BLITHENESS AND BEAUTY

Evening Star, Issue 22774, 8 October 1937, Page 1

BLITHENESS AND BEAUTY

BRITISH YOUNG WOMANHOOD PHYSICAL CULTURE DISPLAY Blitheness and beauty were the dominant notes at tho recent great physical culture display at Wembley, states a London correspondent. Tire girls rescued the afternoon, from an opening.threat of dullness. After the formal march past the whole audience was lifted to a spirit of gaiety and enjoyment by the entry of a thousand Girl Guides into the arena, iheir faces were as alight with pleasure as their feet were a-twinkle with eagerness to reach their places for a maypole dance display. Not in marching com-, : panics, hut running top , pace they came, heltGr-gk-elteXj yet without coufusion, to their appointed positions, and there, squatting down, they made a smiling frame of blue for the green square where the brightly-ribboned poles were set. ■ Then out poured the dancers themselves in their gay dresses, the hands struck up their lively tune, the joyous scurry resolved itself into graceful, ordered motion, and the dance was on. The pace the Girl Guides set was to be the tempo of the show. Three hundred and fifty young women from the Physical Training Colleges came in at the fast douhl§ to take lip their positions for an exposition of educational gymnastics, a wonderful series of rhythms and balances, or which the most effective was a long poise on one foot, the body and outstretched limbs of each girl making a smooth, melodious curve. The peak of the display was reached in an “ item by the Women’s League of Health and Beauty.” A selected corps of 832 members fully justified the title. Moving swiftly and in no apparent order - around the dais, which was tho centre of the display, they formed themselves in radiating lines or spokes from this hub. The “item” arranged by the Misses Prunella Stack and Peggy and Joan St. Lo, was a glorified ballet on the grand scale, except tbat no member of it moved from her one spot —only rhythm and gesture played their graceful part. Prone, they waved their feet as charmingly as, standing, they waved their hands. The artistry of the whole spectacle was irresistible. All the planned harmony was executed in perfect time. How completely it captured the audience was shown when the storm or handclapping at its close unconsciously resolved itself into a beating of time to the lively tune accompanying the last phases of the display. It was a triumphant spectacle, and it says much for the ball games, gymnastics, dancing, and exercises which followed that interest in them did not flag. The King, the Queen, and the little Princesses long outstayed their schedule time to watch the bright entertainment of the Festival of Youth. Wimbledon where their arrival was awaited, might offer them something more dramatic, but nothing so beautiful. PRUNELLA STACK. Prunella Stack, who is a member of tho Government’s Keep Fit National Advisory Committee, is a perfect example of physical litne&s, and is beautiful to look at. Fix>m a sma.ll child she .has had the advantage of an upbringing which intensively studied her pb.vical well-being. Her mother, Alary M. Bagot Stack, who founded the Women s League of Health and Beauty, is said to have drawn her inspiration from watching monkeys leap and enjoy themselves in India. What was good tor animals, she reasoned, would also improve humans. She came back to England, decided to organise a physical culture scheme, and had on her first committee her close friends, Irene Sharrer, the pianist, Lady St. John Bletso, Dr Dorothy Dobbin, and Sir Cyril and Lady Atkinson. The scheme was selfsupporting, with an annual fee for members of 2s 6d, plus 3s fid for a badge. A hall was taken, and the first class started with 16 members in March, 1930. How to get publicity for the movement was the next step. A mass demonstration was held in June, 1930, when, accompanied by military music and headed by Prunella, forefoot, in white and silver, the triumphal march through Hyde Park took place. From then on the league went ahead. To-day there are 120,000 members, with Miss Stack, who took over at her mother’s death, and her aunt, .Mrs Cruicksliauk, in charge of the business side. All members exercise for 15 minutes a day.