Now, without turning your head, using your eyes only, look left oblique, look front, look right oblique, front, look left oblique down, look front, look left oblique up, look front, look right oblique down, look right oblique up, look front.
Most of my instruction is based on the eight different directions which you have been told about, and on the four different parts of the foot, which you must also understand thoroughly. This makes it easy to analyze any dancing steps that we teach.
These four different parts of the foot are:
- 1, the toe, or end of the shoe.
- 2, the ball of the foot (the half sole).
- 3, the heel.
- 4, the flat of the foot.
Tapping the toe of the left foot to the floor makes the first count; stamping the ball of the left foot, the second count; the heel of the left, the third count; and the flat of the entire foot the fourth count. These four different parts of the foot become an exercise by counting 1, 2, 3, 4, with the left foot, and 5, 6, 7, 8, with the right foot, beginning with the right toe on the count of 5. This exercise if practiced faithfully will give flexibility to the muscles and ligaments that control the entire foot, all of which are used in musical comedy dancing, for the American tap, step and specialty work (clogging), for social or ballroom dancing, for exhibition dancing, as well as in the acrobatic dancing work, and for my Americanized ballet training, including toe dancing.
Do this exercise first with the left foot, then with the right foot, to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and practice it often, till it becomes a perfectly natural action. It is the basis of the best "bread and butter" dancing steps, as you will discover in later lessons.
In doing this exercise, remember that in dropping the toe to the floor it must be placed straight back, and not left or right oblique back; straight back from the "place" where you stand. The knees should be kept together. When you stamp the ball of your foot, the feet are directly opposite each other.
I want you to note that each of the four movements of this exercise has a distinct sound. The dropping of the toe, the stamping of the ball of the foot, of the heel, and of the flat foot, each creates a separate and distinct sound. I have named these sounds "taps," and it is the various combinations of these sounds that are used so effectively in musical comedy dances, in tap, step, and American specialty dancing (sometimes called clogging), as well as in some of our choicest acrobatic dancing.
Some of our pupils are apt at tap and step dancing, others are more apt at ballet dancing, musical comedy or acrobatic dancing. Some of our young ladies take four classes a day; some take three; others two; and still others but one class a day. In addition to this, there are pupils, among them a great many young gentlemen, who take private lessons in their chosen style of dancing every day while some only take one private lesson a week.
