NATIONAL DANCING

Southland Times, Issue 19357, 24 September 1924, Page 10

NATIONAL DANCING

ADDRESS BY MR A. SUTHERLAND. An interesting address on the subject o national dancing was delivered in Burns xl all, Dunedin, on Monday, by Mr A. Sutherland (Invercargill), judge of the national ..ancing at the Dunedin Competitions. There .V as a good attendance, and the address was listened to with the greatest of interest. The said it was perhaps difficult to iealise that, dancing was an outlet to emotion ,was prior to music—that, in fact, the nrst music was composed in order to accompany dancing. The origin of many of the oldest musical terms showed that that was the case. For instance, the words orchestra, chorus, choir, carol, and anthem, all referred in their origin, not to music, but to dancing, jind only gradually came to t an exclusively musical signification. The Greek chorus, led by choragus, performed a ceremonial dance in the orchestra (from orchester, a dancer; orchedmai, to dance) as an accompaniment to the tragedy being enacted on the stage, and the dance was accompanied by singing. The word carol came from an old French dance, performed at Christmastide, f and the anthem, derived from the Greek word for flower, was an ancient Greek dance—the flower dance. As the origin of dancing had been traced back so far, he would say that no nation or tribe had yet been discovered which was so uncivilised as not to possess some form of dancing. Now that dancing was an accomplished art, he would leave its origin, and deal with dancing of modem times. National dancing, which had formed such a pleasing part in modern times, was ancient in its origin. As all their national dances had been handed down to them from »past generations, they should try at all times to keep them pure. Unfortunately, they found quite a number of modern innovations creeping in, which took away the dignity and character of the dance. AU dancing was controlled by the same principles—namely, ground positions, time, and deportment. Positions were undoubtedly the foundation of dancing, therefore, if the foundation was indifferent, naturally aU other departments would suffer. Positions in the greater number of performers were very faulty, and he would urge the competitors to do their utmost to rectify this. Concentrate on their ground work, and they would find that it was really worth while. Another thing that he would urge upon competitors was the necessity for the study of the history of the dance that they were endeavouring to portray. It was not possible to get the correct atmosphere in- a purely mechanical rendering of steps. He urged them to live the part, look and feel what they were dancing, and only do movements which they felt they could do justice to. Quite a number of young dancers tried to do steps far beyond their station. In conclusion, the speaker said the whole of the national dancing sections were quite pleasing, and he had sne or two outstanding renditions, especially in Seaun Triubhais and sailor’s hornpipe. Some of the younger performers did not quite come up to the standard. Still, he felt confident that with a few years’ careful study they would make first-class performers.