Finding Connections in Isolation: The Process of Connecting Twenty-First Century Girls with Early Twentieth Century Girl Guides

June 21, 2021

Written by Jenna Kerekes

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I dived deep into physical culture drills and past Girl Guide performances using the 1911 Strathcona Trust Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools to find out what kind of similarities exist between present-day girls and early 20th century Girl Guides. I discovered these similarities through embodying movement vocabulary and physical culture drills performed by early 20th century Albertan Girl Guides and by reflecting on my own doubts, emotions, and learnings as well as those of other Albertan girls to determine how early 20th century Girl Guides compared to Albertan girls today. Interpreting movement vocabulary, creating drills, teaching other Albertan girls (aged 7 – 22), and keeping notes of all my discoveries allowed me to further understand and share my process. Learning about the difficulty, the ambiguity, and the importance of teamwork made me realize that I may not be all that different from early 20th century Girl Guides.

“I’ve just started reading the [Syllabus]…” (Fieldnotes, May 9, 2020).

May 9, 2020. The COVID-19 Pandemic is hitting Albertans’ head on and my Research Supervisor, Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, and I have just started our research into early twentieth century Girl Guides and physical culture drills.

My process revolved around the 1911 Strathcona Trust Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools (which I will refer to as the Syllabus). At the beginning of my research, Heather gave me an electronic copy of the Syllabus as a resource and guide to help me learn about physical culture and familiarize myself with the language past Girl Guides likely encountered while teaching and learning drills. The Strathcona Trust was introduced in 1909 as a way to create uniformity in physical education in public schools across Canada and was used to encourage children and teens to participate in physical and military training (Strathcona Trust 184). The Syllabus itself was a textbook used by Canadian schools to teach children physical culture. Physical Culture (sometimes called gymnastics) was a form of physical training in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries. 1 The Syllabus featured movement vocabulary that encouraged children to test their strength and perform routines in unison in march time (two-four), or waltz time (three-four). However, schools were not the only ones to utilize the Syllabus. Past Girl

Guides also used it. Our research focused on Girl Guides2 between the years of 1913–1918 who also used the Syllabus – not solely for exercise, but as a form of performance and team building via gymnastic drills and playlets (Fitzsimmons Frey 2020).3

[click on an image to enlarge]

Early twentieth century Girl Guides performing physical culture drills taken from the Girl Guides of Canada Album, 1912–34, Girl Guides of Canada Archive (Scrapbook 1912-1961).

Images from the Syllabus and stills of workshop participants (Strathcona Trust 39, 81, 111).

At the beginning of my research process, Heather and I set out to answer the question of what can be learned about physical culture and how it can be used to find temporal links between past and present girls. However, with the onslaught of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we became interested in how this new layer of isolation can impact relationships and perhaps help girls find more similarities between themselves and past Girl Guides.

I broke my process into two phases. The first phase consisted of using the Syllabus to learn the movement vocabulary and create my own drill. The second phase involved twenty-three girls from Edmonton and the surrounding area in eight Zoom-led workshops where they learned about physical culture, virtually collaborated to create their own gymnastics drill, and performed it on Zoom. At the end of the workshop, all participants had the chance to share their thoughts in workshop debriefings and participant surveys.

My first task was to start familiarizing myself with what a physical culture drill was and to gain a better understanding of the movements and commands. I was given the Syllabus4 as my only resource and was encouraged not to do any external research into how movements were to be done, to imitate the probable isolation of resources past Girl Guides likely faced while teaching themselves and others the drills.

This isolation from external resources made the task of creating a drill very difficult for me as I often learn best when I have the freedom to find examples and ask questions. Not having that luxury forced me to read the Syllabus carefully and rely solely on my own interpretation. Below is a quote from my early fieldnotes expressing some of the confusion I was experiencing with the language in the Syllabus.

“I still find the language so different from the terms we use today. Like ’ankle stretched‘ (page 32), what does that even mean? How do you stretch your ankle? Do they mean to push the ankle out or let the ankle lead as you come back to feet open?” (Fieldnotes, May 10, 2020)

Page thirty-two of the Syllabus describing the foot placing outward movement (Strathcona Trust 32).

Did past Girl Guides learning these drills have similar doubts about the vocabulary? Did they have people to turn to for help? Were they unsure if their interpretations were correct too?

“[The Syllabus] is all so dated and at times it is hard to understand what [it] means when it says “trunk” or “stretch,” but from rereading some passages and following the [Syllabus] step by step, I am starting to be able to do the moves quite well” (Fieldnotes, May 11, 2020).

