Atlanta Daily World

A. U. LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL
STUDENTS STAGE COLORFUL
"MAY DAY" EXERCISES

On the lawn in front of the Oglethorpe School the children of the primary and elementary grades of the Atlanta University Laboratory School celebrated May Day (Friday) with a program of creative rhythms in which by means of dance and movement they told a series of stories of their own devising. The entire school participated in the program, which was enjoyed by a group of parents and friends, including the children of the Spelman College Nursery-Kindergarten conducted on the Spelman College campus.

After an opening exercise in dynamics, in which the boys and girls of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades participated, the children of the 1st grade performed "The Huntsman and the Deer". In this, one small boy as the deer was chased and captured by a band of huntsmen and carried into camp where a ceremonial dance was performed around the captured deer. A graceful series, consisting of the routine of the skip, gallop and leap, was given by the children of the upper three grades.

Pantomimes interpreting the growth of things in nature were enacted by the 2nd, and 3rd grade children, who simulated the seedlets first asleep in the ground and then springing to life as the April showers fall, and by the pupils of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades who enacted the whole cycle of growing things from their first stirring in the earth until their surrender to winter.

"Golliwog's Dream" told by children of the 2nd and 3rd grades, showed the bringing to life of the little rag doll by a mischievous fairy. This was followed by a stirring African dance in which the 5th and 6th grades impersonated African youth and maidens in their festivities in honor of the god of fertility, and in turn by a merry skipping dance by children of the 4th grade.

A charming interlude was provided by children of the 2nd and 3rd grades in the "Little Forest Boy". In this the Forest Boy, wandering in a strange part of the woods, is surrounded by elves who weave a spell about him and leave him asleep on the ground. He is awakened by wood sprites with whom he dances happily.

The program closed with the dancing of two waltz motives by grades 4 and 5, and by a series of movements which told the mythological story of Persephone and Demeter.

The rhythms were directed by Miss Ernestine Coles and Miss Evelynne Holmes of the staff of Oglethorpe School, assisted by Miss Lillian Webster, teacher of music in the Atlanta University Laboratory School, and Miss Madge Hughes of Spelman College.