The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-26

4 Chicago SOON Quite a wonderful fea-
ture of this pageant is to be a dance
/ Interpretation of an ocean wave, for
which the costumes of the multitude
of dancers will shade from the palest
green into the deep ocean blue. The
plan is to have the audience from a
quarter to half a mile away, and those
who have seen the rehearsals say that
the effect is marvelously real.
Miss Human has studied folk dan
cling in Sweden, Norway. Denmark
and Russia, as well as in England,
and was one of Cecil Sharp's most as
siduous students at his famous STRAIT
ford -upon-Avon Summer School Of
Folk Song and Dance. Mr.. Sharp, the
well known authority upon folk songs
and country dances. and founder of
the English Folk Dance society, is re-
sponsible for the renaissance of the
morris dances, which, in various forms
are found, nearly all over Europe.
Notable among these dances are the
sword dance and Mummers' play. Mr..
Sharp has explained the name NOR
ris" by citing that to our forefathers
the typical black man was the Moor,
not the niger, and as the morris dan
GERS sometimes blacken their faces,
hence the description, the Moorish
or morris" dance. Another fact of in
terest is that the morris Is, tradition
nally, mans dance.
Miss Human, who teaches folk dan
cling at the University of Chicago, and
who first took up that study at the
suggestion of President Harper Of that
institution, has had unusual success
with the young men who have been
her students, developing in them what
may be termed habit of conscientious
recreation, one that is not destructive,
but constructive. She is helping dan
cling to take its right place in the
students lives. An eminent critic af-
firms that there is certainly no namby-
pambyism about this work and its re-
suits in Chicago, that devotion to folk
dancing has in no way prevented these
young men dancers from playing virile
parts in life, and that their minds
have been enriched by the demands
made by the dances upon their sensi-
bilities. The success of Miss Humans
Chicago experiment alone shows what
can be done in the unlikeliest direc-
lions where peoples natural powers
are called into play and are guided by
intelligence and artistic faith. Miss
Human is most modest regarding her
work, and insists that the initiative
in the new departure at Chicago "U"
was the students affair, not hers. She
not only persistently keeps her own
share of the work in the background,
but retains a perfectly open mind as
to future developments.
Little Folk Lore in America.
Miss Human holds: ITO understand
the vital Importance of folk dancing
1t is necessary to see clearly it's Tela-
ton to the race. So long as the world
has endured, rhythm has been funda-
mental principle of life. AS naturally
and inevitably as child laughs and
weeps, so man from the beginning of |
the world has instinctively translated |
into rhythmic movement the emotions |
which possessed him. There is no ma
ton so poverty stricken as America in |
folklore, games, dances, traditions and |
festivals. Except among the negroes |
we have none of the extemporaneous
chorus singing so common to most |
we have not, in America, a very clear |
idea of what the Joy of living is. The /
simple, spontaneous pleasure Of the ]
old world have been closed to us; as a |
nation we have yet to be taught to |
make, not buy. our play. That lesson |
Is the richest gift which our immi- |
grants are bringing us. Folk dancing |
has proved already of inestimable
benefit in adjusting the pitiful problem
Of the first and second generation on
new soil. 1t is the one line of activity
within the range of everybody. There
Is no more helpful element than folk
dancing in developing a community
spirit"
In the English country dancing Miss
Hinman and other enthusiasts see
wonderful opportunity to give to the
or at least to start it on it's
way, the kind of dancing that will not
contain such Objectionable features as 4
bad music, inappropriate dressing Cor
conditions that stimulate the love of
,ver- dressing), and the kind of dan
,ing that emphasizes the selfish selec-
ion of partners and ignores social re-
sponsibility for the group as a whole.