, another successful .Dunediu competitor, was placed first, with 142 points, for her singing of the waltz song. In the course of his criticism, the judge advised her to pay rather more attention to her lower and middle registers, which, she was inclined to sacrifice in favour of the higher notes, with unfortunate results at times. Miss C. M. Ormiston, a visitor from Whangerei, gained the second prize with 140 points. Had she. chosen the second test instead of the first, said the judge, she would probably have been more successful, for her voice would have been better suited. Mrs.. Edith M. Paterson ("The Spirit Flower") was placed next, with 126 points. There were only two entries in the vocal trio class, the singers being Mrs. Henderson and Misses Hughes and Brammell (Lower Hutt), "Distant Bells," and Misses Ramsay, Brammell, and Read (Wellington), "Hark, Hark, the Lark." This item was rather a novelty in competition work, said the judge, and unfortunately both trios appeared to be suffering somewhat from stage fright or something of the kind. The eecondnamed trio had given a better rendering all round than the first, who had at times been out of tune, and had sung too staccato. The first prize would therefore go to the Lower Hutt trio, with 125 points, and the other trio would be awarded a second prize, with 118 points. The character dance for children'between the ages of 12 and 16 years was, in both the preliminary contest-and in the finals, a very pleasing and interesting section. Originally there were twelve entries, the recalls made by Miss Helen Gardner being Miss Iris Inglesby, Miss Roma Bitossi, Miss Emily Turner, and Miss Thelma M'Kenzie. Miss Mavis King was warmly complimented on her dainty foot work, and was highly commended, but as her dance was hardly to be described as a character dance, a recall cntild not be made. There was little to choose between the dancers in the finals, said the judge, but the awards she had made were: Miss M'Kenzie, 89 points; Misses Inglesby and Turner, BS. points; Jliss Homn llitwui, 86 pointe. A novelty was introduced last' evening

in the shape of two ballets, "Youth" and "Egyptian." Both were well staged and well arranged and dressed, but, as other ballets will be presented' later in the season—the next being on Saturday evening's programme, the "Italian" and the "Golden" ballets—no pronouncement was made last evening as to the success or otherwise of those presented. Miss Fanny Kutner, in a story without words, went through agonies of anticipation before her "Visit to the Dentist's," and more imaginary agony when she was seated in the chair, but the' main point was that she amused the audience mightily. A short comedietta, "A Pair of Schemers," played by Misses Gladys Manderson and Lottie Harris (Wellington), was the concluding item of the programme, which, taken all round, was a thoroughly entertaining one., One of the features of this evening's programme will be the Dickens sketch, and other strong claeses include a senior piano solo "Troisieme Scherzo in C sjiarp Minor" (Chopin), the final of the soprano or mezzo operatic solo, abraessolo, achil- ' dren's character recitation, the sailor's hornpipe for children, and the final of the "Swords" (open class).