*Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL,

TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1959.

STRENGTH METHOD-NOT FOR THE PUNY

PATRICIA

LEWIS

HERE SHE IS

Dancing with a 100-octane*

kick!

AFTER WEST SIDE STORY-SIDELONG MOVEMENTS AND DELICATION

QUOTES

by Mr P. 1. D. Guyer, deputy chairman of the Council of the Institute of Bankers, in

speech at Derby:-

GOOD bank manager should

A have the digafty of an arch Robey, the smile of a film star,

bishop, the geniality of George

and the skin of a rhinoceros.

-by Mr Justice Arthian Davies, examining a wife's allegations of less of health in the Divorce Court

IN

the Divorce Court women complain of losing weight. Outside the Divorce Court they complain of pulling it on.

by Mr Alan Hardwicke, defending a taxi driver who pleaded guilty at Marlborough Street, London. to careless driving:-

I

THINK this is the first time for many years that a cab driver has ever admitted any thing. It shows what an honest, frank, and reliable man he is,

"IT ALL Comes FROM THE MIND "-THEY TOLD PATRICIA LEWIS,

IT'S PULLING IN DISCIPLES FAST!

blue "THERE's a

light! Step into it! Feel it! How does that blue light feel?"

And 20 young people the long, the short, and the tall of both sexes-closed their eyes, took a step to the right, and, in the bare broad daylight of a rehear- sal room, imagined them. selves circled with a phire spot.

sap-

of both sexes-hunched thern-

goiled feet and, in the yellow celven close against their plim light of a Soho cellar, scurried sideways as if to the safety of a darkened pool.'

I was witnessing the Method as applied to modern dancing- though "Free-style Jazz Move- ment is the teachers tern.

The atomle Impact of "West Side Story's choreography. hns had, it seems,

an irresisuble chain reaction.

11 began when some admiring members of the London Actors Studio went to the America company and asked for dance tuition. Two of the cast-Eddie

and Gary Cockrell Holla

agreed.

dancers

Now, twice a week, actors, actresses, singers, models, and other professional gather to learn that where the Method is concerned strength comes before, steps and mind matters more than movement,

He ripples

"Now, make you're a little crab real low."

And 20 young people the plump, the plain, and the pretty

turky-like come

walking. maestro

* THE powerful petrol that puts the "Whoosh!"* Into planes, and high-powered cars.

"It is fantastic where they all from," said 28-year-old Gary Cockrell, as his pupils crowded in and out of

mall room to swop their res petive skirts and slacks for leotards and Jeans.

"You know I've only been giving lessons for three weeks and the class is getting so full It's unmanageable.

"Fee? No. 1 don't churgo drum at the end and people anything: I just pan round the make a voluntary contribution. We'll have to begin now, so kit there and watch."

They're shy

Rippling ever so tautly in his Ke-green sweat-shirt and beige pants with the laced-up trons, Mr Cockrell manoeuvred hit

the bandstand, Way 10 chiinged a brief word with his list and bongo-player, then yelled: **Right!

Everybody

ready" Let's go“

{!X-

But

The musicians sat mute. Mr Cockrell started thumping n gong in a manner that would have warmed the heart of Lord Rank.

ihe

019 many

A to self-consciously pupils shuttled into rows Os the narrow, poster- paper basement would allow.

For some, such GS David Oxley and Gary Marshall, it was the first visit, and all a bit Jalous, For others, such 35 Jayes Blair, Patricia Marmont, Patsy Lever, and 3 Melford, the giggly sense of novelty had niready given way to a rélúciant dedication.

"Relox to the count of four,"

--and it is a style is based on dancing. You must say I'm a Istrength. Some of you are so-and-so...or it's a sunny using your arma in ballet move. day....or it's raining....and ments. Don't

you must believe it,

"Now, we'll exercise the rib- cage. Those of you who can, roll up your sweaters So the

• midrift la bare and I can ace the muscles working,"

They sweat

"The problem is Tot the problem of the stops, but of what you bring to it in a mental image. It all comes from the mind."

