CHAPTER V
DANCE, ENTERTAINMENT AND OTHER ITEMS
There was much general "culture" in those days. I use the word culture, for want of a better, but it implied the fostering of a love of books and reading, of drama, of dancing and acting. There was little emphasis on music though, indeed the only musical education came from the teaching of Dalcrose Eurhythmics once a week.
Down from London, every week, came the teacher of Eurhythmics, Desiree Martin. I have named her as she must be internationally known, and known by hundreds of ex-pupils of hers in this country in the dance, music and theatre world, for she later taught at the Royal Ballet School and the Royal College of Music.
I remember vividly my first sight of her; standing talking to Miss Leila in the front hall of The Mote; a big handsome woman with a beautiful speaking voice, always interestingly dressed and with an "air" about her. She was a born teacher - she was vivacious, amusing and with an endless flow of racy, wittily-told anecdotes of the world outside the Community, which appealed to Miss Leila. As far as I know they worked together, in perfect harmony, for nearly thirty years and between them they produced over the years, a series of Biblical plays of an extremely high standard. They were musical plays and they were dramatic and the movement was based on the Jacques Dalcrose method. Miss Leila saw to it that the verse-speaking of the children who took part was all that it should be and Desiree saw to it that the music and movement was all that it should be. She did all the accompanying herself on the piano as well as directing the stage: it was a very considerable feat. These plays were performed at the Rudolph Steiner Hall in London and later, when the Community went back to Kent after the war, some were produced at the Community itself and one was performed in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral.
The future Music Teachers at the Community were Dalcrose students known to Desiree Martin.
In those far-off days all the children from the youngest to the oldest were taught Eurhythmics. I attended all the classes of my group in order to remove anyone who was not prepared to be taught and who made it impossible for the rest to be: I would lead the offender away, who went with much protest. The little boys wore black bathing trunks and the little girls small scarlet tunics: they all danced with bare feet, which must have been very good for the feet. The senior girls, predictably, in the main liked and enjoyed their class but some of the senior boys jibbed at pirouetting round the Library in bathing trunks and bare feet - some of them managed to give it up altogether although Miss Leila never saw any reason why they should, but others, who were musical and interested, learnt to do the most intricate and highly skilled beating of time: they also took part in the Plays and provided many a star-turn. Desiree Martin and Miss Leila also produced excellent Nativity plays each Christmas. I thought Dalcrose Eurhythmics provided a very good basic musical training with its emphasis on rhythm and correct beating and proper note-value.
In October Miss Leila had a birthday and it was celebrated by a gigantic party for everyone. The younger children were sat down at the long Trestle Tables which were well spread with all the things that children will apparently eat quite indefinitely. The cook always made a huge cake which Miss Leila solemnly cut in a total silence, at the end of the meal. Games and dancing took place after tea. The seniors had a similar party later. It was always a successful occasion and I do not remember any serious trouble or difficulty.
The Christmas party was a much larger and grander affair altogether. The little girls were all dressed up to the nines in party dresses, especially kept for this one particular occasion: there were silks, taffetas, satins and velvets and many wore wide sashes of blue and crimson and green. They looked like gay little birds-of-paradise with bright crests of ribbons in their hair to match the sashes. The small boys wore white old-fashioned sailor-suits with trousers. These clothes had all been given to the Community and came from children who had outgrown them.
I imagine that the denim-clad boys of today would be struck dumb with amazement and horror could they have seen them; but at that party I saw tough, booted young fellows of seven and eight, who would normally have thought such clothes "sissy" and babyish, preening themselves in front of a long mirror that hung in a passage: they all looked, I thought, as if they had stepped out of some rich Victorian child's party. The seniors were less strikingly dressed in whatever they chose - most of the boys in conventional suits and ties.
An enormous Christmas tree stood in the Front Hall: it blazed with candles and was frosted and hung with silver and blue and gold glass balls which flashed in the light of the candles and long peacock-tailed birds with emerald and scarlet feathers perched on the branches. These decorations had originally come from Czechoslovakia and had been in the Community for many years and I believe are still in use.
The usual party tea was eaten and the evening ended with Carols sung round the tree. I think it was an occasion any child would remember.
The other occasion, a child would not, I hope, forget was a birthday. Any child celebrating this had a large silver candlestick at his or her place at breakfast. The candle was lit so that everyone knew it was a birthday and much was made of this celebration as it established the child as an individual in the Community and it was his special day and no one else's. Some children had no presents or cards sent them and it was the duty of whoever was in charge of him to see that others in the Community gave some presents and cards. Although this was not the same of course, it was better than nothing. The child had a birthday tea with a cake made by the never-failing generous cook and it had the requisite number of candles and the proper formal blowing-out ceremony always took place.
Parents could, and did, visit their children and sometimes came on their birthday, but there were some who had no visitors; no aunts or uncles, no relation ever came near them. Miss Dave later did a great deal of valuable and very skilled work in making more contact with the child's family and eventually getting them to come and see their children.
Despite my interest in and liking for the Community's life, holidays always came as a welcome respite, I found; life with children and adolescents can be exacting and demanding, as any teacher knows, and few of us ever had a night away during the term.
Now these three yearly holidays, which were slightly shorter than the state school holidays, although seeming short at times, must have seemed very long to many of the children and I realise now that this sending away of every child three times a year, even though there was no permanent home or place to send them to, was a great weakness of the Community and indeed, perhaps, an imaginative failure on the part of Miss Leila and Miss Dave.
All the children at the Community came from homes that had been unable to keep them and in some cases there was simply no home at all. So much has been written and spoken about the various causes for the break-down of home and family life, that it is not necessary to say more here. It is a truism to say that some children can cope with adverse circumstances, very much better than others: those that came to the Community had often not been able to cope and had not adjusted to the insecurity and disturbances in their home life and had reacted with anti-social behaviour that their disintegrating family could not cope with.
There were not nearly so many Foster Homes in the nineteen-thirties but there were permanent Foster parents who had the same child holiday after holiday and the child would refer to it as "going home" at the end of each term; but for many there was no permanency, suitable holiday homes could not always be found and if they were found, did not last for one reason or another and it seemed as if many of the adolescents went from place to place each holiday.
Miss Leila's point was that everyone needed a rest from each other and that it was good to get away from a crowd, the house itself, she said, needed a rest and a change of scenery would be good for all: on the face of it this was, of course, true but it is quite certain that much distress and anxiety would have been allayed if some arrangements could have been made which would have allowed certain children to remain in the Community in familiar surroundings and with adults to whom they were accustomed. They could perhaps have gone away just for a week-end. One of the difficulties, of course, was lack of money, and too, it would have meant "staggering" holidays for the Staff, so holidays came and went and children likewise went away and returned.
The Community, I gathered, lived on a large Bank overdraft and often owed considerable sums of money to various tradesmen. The Local Authorities who sent children paid small fees, privately sent children often paid just what they could and some paid nothing at all. This state of financial affairs never seemed to worry Miss Leila at all, but I think Miss Dave was often anxious about it. The outside world was generous and sums of money appeared at intervals, clothes were given and books and toys. One of the most remarkable donations once appeared in the shape of an immense laundry-basket. It came, together with some pieces of furniture, from Knebworth House, the home of Lord Lytton. He was a friend of Miss Leila's and was the Patron of the Community: I do not know if he was ever aware of this basket. It was stuffed with every conceivable object that a house could have needed from headed note-paper to old dusters and dish-cloths to a mouse-trap. Perhaps Knebworth was disintegrating.