MRS DIANA WATTS

Evening Star, Issue 19519, 29 March 1927, Page 11

MRS DIANA WATTS

A WORLD-RENOWNED SCHOLAR

SPECIALISING IN THE “ GREEK

BALANCE "

England, America, India, Australia, and other parts of the world know Diana Watts, ami this lady is now in DunediiV witu her husband, General Charles Mark Clement Rudkin, whose military career was outlined in yesterday’s 1 Star.’ Diana Watts is her professional name. That she is a charming lady was proved to a ‘ Star 1 interviewer at Wain’s Hotel yesterday. That sho is an authority on art, and in particular to that phase of art which teaches, through the medium ot the Greek statues, how to produce phy sical development by mental training, will bo proved to all who attend Allen Hall to hear tho lecture On Thursday evening-this week. ■ ■ Diana Watts is the author of The Renaissance of .the Greek Ideal,’ which has everywhere been acknowledged as the most complete and scientific work on physical development and co-ordinated mental training that has yet been published. . , .. , If any further evidence be asked tor as to this lady’s standing it may be found in the fact that ‘The Art or Diana Watts ’ as tho title of an article published by ‘The Times.’ descriptive of an art which has Jain buried for over 2,000 years, and which has recently been brought to life again in tho work and person of Diana Watts. In her own person sho demonstrates the movement of statues rvhicli _ have been considered as impossible positions. Her reconstruction of tho fleeting poise of such masterpieces as the ‘ Discobolus,’ the ‘ Archer of the iEgina Pediment,’ and the ‘ Charioteer of the Capitol,’ is a brilliant piece of work, and one is awakened to a sense of fitness and beauty that has long since been lost. - Mrs Watts begins by ex-, plaining the fundamental principles of perfect balance. She shows tho contrast between the modern human being and the Ancient Greek. She analyses in every detail the disconnectd movements of the average man or woman of to-day, weighs them in the balance, and finds them weighing heavily with misdirected leverage. She carefully but surely reconstructs the movements of everyday life into something complete and satisfying, and unmistakably true. Bernard Shaw speaks of her “ rediscovery,” which ho defines as an entirely new method of adjusting the Weight, combined with an extraordinary “ technique of the diaphragm,” tho importance of which cannot be exaggerated. Many or the modern works in sculpture seem “posed.” So critics have said. The Greeks did riot pose. Diana Watts has discovered for herself their secret of arrested motion, and has gone further by mastering and explaining’ the principles of balance, applying them to everyday actions, not only to make life more graceful, but to make it less strenuous.

To use her own words, “My campaign is against the slouch and crumpling up of the body that is the physical vice of the ago, indicating lack of energy, and what I try to prove is that this bodily slouch comes from an attitude of mind that can only bo combated by will so as to get control of tho body.”

A Christchurch resident writes to say that the lecture there was an unexpected treat, and advising all Duncdinites who can attend to do so if Diana Watts speaks here. Arrangements for the lecture are now made. It is to be on Thursday evening by invitation.