BACK TO THE OLD ENGLISH DANCES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18013, 25 November 1926, Page 4

BACK TO THE OLD ENGLISH DANCES.

POLKA TO SUPPLANT FANTASTIC CHARLESTON (Special to the “ Star. ”) LONDON, September 30. The popularity of the Charleston, the fox trot and other modem dances is seriously threatened by a rapidly growing movement for the revival of old English dances. Classes are being formed all over the country, under the auspices of the English Folk Dance Society, and at many country house balls this winter there will not be any jazz. Instead there will be Morris dances, lancers, the polka and Sir Roger de Coverley. “ The reasons for the effort to revive the old dances are many,” a representative of the society told the “ Westminster Gazette ” yesterday. “ For one thing, the dances are much jollier, the} r provide more fun, and will restore the old-time sociability now lost through the adoption of one-partner dances. “ They are better exercise, and the music for them has rhythm that no jazz band could provide.” “ In America,” she said, “ people are going mad over them, and we have two large branches of the society in Boston and New York, where there are more men than women pupils. Some of the American men are the finest exponents of Morris dancing it is possible to find, “ The Morris dance and the sword dances are, of course, purely for men.” An all-England festival of old English dances, organised b}' the English Folk Dance Society, will take place at the Albert Ilall on New Year’s Eve.