Kicking up their Heels

In the late 1930s Miss Baker, the gymnasium instructor, undertook to teach the girls folk dances. Yet when it came to performance time the results were quite unpredictable.
For the Dutch dance at the 1938 concert the girls appeared in colourful green, blue and red costumes. The lighthearted report in the Brown and Gold magazine for 1939 has this to say:
 ‘As you know, Dutch girls are anything but graceful. Could this have been the reason why the steps suited us particularly well?’
But the audience loved the hornpipe at the 1939 break-up concert.  The costumes were sewn by the matron, Miss Oster, and the performance was hitch-free.

By 1940 there were 27 girl boarders. The usual initiation concert was held near the start of the year, with all new students expected to perform in some way. Yet several were so overcome with shyness that they refused to budge from their seats, even though they were threatened with a ‘ducking’! However, performances were called for, especially for the farewell concert in the Australia Hall. A gipsy dance was chosen for this end of year occasion, and once again the girls were brutally honest in their evaluation.
 ‘The costumes were bright and pretty, the music was attractive… but the dance steps were anything but accurate! Towards the end of the number our’ delighted’ audience could see nothing but a mass of brightly-dressed girls vainly trying to restore some order before the curtain fell.’ (Brown and Gold, 1941).