DANCING AND HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 143, 21 June 1929, Page 13

DANCING AND HEALTH

''Doctors are constantly' reconinjeiicl-1 ing various forms of exercise to their patients, but..." they -serdoin recomniend dancing" (writes one of' their inumber in a London daily.) "Perhaps they are afraid that their .'own exercising grounds will become over-crowded, for it is a fact that numbers of medical men take to dancing seriously. "I realised this for the first tinie a few nights ago when I- sat. comfortably -in a large first floor, drawing rpom in Harle-y street and' watered the gyra.tions of my host, an eminent neurologist, and his portly, 'wife. There were 12 other couples and' a- prof essional instructress. : \ "Almost; every branch of medicine 'was represented. Mr. Orthopaedic Surgeon danced with' Mis. Aneasthetist, and Dr. Lungs revolved carefully with Lady, Gynaecological Expert. Dr. X., the famous radiologist, Was! enlarg-1 ing; his Knowledge- of, .the- Charleston art-the-expense of-Hr.B-.*, the wife of j a well-known heart specialist, and "eyes" and ""ears" and "nose" and "throat" were* represented by another energetic and middle-aged couple. i "Between dances I talked with a lady doctor who told me that these classes took place twice a week. 'We all value the, exercise,' she, said; 'for dancing ..has several, peculiar merits. It does not. only- exercise '■■ the-, leg?. Properly carried' out the modern- dance is a splendid exercise in the co-ordin-ation of many muscles, including, some of the abdomen and of the back." The less you know of it and the harder you have to try, the better the . exercise. "There is, the delight .. of feeling ■yourself following properly the rhythm o£ the music, and there is the sense of: liarmony with your partner, whose arm supports and guides you. We regard dancing as an ideal exercise for: the middle-aged, and itcait.be-iriclulged iii even by.the old, if they take it the right wayi ■■' '""■ ' r : . ros& and embarked on a foxtrot with a massive representative of cranial surgery, and I sat pondering on the strange results of time which had evolved this solemn .exhibition in Hailey street put. of one of the natural expresßions of the emotions—the dance."