BISHOP PRAISES DANCING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19195, 8 December 1925, Page 5

BISHOP PRAISES DANCING.

Dr. F. L. Deane, Bishop of the diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, speaking at an Aberdeen meeting of the Scottish Country Dance Society, said that though he was not a dancer and dancing was quite outside a bishop's activities, dancing was one of the greatest assets in our social life. It was a wholesome recreation, and was just as necessary for healthy human life as sunlight was for Sowers. It was one of the most beautiful, as it was the oldest, of all the arts. He did not wish to pass condemnation on some of the modern forms of dancing, though he did not think he was going too far in expressing regret that those forms were tending to thrust entirely on one side some of the most beautiful dances which we had inherited from the past. He thought they were quite justified in doing their very utmost to uphold and extend the honour and renown of their own country dances, which had behind them that intangible, indefinable, yet living force, the force of national sentiment and patriotism. He hoped, therefore, they were going to make a strong effort to see that these dances were taught to all the young people in the schools, and that everywhere throughout the country they would be given a prominence that would make it impossible for them to be left out of the programme of our public social events.