Excerpt from Dances of the People: A Second Volume of Folk-Dances and Singing Games; Containing Twenty-Seven Folk-Dances of England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland My interest in dancing has been from the standpoint of its possibilities as a form of self expression and play rather than as a means of showing off for the benefit of the onlooker. There are two distinct and very different kinds of pleasure to be found in dancing, and their effects on the dancers are equally distinct and different. One is the pure joy of the dance itself; the other is a combination of self - consciousness and appetite for applause. We cannot hope to dictate to adults, but for children we can and should with care and intelligence choose dances which appeal to the instinct for play and for self-expression. It is here that we can turn to folk-dances and know that we are on safe ground, for they are spontaneous, genuine and sincere. They are the wild flowers of the dance world, unspoiled by the hand of man. They have sprung naturally from the hearts of simple, wholesome country folk in response to the human need for self-expression. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.