THIRD EDITION DANCING IN LONDON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17238, 19 April 1930, Page 15

THIRD EDITION DANCING IN LONDON

AMAZING SYMBOLISMS EXPERT'S IMPRESSIONS Only a few days back from London, where she and her niece, Miss Joan Beere, resided for four years, Miss Estelle Beere, the. well-known teacher of dancing, is trying to assimilate the conditions of what she calls "'quite a new Wellington." "It is simply amazing to realise what changes, can take place in such a comparatively brief space of time," she said to a Dominion reporter. "The number of large buildings which have shot up into the sky within four years has given the place a grown-up air." Miss Beere's interest lies in the dance. In that direction Miss Joan Beere had won distinction as a soloist in the revues and the leading cabarets, and when the great Espinosa referred to her as "brilliant" in his own paper it is surely the highest compliment a dancer could gain, for where dancing is concerned Espinosa is an unsparing judge as well as a great producer. Miss Joan and her partner John Morris (also of Wellington)..were known to London as Desiree" and Doret, j and as solo dancers' at the Midland Hotels, the New Princes (Piccadilly), their work was known- and appreciated. IN A BAD WAY. ' "Dancing is in a pretty bad way in London at the present time," said Miss Beere. "I mean that there is very little opportunity provided -for solo dancers, however gifted, on the legitimate stage. k They specialise in team dancing, just rows and rows of pretty girls, who do a step or two" and then a kick, over and over again, and if they do it nicely together that is apparently all that revue audiences require. But really that sort of thing is rery mechanical and scarcely impinges upon the artistic dancing. Even Pavlova is not the idol ' she was. Her last London (West End) season was not a great success; yet when she went to the suburbs—she danced for a fortnight at Golders Green and afterwards at Streatham Hill—she did wonderful business. But a few years ago the idea qf seeing Pavlova at Streatham Hill would have been considered a " joke. So the old order changelh. "You remember my pupil Thurzn 'Rogers, who was with- Pavlova id New Zealand. She and her partner, Lascelles, evolved a Paviova dance in London, but it was scarcely a success, and they were ; now doing rather well in cabaret danc- ' ing—a pol> potirri of all- styles. Probably my most outstanding pupil is Zelda Bailey, who, with hevTlusoand. John Juan, are quite a success in England and on the Continent. They vWre earning £so' a week when f last heard of them." A NEW ORDER. It was Miss Joan Beere who spoke enthusiastically of the new order of the "danse artistique," which lias conquered the Continent and has created enormous i interest in England. This is the order of dancing known as Bodweissen; which came out of Germany. "I suppose'you could call it symbolic dancing," said Miss Beere, "as it? represents something definite through its rhythmic complex. Mary Wiggin is a famous exponent of this "form of dance. I saw her in one called 'Monotony,' a grey figure, with a- clfce : fitting dress well below the hips, a bell-like swirling frt. She rotated slowly to the sound rhythmic drum beats—no other music. Here and : there the drums would get' louder and the tempo would quicken, as the dancer's arms would be raised above their normal level, and then they would fall again, as the drums resumed their usual beat. Then after an unusual effort, signified only by the raising of the arms as the dancer ceaselessly rotates, the figure sinks' to an utter collapse. It is symbolic of an ambitious soul seeking to discard) the monotony of • life. "Another amazing Bodweissen dance is 'Machinery,' eight girls in silver white imitating *wtih wotidetful rhythm arid stacco action the motion of machinery, —all done to the sound of drums and whistles. "Another form of artistic dance that I thought very beautiful was a new form of scarf dance, in which the music classics are' interpreted by wavjjjg scarves in exquisite rhythm."