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[DANCE AS PROPAGANDA TOOL] Ritmicheskie igry i pliaski [i.e. Rhythmic Games and Dances]

Moscow: Gosizdat muz. sector, 1928. Item #448

48 pp.: ill. 27x18 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very good, bleak stains and pale publisher’s stamp on the covers, some foxing.

First and only edition. One of 3000 copies printed. Very rare. An attractive two-color cover design was produced by Grigorii Bershadskii (1895-1963), the master of agitprop posters of 1920s.

Rare manual for the mass entertaining activities of the young people that was based on the experimental dance system. By 1925, the official position of Communist Party to the contemporary social dances turned from neutral to negative. They was trying to find practical usage of dance and then an innovative system of eurhythmics had blossomed in each educational institution.

This edition was compiled by Nina Alexandrova (1885-1964) who was Jaques-Dalcroze’s student and a pioneer of teaching the eurhythmics in Russia. She first opened the private classes of eurhythmics which lately became the Institute of Rhythmic Education. In Soviet Union Dalcroze’s approach was modified and applied to increasing of the labour capacity. In mid-1920s the Institute was closed and Alexandrova continued developing of the experimental ideas in the Moscow Rhythmic Association. Her supporters and students joined the Association. They concentrated on creating the new collective dances which were considered as another method of propaganda.

In this book they gathered the dances which might be organized in the clubs, sections and even during excursions. The rhythmic games and dances was a developed field of the mass entertainment. Not one club instructor found out that it was difficult to play the game with the music or teach people any mass dance. This work contains a new material varied from elementary to complex and some dances present the folk dances from Russian North, which were revised. A special attention is drawn to figure construction that was a significant part of mass parades. The text followed by almost 50 schemes of figures and motion. For each game or dance, music is indicated, usually well-known and available for performing on a harmonica or as a song. At the end of the book these instruction are enlarged: the manual is supplemented with 24 sheet music.

Overall an interesting manual for organizing dances - a great way to unite people which a young country needed the most.

Not found in the Worldcat.

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