Mellan takt och rytm

Fostran av manligt och kvinnligt från 1800-talets gymnastik till 1950-talets Sofiaflickor

Abstract

One could say that Swedish gymnastics has developed as the curve of a bow in the matter of bringing out a feminine way of moving.

P. H. Ling founded school gymnastics in the beginning of the 1800's. In addition to a store of movements that were correcting and strict to form, he also wanted to teach rhythmical, aesthetic movements that were not only beautiful but also useful. Above all he thought it important that people learned, through their bodies, to send each other true signals about their feelings. During the second half of the 19th century his son Hjalmar, in conjunction with the demands of the time, set the tone for the development of gymnastics as artificial. Gymnastics was to be performed in big groups which required simultaneity and a beat, and the mimetic and aesthetic elements disappeared. Below the surface, however, the struggle to re-establish the training of those movements needed in everyday life continued.

Gymnastics was a male affair, but at the turn of the century two strong women developed a feminine alternative. With the addition of a light rhythm, pleasure and individualization, they infused fresh life into the old aesthetic gymnastics. In time, psychological and pedagogical child-centered features became at least as important as physiological aspects of the movements. By the 1950's school gymnastics had become a dialogue between the internal and external of the gymnast and a way of expressing oneself bodily, but also a communication between gymnast and spectator. More and more the rhythmical way of working also started to interest men.