Once I felt I had a better understanding of the movements, I started putting together my own drill and I found myself considering something early twentieth century Girl Guides would never have had to consider: will these movements fit on a computer screen? As mentioned earlier, these workshops were being held on Zoom, meaning whatever drill I ended up putting together had to be one that could be easily understood and performed through a computer. Marches? No, I cannot have participants march right off the screen. Exercises that require participants to walk side by side? No, we cannot even be in the same room let alone side by side. Luckily, there were a lot of movements to choose from and creating a drill that was easy for me to teach and participants to understand virtually was not too hard.

My final drill.

Once my drill was complete, Heather and I had a conversation about how my drill was very physical and perhaps less performative compared to some of the drills done by girls in the early twentieth century. We discussed how my drill was more comparable to a gym warmup rather than the rhythmic and more theatrical performances done by past Girl Guides. We speculated on whether past girls would have faced a similar experience. Did past girls in different communities interpret movements and rhythm differently? Was there really a right way of doing the drills? This idea was further investigated in the workshops.

The first phase of Zoom workshops was with girls ages 12 – 19. In these workshops, I was teaching the girls the drill I had already developed, and I encouraged discussion and reflection during the workshop debriefing at the end.

“One of the struggles I had while teaching this drill online was determining whether the participants were off time, or their computer was just lagging … Both of the participants had their screens angled so I could not see their feet … This made it difficult … because I ... had no way of knowing if they were doing [the movement] correctly.” (Fieldnotes, May 29, 2020).

The second phase of workshops was with girls ages 7 – 22 where I taught them all the movement vocabulary in the Syllabus and encouraged them to interpret the movements themselves and create a drill. This is where the earlier idea of differing interpretations and different understandings of rhythm shined through.

Drill created and submitted by research participants.

I also found that girls who had the freedom to work together and ask questions were able to learn the movement vocabulary more quickly than I could when I was working alone.

“I feel it may be a lot easier to make a drill in a group because one group member can bounce ideas off the others and try to come to a consensus on how the move should look.” (Fieldnotes, June 5, 2020).

This realization made me wonder if past Girl Guides often worked together to create their physical culture drills or if they too, had to figure out the movement vocabulary on their own like I did. Did a past girl choreograph and lead a drill based on plans she made at home or did all the girls work collaboratively to create the drill on the spot?

This research has left me with many unanswered questions but has also taught me many things about myself and my relationship to past Girl Guides. Being isolated due to COVID-19 and limited to only the Syllabus at the beginning of my process taught me about resiliency and made me realize that past Girl Guides, living in isolated and rural areas and using the same text, may have faced similar struggles and concerns. Being able to teach my drill and the movement vocabulary to other girls helped me see the importance of collaboration, even during times of distance and isolation, and I like to think that collaboration and teamwork helped past Girl Guides just as much as it helped the present participants.

“These two worlds, separated by so many years, can still find harmony together!” (Fieldnotes, May 20, 2020).

For more information about this research, check out Fitzsimmons Frey, H. and J. Kerekes. “Physical Culture Drills and Alberta Girls Stepping Together Across Time,” Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14 (3), December 2021.

FOOTNOTES

For information about women and physical culture training in Canada, see Hall, Ann. M. 2016. The Girl and the Game: A History of Women’s Sport in Canada (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Girl Guides were established in Canada in 1910 and performed for family and friends through the first World War. In Alberta, from 1913 to 1918, Guide units were launched in Banff, Calgary, Cochrane, Coronation, Olds, Red Deer, Wainwright, and possibly Edmonton (Cormack 1968). In 2021, Canadian Girl Guides range in age from 5 to 17. Sparks are aged 5 to 6, Brownies, 7 to 8, Guides, 9 to 12, Pathfinders, 12 to 14, and Rangers 15 to17.
Never be Dull by Heather Fitzsimmons Frey provides some context into how physical culture was used by early twentieth century Girl Guides (Fitzsimmons Frey 2020).
Here is the link to the 1911 Strathcona Trust Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools https://archive.org/details/syllabusof11west00stra/page/n13/mode/2up

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to say a huge thank you to Heather Fitzsimmons Frey for all of her support and guidance throughout this project. Thank you, Heather!

REFERENCES

Cormack, Barbara Villy. 1968. Landmarks: A History of the Girl Guides of Alberta. Edmonton: Alberta Council, Girl Guides of Canada.

Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather. 2020. Never be Dull Girl Guides of Canada Performing Physical Culture and Gymnastics Drills in 1910-21. Performance Research: A Journal of Performing Arts, 25 (1), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2020.1738191

Scrapbook. 1912–1961. Girl Guides of Canada National Archives, Toronto, Ontario.

Strathcona Trust. 1911. Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools. Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company Ltd. https://archive.org/details/syllabusof11west00stra/page/n13/mode/2up