MODERN DANCING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19253, 16 February 1926, Page 12

MODERN DANCING.

A MINISTER'S COMMENT. THE ULTIMATE VERDICT. LITTLE HELP FROM SCRIPTURES. «s* [BX TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. "There are people who are offended when they see what they think to bo an innocent social pleasure pilloried. They say it gets rid of stiffness, induces a gentle excitement, the cause of which they have never cared to analyse, that it provides pleasurable intervals in humdrum lives." This is an extract from a sermon on "Modern Dancing," which was delivered by the Rev. T. W, Armour to his congregation in Knox Church. The preacher said that at the last general assembly a special committee had been set up to make a report on the matter ot modern dancing. This report affirmed the principle that each must be guided by his own conscience. He had been interested to find that this deliverance of the assembly had arrested the attention of the young people, who had found in it ambiguities which they asked him to explain in a sermon. Youth disliked the shaded borders, and preferred the blunt "thou shalt" or "thou shalt not," but it was not the way of Christian ethics to manufacture sins. Laws were not written on stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart, and learnt as duty according to the will of God. It had to be admitted that very little clear guidance as to any relation with modern dancing could be got from the scriptures. The few mentions of dancing in the Old Testament seemed to have been either part of religious ritual or simply the expression of exuberant feeling. In the parable of the prodigal son the elder brother heard the sound of music and dancing, but from that it was not to be imagined that ha heard an orchestra and saw people paired off in dance. If ever the Jews danced they danced apart. This was true still of dancing in the East. There.was little direct guidance on the matter from the scriptures, because the purpose of dancing then was different from that of today, and the dance for social pleasure was not thought of then. Protests down the Centuries. Yet down the centuries it would be found that protests had been raised against dancing. The condemnation had not always been confined to puritanical sects. Even to-day many people not narrow-minded were filled with apprehension concerning modern dancing, and were anxious to free themselves from any association with it. There were reasons for this, in the first place objectors became conscious of the hidden potentialities just as in the case of alcohol. It was possible to trace the tendency more easily in the drunkard than in the moderate drinker, so it was possible that extreme cases would have to be taken to discover what was really involved.' The Indian medicine men, the Dervishes of Africv and the Shamans of Siberia discovered that, by prolonged dancing they could get themselves into an ecstacy of self-intoxication. Indian braves and Zulus danced to work up "Dutch courage." It might be difficult to see the relation between this and modern dancing, but the extreme case had to be borne in mind. Anything which endangered selfcontrol had to be watched. Through physical exercise many people got a muscular and nervous stimulus which constituted a moral danger. Havelock Ellis had said that a girl who had waltzed fifteen minutes was in the same state -as a girl who had drunk champagne. In this reason it was possible to find the explanation why dancing had such a fascination for people of less stable life, why it was that girls who fell under the dancing spell had little pleasure for less sober joys. It might also explain the assembly's .reference to the excesses and abuses of the dancing crasse. " There is another aspect which I must refer to if I am to be frank," he said. "It is delicate, but when men and women are together ttye primitive instincts have to be reckoned with. It is natural for them to come together for social intercourse as is seen by the fact that when they are separated unnaturally as in barracks and harems they are fraught with social per/1. The control of the primitive instinct is the foundation of all that is bes,t in society and the lack of control the foundation of all that is worst. We cannot but reflect what is the design of wme of the modern dances. We must form our own judgments, for a mere ban upon dancing would exclude everything from the children's innocent 'ring a rosey' to .that kind of thing which it-is a shame to mention. The ultimate verdict in the matter will be the same as with alcohol. Those who don't see the harm in drinking a little wine feel that they must deny themselves to help the weaker,"