THIS is one of the most useful as well as attractive types of stage dancing, and appeals strongly to all aspirants for theatrical honors and emoluments. I say "useful," for the reason that Musical Comedy dancing as I teach it supplies dancers with a repertoire of fancy steps and neat dance routines that should enable them to sell their services in the best theatrical markets of the world, which seems to me to be a pretty "useful" sort of a property for one to have in their permanent possession. If I here repeat that frequent practice on the part of the student is necessary for the correct acquirement of Musical Comedy dancing, I am merely stating what is right and necessary that all should understand who desire to make their services in this line of endeavor available for public approval and a corresponding cash return. And this applies to every other kind of dancing as well.
Now you may think that you know just what Musical Comedy Dancing is, and perhaps you do, but the name of it hardly defines it so that it would be recognized for exactly what it is by one not thoroughly stage-wise. You see a pleasing ensemble or solo dance at some revue or musical show and, without seeking or desiring to classify this dance as this, that or the other kind, you are satisfied to realize in your inner consciousness that it is a pretty movement and well worth seeing. So exact is the execution that it arouses your wonder how the dancers ever manage to get so many intricate steps and rapid motions and pretty flings of their heels into a united and harmonious picture; all working in perfect unison, to a pleasing tempo, smiling the while and doing it all as a mere matter of course, with seeming unconcern, just as though the steps and kicks and posing and grouping were second nature to them all.
That is a Musical Comedy dance, and instead of growing on bushes to be gathered by every careless hand, it is actually the result of studious endeavor and persistent drilling on the part of the participants, and of careful and conscientious training by competent dancing instructors. It is well done and gratifying to the spectator because it is the finished product of qualified teaching, earnest endeavor, tireless energy, practice, rehearsing. Remember this, the next time you attend a show where dancing is a feature, and accord the dancers the credit that is their due.
True Musical Comedy dancing is in reality an exaggerated form of what was formerly styled "fancy dancing." It is a cross between the ballet and the Ned Wayburn type of tap and step or American specialty dancing. It combines pretty attitudes, poses, pirouettes and the several different types of kicking steps that are now so popular. Soft-shoe steps break into it here and there in unexpected ways and places, adding a pleasing variety to the menu. The tempo enhances and harmonizes the scene and the action. There is no monotony, no tiresome sameness; yet the varying forms of action blend into a perfect continuity. The dance is full of happy surprise steps, perhaps, or unexpected climaxes and variations that arouse the interest as they quickly flash by.
Often there is featured in Musical Comedy dancing a bit of so called "character" work, which may be anything—Bowery, Spanish, Dutch, eccentric, Hawaiian, or any of the countless other characteristic types. Also there are touches of dainty ballet work interspersed among the other features, at times. Yet to accomplish the ballet effects or the character representations exacts of the dancer no special development along strictly ballet or classical lines, when she obtains her Musical Comedy training here, for these features are given the required attention as part of the regular course in fitting the student for this branch of the stage dancing art, and thus our Musical Comedy graduates are qualified for all the variations of effort that naturally come under that head.
My foundation technique is a prime factor in the successful accomplishment of any type of dancing, and the scientific limbering and stretching exercises that constitute that work are indispensable in perfecting the pupil to handle every phase of the varied demands in Musical Comedy dancing. Hence my insistence that our foundation technique precede the entrance of the pupil into the classes of this or any of the other various types of stage dancing that we teach.
FRED AND ADELE ASTAIRE