I'D

After a session jorking with Mr Roll, my mina tells me I am a sack of potatoes! For an hour hrms were stretched, lortos swivelled, pel- PHRASES WISH victs Kyrated and boltoms bounced on the floor until the HEARD THE END OF: breath wame hard and the sweat

if my wife prodeconses ror. free,

me—which I sincerely hope When

half the bodies had the docs—I shall. colored on chairs against the **. wall stroking their stomach if it's been put together by but her face looks gi

no doubt with relief to find

they silt hud them Mr an apprentice..

Cockrell decided it was time to work out the routine.

The mudcns finally red

their mentor as he dashed off themselves, likewise the class which piled up wearily behind

21

.even if I hadn't read' the book I'd still think the film was super...

sounds to shake the Festival One of the more sensational

a few electrie lenpo and bounds. Hall in recent years was the It was extemporisation por concert, wher Annie FLONG, excellence.

Jon Hendricke, and Dave La "All right, You've got the bert ang words to many of the steps. Now get the feeling. entire orchestra) arratigements

with your leg on the last

like you were making un used by Count Pasle,

Do

In "luca Backstage" Misa bit, and finish by stamping out Ross its these words to Joe original trumpet a cigarette-invisible, naturally. Newman's

A the motley collection at solo: midriffs (virled up and down "....You're actin' glad while the collar Mr Cockreli told me feelin' 'bad,

"I get them being breathily: crabs and stamping out cigarettes ro they have some- thing to work towards mentally rather than purely physically."

He shocks

He turned back to the room. "Now, everyone! Get a little guts into it. Dance! I want you to perform this routine as if it was opening night on-stage. It's no good coming here as if this was an ordinary dancing school." Shocked into obedience, his pupils prepared to "go" again. Man, this Method jazz can really get you hooked,

For comparison's sake I did look on Eddie Roll's more advanced class. Everyone was

There's heartache only ble-

news brings „Awaitin' you in the wings........" Well, there may not have been heartache waitin' in the wings, but somethin' else was a strange collection of fans who pressed on each other's heels to clasp Miss Ross to their bosoms. There was Lord Montagu persunding Miss Ross to appear during his Jazz Festival Beaulieu this summer....there was Mr John Neville showering pues of praise with that impeccable delivery....there was Canon Collins, the concert's organiser, asking Miss Ross to come home for supper.

it was not surprising that a tile Inter in the friendly dusic of a small club, Annie Roas

shouted Mr Cockrell, banging humping Imaginary loads of exhausted after an over-the-Pole, his gong. "Feet six inches garbage round the studio,

Bight, two sleepless nights, and opart. Relax, two, three, four." Mr Roll explained: "I call the tension of the day-chase

Itelax! Bang! Bang! Bang! this the Dustman's Rock to sing PLANTAT commanded Mr because one must put oneself time it was." Cockrell. "This style of Cancing Info a circumstance with this

EILEEN ASCROFT REPORTS ON THE ‘OXFORD TYPE' OF '59

FIGHT young men to every girl

in town. That is the happy, if distracting, position of the girl undergraduate at Oxford today.

Is it a waste of time for a pretty girl to study for a college degree when she may marry young and become so immersed in her family that there is no opportunity to use her brain?

"Definitely not a waste of time," says Lady Ogilvie, principal of St Anne's. Oxford's newest and largest college for women, "If a girl has good educational quidifications, she can always go back to it in an emergency."

Eight young

men to

every

girl in town

Lady Ogilvie herself is the But when her husband, who day. "Girls nra developing that's the place for perlies, up perfeet example of her own was director-general of the younger," she said, "They are to 10.30 p.m.

cories. Over a glass of sherry BBC, died, and her sons were young women when they come

If she goes out at night she in her pretty private office she grown up and earning their own to college and I treat them as must be in by 11.15 p.m. Mid- told me

of her own dilemma livings, the realeci she would such.

reasons and also to nuncial ive hersolt a new interest and occupation in life.

when her husband died in 1940. have to take a job, bath for Smer she took her own degres at Oxford she had married and produced a family and had no lame for a career.

