MIDSUMMER NIGHT IN SCANDINAVIA By FRANK ILLINGWORTH IDSUMMER Day is a time of rejoicing throughout Scandinavia. The sun is at its height : a huge area of the peninsular has known a twenty-four-hours-long day for six weeks, and what fitter way of thanking Old Sol for his brilliance than in “ the dance.” “You must stay for Midsummer Day and Night,” I was told in Sweden. “ Why? Because the whole country goes mad. In somie districts they dance all night |” The Midsummer Festival brings with it a national holiday ; shops are closed, flags fly, and éverything from houses, buses, sYagomotives and prams carry sprays of ash. TI learned that the country is split into sections for the occasion, each with its maypole, and the people converge on that nearest their homes. With a few thousand Swedes I went to the School of Art at Naas, an hour's motor ride from Gotenborg. I believe the Naas School of Art, inter- national in its pupils but typically "and strenuously Swedish in teaching, is one of the most famous in Europe. Among the arts taught are Swedish folk-dances. ‘As we neared the scene there came to our ears the clapping of many hands beating time for whirling dancers and the squeaky strains of a solitary violin. Rounding a bend in the forest road the whole colourful scene was unfolded. I had barely joined the crowd of watchers when a Swedish girl in brilliant national costume bowed to me, and before I knew what was happening I was one of the laughing throng of excited dancers. Fti- quette goes to the wind; the dance is.all that counts on Midsummer Night. This dance was called ‘ Vi aro musikanta intran Skaraborg,” or “ We are dancers from ‘The Ox-Dance A burlesque country dance which is sup- Posed to have originated in Varmland. Skaraborg.”” It opened with the dancers, a hundred or more, walking in column of two round the inside of a ring of spectators. The column split up and each pair of men advanced towards girls among the spectators. They introduced themselves by bowing and chanting the words: ‘We are musicians from Skaraborg. We can dance, we can sing, we can play.” To prove the truth of their statements the men made the motions of violinists and_flutists before gripping the girlsand whirling them into a quick-moving dance. The girls in their turn marched round the ring in column of two; the whole per- formance was re- ° peated, with the girls assuring tlie men that “they could dance, they could sing, they could play.” The only music for each dance was the appropriate and age- old tune chanted by spectators and dancers alike, the clapping of many hands, the rhythmic banging of a tambourine ‘without the {jingle bells, and the strains of the soli- tary violin. A strange orchestra, which, as its tempo increased, provided the right atmosphere for the colourful, hectic scene. At these shows both men and women wear their national costumes: the men’s red or yellow knickerbockers, brilliant stockings, and tight-fitting jackets are in direct con- trast to the women’s voluminous and em- broidered dresses of reds, whites, blues, with lace shawls, bright red stockings, and little bonnets. They dance with complete abandon. As hands clap so voices rise, heels click, and skirts fly. Between ten and midnight, while the Northern Sun flooded the night, a dozen dances took place. In one dance, the dancers, caricatured farTHE DANCING TIMES beyond the imagination of a Bateman, ‘brought roars of laughter from onlookers. One man, wearing a cook's cap and apron over his national costume and a shovel over his shoulder, danced with a milkmaid carry- ing a plumber’s bag. In this particular dance there were forty couples, each be- decked similarly, and they brought the house down with their antics. In quick succession there followed the “ Tryksdalpolska,” the ‘“ Daldams,” and the “ Vastagotaspolska,” each expressing the thoughts of a district. I left the scene a shade before midnight — and the Festival was still in full swing. This was Sweden at her best—carefree, gay, colourful, sombre, and then laughing ; but I wonder, with the war so close to her borders, will “ the dance " be so abandoned on June 24th of 1940? And will Norway have time or inclination to dance ? A SUMMER HOLIDAY COURSE OF DANCING Now that the Governots,of the Shakespeare ‘Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, have announced that the present Shakespearean Festival is to be extended for a further ten- weeks from the end of June, all those who are interested in the Dance—and their name is legion—will be interested to know that during the Festival, a Summer School of Dance has been organised by Eve Tynegate-Smith and Sylvia Atkinson. This School will open on July 21st, and continue until August 2nd. This good news will be of particular interest to all those who have been so sadly disappointed because most of the usual technical schools have had to be abandoned this year. The instructors at this School, in addition to Eve Tynegate-Smith and Sylvia Atkinson, will be those who highly specialise in their. own branch—Victor Leopold, Noreen Bush, Toby Alderson, Marjorie Davies, Barbara Parsons and Olive Hammond. ‘The course has been so arranged that members of the School may take a fortnight’s course, a ‘week's course, a whole-day course or a half-day course. The complete course will embrace all types of dancing which would prove invaluable to the general teacher. What better way of combining a Summer Holiday with the acquisi- tion of dancing knowledge could be devised when one remembers that in Stratford-upon- Avon—the safety zone of the heart of England— members can enjoy boating,* bathing, riding, tennis, golf, cricket and—last, but not least— will be able to witness eight different plays in the Theatre at special prices if they so desire Major Taylor, President of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, is opening the second week at the Sunday reception on July 28th. Further details may be obtained from the Secretary, Summer School of Dance, Memorial Conference Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon. 545 . MASSINE AND BRAZIL ¢ (Concluded from page 541) Salomes Tanz at the Vienna Opera and again at the’Colon in Buenos Aires. During the years 1922-23-24 she was.also professeure @'école and maitresse du corps de ballet at the Colon. That theatre's now celebrated danseuse, Maria Ruanova, during those years was a pupil of Mme Olinewa. In 1927 Maria Olinewa was called upon to open the école du ballet at Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Theatre. Her school, explains Mme Olinewa, is essentially Pavlovian, but also with Diaghilefi and Cecchetti influences. Though she grounds her pupils fundamentally and well in the classical technique, she does not shun the rhythmic dance, as do some classical purists in other capitals. She feels that an artiste should be trained in both, with severe emphasis on the former. The most prized possession in Mme Olinewa's school is a set of large exercise designs from which her pupils take guidance and inspiration im their studies. For the designs were made expressly for her years ago by Enrico Cecchetti and posed by Nijinsky | > Rio's Municipal Theatre also boasts of a premier danseur, a young Esthonian named ‘Yuco Lindberg, who has studied under Mme Olinewa and who bears considerable promise as one of the great danseurs of the future. ‘Yuco Lindberg and Madeleine Rosay make an exceptionally well-matched team. They have danced together in the past in the ballets Uirapurit, in Boneka de Lixo, in Petruchka, and numerous others. Worth noting en passant is the fact that Madeleine Rosay, at thirteen years of age, had already given such a performance of Petruchka, which critics acclaimed the best since the days of Casineva. DO YOU REMEMBER? Answers to questions om page 533. 1, Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerito, Lucille Grahn, 2. In the revival of Rio Grande at the Wells in 1935. 3. Lambert's “' book '” for Apparitions has much in common with Berlioz’s “* book "’ for Symphonie Fantastique. 4. The Triumph of Neptune with music by Lord Berners and choregraphy by Balanchine given in 1926. 5. The original production had singers as well as dancers. 6. In Manzotti’s Excelsior at Her Majesty's in 1885. 7. (a) Bar aux Folies-Bergere, Rake's Progress, (c) Job. (0) The