The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-22
YESTERDAY EVENTS IN THE SOCIAL WORLD Exhibition of Folk Dancing To
 Be Given At the Club NOTES HERE AND THERE Young Women to Appear In National Dances, Which Is Now Considered
 an Important Part of Gym
 nasium Work.
NOTES HERE AND THERE


 hibition of folk dancing by Is members of the girls class in the gymnasium of the Birmingham Athletic club on Satur- day morning May B at 10 o'clock Physical training as a part of educa- tion is now recognized as an absolute necessity and takes a prominent place in
 all school work.
 As the relations of the body to the
 mind are better understood the value of
 properly selected physical exercises are
 being more highly appreciated.
 One of the most wholesome forms of exercise as is now being used in a num- | Der of schools throughout the country, is the so-called national or folk dancing. The history for the movement of dan cling in the public schools of New York city is as simple as it is short. In 1905 an organization was formed for the pur- pose of providing for the school girls of | New York what the Public Schools Ath- | letic league was already providing for l 100000 school boys of the city-interest- | ing and helpful recreation that would have a real part in their lives outside of | school hours.
 l Experience had demonstrated over and 1 over again that a number of children 1 cannot be turned loose on the floor of 1 gymnasium with any assurance of all | being benefited by 1t. The benefit Is never 1 equally distributed. The stronger and big l ger children will inevitably take pos | session, monopolizing the floor space | while the shyer, more retiring and less | developed children will stand uneasily about the edges, looking on. Yet these 1 gre the very children who most need | the exercise.
 was to find the form of organized play 1 that would bring the greatest amount of 1 good to each child. Careful tests have | proved that it could not be found in i gymnastics. Play is far more important than mere muscular activity. It is the
 most natural and most potent expression l of the child's personality.
 1 When the proposal was made to take 1 up dancing in the schools as an exer- else for girls, there were a great many | tbings to be said in it's favor. The most l important of all was that in a given | space there was more real all-round phy 1 sical exercise In dancing than in gym nastics or any team game. In a few in- | stances where it had already been tried | elsewhere, the children had become en- 1 thusiastic over it. So the experiment was | made, and so enthusia stic did both teach | CTS and children become that in less than | a year more than 5000 children were get | ting instruction and 175 teachers all ce | them from the regular staff of the public schools. have voluntarily taken hold of | the work.
 | Teachers of physical training, recog- | nizing the value of this form of exercise, | have been developing ana adding the more | vigorous forms of Irish, German. Russian i Swedish and Danish folk or national
 dances for men and boys. As far back | as 1894 MT. Gilbert, dancing master of | Boston, developed school of dancing | that is largely gymnastic and has since become very popular, although most dis | tinctly feminine.
 MT. Louis H. Chalif, a graduate of the ! Imperial Ballet school of Russia is rec l ognized as the foremost exponent of this | school of dancing In America MT. Cha l If taught his system in the New York | University Summer school in 1906 and
 1907 with great success. The. national and | folk dances as taught by him open an | entirely new field of enjoyment and rec
 reaton to young and old. Not only do 1 they present a novel and effectual means l of physical training, but they also tend
 in a high degree to develop the spirit of | harmony, grace and artistic taste. | This form of dancipg Is bound to be l popular and will draw men and women l to the gymnasium classes and will hold | them because it appeals to their sense l of rythm. People will dance because they l like it and will not have to be told that 1t 1 will do them good.
 | The visit of Governor Conner and Mrs. l Conner during commencement week at the Girls Industrial school was a pleas
 preable event to the president and fac ulty, as well as to the young women students Mrs. Comer's presence at the closing events of the school and her en- thusiastic interest was a source of in- spration. Both Governor and Mrs Co., mer were the guests Of President Palmer and Mrs. Palmer at their handsome resi- dence on the campus, and were enter tained by them at dinner, at which sew eral of the trustees were present, among them Col. s. w John of this city. Mrs. Conner expressed the warmest in- terest in the school. inspected all of the departments and was shown over the new building.
 She returned Wednesday night, driving over to Caera with the governors party, from where she took the train into Bir-
 mingham, Governor Conner returning to Montgomery.
 Invitations have been issued by the Birmingham Athletic club to an exhibi- tion of folk dancing to be given by the girls class on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock in the gymnasium. The occasion will be an interesting event. Folk dan- cling is just now attracting international attention of directors and gymnasium in- structors Last summer Professor Miles received special instruction from Challf,
 distinguished Russian dancer, whose work in this country has attracted at-
 tention in the best athletic clubs of
 America.
 Miss Mabel Wheelock will attend the
 university commencement.
 Miss Martha Dabney, who is now trav-
 cling abroad with her aunt, Mrs. Ware,
 will leave Italy about June 1 for Rus
 sia The party expected to remain in Italy several weeks longer but hearing
 that the Russian museums were to be
 closed for the summer they decided to
 curtail their stay in Italy and return
 there in the autumn. Miss Dabney spent
 the early spring season in Cairo, and
 also visited Greece, and some very
 charming letters have come to her Bir-
 mingham friends from Sicily.
 When in Athens Miss Dabney saw the
 King of Greece and the Princess Bona
 parte, the later so famed for the mag
 nificence of her toilettes, but who was
 gowned with extreme simplicity in a pink princess.
 Miss Dabney heard American re-
 mark that the King should never be seen without his crown, otherwise Amer jeans would have some difficulty in know t~-~~ IL