ANY FIRM using thE NAME APPLIED TO OUR

ZORIC

DRYCLEANING SYSTEM HAS NO CONNECTİON WHATSOEVER. WITH THE UNDERMENTIONED Co.

PLEASE TELEPHONE DIRECT TO

59195

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Parties

night as a special extension. And no rules at all for the last night of terin.

She must wark hard

if ska

slacks sho will be tent down.

rooms for

"I didn't know what

-(London Express Service).

her own car or scooter. She may not marry during her studies, except in very exceptional cir cumstances. But on

post- graduate course, when the no longer lives in the college, she may do so if she wishes.

י,

She must not wear jeans, OF rlacks under her gown for study hours, but certainly for leisure wear. The traditional black and white is reserved now for academic occasions only.

But first and foremost sho must work hard. It she slacks or fulla her exams, such is the competition for women's places today, she will be sent down.

That threat always

over her head keeps her working, in spite of other distractions like pariles, sport and entertainments,

Hard work

Lady Ogilvie wouldn't commit hersoli on whether girls work harder than the men.

"But 70

per cent of my girls are here on- local authority grants," she told -

carefully me, so they've been picked in the first place for washing Gerald Banks, who comes from keenness and talent."

under

resulla.

These sounded pretty reason-

loundry able rules to me. "They are,"

"emails."

Blcester and

40.

But looking up the 1957 Final "I had

"Each never done a job of

girl is called "Miss" said Lady Ogilvie, "but wee

Here, too, they have their Unusual ceramic is being Honours Schools Hat, I find that year to stress the belide the girl who breaks let-conscious meals. "Lots of designed for it by Knapp, a four of the work, so it wasn't too easy," she for the first

Women's colleges told me. "Apart from war work, break from school life.

Alter them."

raiads and fruits." says Lady Polish sculptor, in jewelled were among the first ive in. course. But got out the old that, of course, we tend to slide

Calivic, "and 110 steamed enamel on sleet. bit and into Christian names."

Converted degree, dusted it up

puddings."

All the staff and the girls

Which supports my view that gol myself a job looking after Each girl at St Anne's has

This summer their fine new have tuken u hand in planning girl undergrads today may be 600-young wemayyads, her own--bed-sittingroom-in- Girls live in the college or dining hall will be completed the kitchens "We may be poised, well-groomed, and wise, University.'

which she can entertain "her" Lat of the

We're women, too, but they also believe in getting old houses round and, like other colleges, all ste done, bet between In all, she has worked in five friends

2 p.m. and the block

able converted into living dents will be

to dine saya Principal Ogilvie.

down to hard work. In fact, out Here they have their together, with a High Table.

What women's colleges and became p.m. Male or female gueals. quarter.

other rules apply to their brcks into their studies principal-of-St-Anne's in 1933-After-panele enfantilcenter comes as

the ball it the bandiwork of the new look undergrad? etter than the men "There's another polit, too," tein in the common room. And rewing machines

thel: A young English architzet, In her third year she may run *=fLondon Express Service). continued Lady Ogilvie, "in f:.vour of women having it career to return to, whether it's a craft, a profession or a college degree."

Apart from the present tend- ency of wives living longer han their husbands and staying fit and energetic into theft Bu's or 70's, there is also the increrse. in the divorce rate.

It is wise precaution now- adays for a girl to know how to support hersell.

Not only the uncertainty of the future. Lady Ogilvie feals that trained minds are needed more and more in the welfare gato and local government.

"Work, which gives an intelli- gent girl; another interest outside her home and keeps her alert and interested.".

Intrigued

I was intrigued to hear the views of this youthful-looking, grey-haired woman, with bright blue eyes, on the girl undergrad of today.

"She's so sensible and polacd." she says, "knows where she's going and gels on with it; At the dume time she looks. 60 attractive with her cute hairdo, dress nico makeup and good senso.""

Lady Ogilylo puts some of the credit for her smart 300 girls down to Influence of the half-dozon American students. "They started the bright wool | stockings and the chunky

masculine sweaters.".

The girls for whom respónalblo today have much more treedom than in her own

she is

and

"Past Fealthy banned B.M.A. · book-on getting married ?.”

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