Beth Dean who has made many Maori friends during her tours of New Zealand writes here about the contrasting dance styles of three different races: Maori, Australain Aboriginal and New Guinea. MAORI, ABORIGINAL AND NEW GUINEA ETHNIC DANCES

THE CONTRASTING STYLES OF THREE DIFFERENT RACES A comparison of the dances from three widely different racial groups could easily fill several volumes, so these few thoughts can only touch the surface of a fascinating subject. Dance is the urge to move rhythmically that lies within all peoples. But the manner in which time and space is punctuated by movement varies greatly. The different styles of dance are as individual to each race as are finger prints to every human being—as different as are their languages. Among the aborigines of Australia, dance is divided into two carefully preserved sections. There are sacred and non-sacred or play-time types of dance. Playtime dances are about hunting, fishing, etc., or often they are related to some amusing incident of the day. The sacred dance is highly traditional. It is based on ceremonial which is attributed to the great culture-heroes of ancient epic stories. These heroic beings lived in the long ago dreaming times. They created man, the animals and all the natural features of the land—its rivers, mountains, trees and rocks. The long hours of chanting before the sacred rituals culminate in dance, refer to the great exploits, the difficulties overcome by these creative and magical beings who were filled with life force. When the present day aborigine is asked why he stamps hard, digging deep into the sand of the sacred dancing grounds, his reply is “We feel joy as the dust rises around us because in dance we become one with the earth and the spirit of life flows through us.” Both the chanting and its dance expression have a prayerful and fully conscious attitude of mind. Ritual sequence is preserved intact through many generations. Some of the sacred Kangaroo totem ceremonies that the author and her husband. Victor Carell, witnessed in Central Australia, 200 miles west of Alice Springs in 1953, were replicas of those recorded in 1898 by the famous Ethnologists, Spencer and Gillen. There was artistry and great beauty in the ceremonies. There were highly theatrical effects created from sudden flashing firelight in the pitch black of night as the massed dancers, covered in age-old patterns of vari-coloured feather down and ochres, appeared and disappeared from the circle of light created by the flames. Sometimes the movements were hard and angular in