THE TOWN HALL DANCING COMPETITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 4

THE TOWN HALL DANCING COMPETITION

TO THE EDITOR Sir,—l would like to ask one or two questions through your columns in regard to the Town Hall competition. Did a teacher of dancing take the first and second couple to Oamaru to give a demonstration some little time back to give Miss McDonald time to make their acquaintance? Did Mr Joe Brown hear the performance on which the judge was to decide announced through the sound system? In this event, where was the need to send a special note during the performance? This is where he slipped once, and he gave a very poor, weak answer in your columns. Was it not a known fact for weeks throughout the Town Hall dance that three picked couples would corniest the final? If so. why were four put ,on? Was it such a hard task, or were the third and fourth slightly better than the first and second, and did the judge waver on her job? It looked very ill-mannered to leave one couple without recognition of their very splendid performance. Competition should be fair and honest to all and above board all through.—l am etc.. Interested Onlooker. [“lt is obvious to me that this correspondence is developing into a private quarrel between two dancing schools, a successful one in the contest and an unsuccessful one.” stated Mr Joe Brown, the promoter, when the above letter was referred*to him, I am certain that the majority of my regular patrons were quite satisfied that the best couple won. I have been so disgusted at the unsporting attitude shown by certain people that in future I will establish my own dancing school, and only competitors who attend it will be eligible to take part in the contest.”—Ed. 0.D.T.l

TO THE EDITOR Sir,—ln Tuesday’s issue of your paper Mr J. Connor ventured the opinion that Miss McDonald, in adjudicating on the contest, had “ tripped on her job.” From his criticism of the winning couple’s exhibition, however, one is driven irresistibly to the conclusion that Mr Connor is- as little qualified to criticise the judge as to judge the dancers. To him one may well apply the proverb anent the danger of a little knowledge. He emphasises the importance of correct alignments, with which every qualified judge would agree, but, when he says that the winning couple did not have correct alignments, he discloses his inability to recognise correct alignments when he sees them. He says the winning couple did not have correct alignments because “ they just cut across the floor at all angles.” If he were the connoisseur he pretends to be he would know that, while dancers who “ just cut across the floor at all angles” may not have correct alignments, they cannot have correct alignments unless they do. He forgets that there is the correct as well as the incorrect way in which this may be done. It so happened that the winning couple moved across the floor in the correct way, Mr Connor’s opinion notwithstanding, and, no doubt, this fact

Weighed heavily with the judge in making her selection. Mr Connor invites (or. did he use the word “ challenge? ”) the judge to state on what points the winning couples gained their placings, particularly the second placing. Even if Miss McDonald were disposed to comply with his request (or demand), obviously he would not be satisfied with her reasons because he appears to be obsessed with the idea that no fullyqualified judge could possibly know as much about the art as those who have never studied it closely. He may be interested to learn, however, that at the Dunedin Competitions, with an Auckland judge, the second copple in the Town Hall contest were declared winners, while the third couple were not placed. On that occasion the judge said she selected this couple as the winners on their correct basic movements.

Mr Connor says that one only had to listen to the applause given to the third couple to know who had won public favour. That only goes to prove the wisdom of the promoter in having the competition judged by an expert. The opinion of a hundred people who know nothing about a subject cannot be deemed as decisive as that of one master of it. In fact, the opinion of such people is of no value at all. —I am. etc.. Alignment.