DANCING AS A TONIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 98, 28 April 1930, Page 3

DANCING AS A TONIC

POINTS TO REMEMBER Dancing is the finest tonic in the world. It banishes care and worry, and makes the old young and the young younger. Don’s worry about complexion and grey hairs, but dance! (advises Ethel Gaskell in 1 ‘Dancing Do's and Don’ts.’’). There is medical testimony of the highest character that dancing is a body builder and a nerve soother. A well-known doctor has told me that he actually includes dancing in many of his prescriptions. “Why, of course,” he said, when I told him how delighted I was. “The finest thing I know to produce a bracing effect on a man or woman. Of course, not to excess. Just as a tonic, and only when they are able to stand it. But you must warn people that it can be as great a danger if indulged in to excess.’’ And this is quite true. It is the most marvellous tonic in the world, but it is a danger, too (like most things) if overdone.

There can be little doubt about what I mean when I say “overdone.” We have all heard, or know, of brainless people, both men and women, who get the dancing craze badly and forthwith proceed to try and kill themselves. They will go to tea dances in the afternoon and then on to a big dance nearly every evening in the week, staying up to the early hours of the morning, staggering home, getting insufficient sleep and food, and trying to do some work during the day as well!

Of course that simply cannot be done. If this sort of thing is indulged in over a protracted period, they will have a breakdown from sheer physical and nervous exhaustion. Remember dancing is a real physical exercise. Just calculate the length of your favourite dance floor, think of the number of fox-trots you dance in a night, and reckon up how many miles you have danced away! You will be surprised. And therein, of course, lies the great tonic benefit of dancing. But if you work during the day you know perfectly well that you cannot dance away these same miles, stay out of bed until early morning, and be really fit for your work if you do this for a long period. You must have moderation in all things. Dancing is a tonic when it comes after other things—not when you are already sated with it. Don’t work your body too hard. But if there is a danger in overdoing it, you must also appreciate that there is a danger in forgetting it. Don’t pretend that you ‘‘haven’t time just now to dance,” or that “there are. more important things to do tonight.” Don’t get slack and out of condition. Don’t over-smoke; you will be surprised at the difference in yovr physical condition if you keep to this axiom. Don’t try to dance when your brain and body are over-tired; it takes away all the pleasure, and docs a great deal of harm. Dancing at the right time will keep you fit and fresh. It is a physical and social asset of the first magnitude. It will enable you to look on life in a new way.