WHAT you are learning in this class I like to call "bread and butter" dances, for if you succeed in mastering them thoroughly, as you surely will if you give attention to your instruction here in class and then practice several hours daily at home, you will possess as your own individual property a means of livelihood that will remain at your command all your stage life.
When you know how to execute the routines of these dances and add to and develop your routines to keep them fresh and up to the hour, you have a lot of neat steps that will get over with the producers of many of the better types of modern shows. That is what I mean by "bread and butter" dances; something you can sell most easily in the present show market, and get not only food and raiment and lodging, but build up a savings bank account for the future as well. So it is well worth while to take your instruction here seriously and earnestly, as I am sure you intend to do. There is big money in this line of dancing if you practice and keep at it long enough. There are many four-figure salaries being paid every week to qualified dancers with an established name and reputation, and the way to earn these big salaries is to become qualified yourself. We teach you right and start you right—then it's practice for you; practice and more practice.
Let me tell you just how you should practice from now on in order to become a competent solo specialty dancer. Practice one step at a time. In a routine take the first step; practice that step until you are tired, then sit down and rest five or ten minutes. As soon as you feel like getting up again, take the second step and practice it until you are tired; sit down and rest again. Then do the first and second steps—no more; then sit down and rest again. Practice until you feel yourself tiring, but DO NOT overdo it. Practice faithfully and don't slight any one step. Then practice the third step the same way. When tired sit down and rest—then get up again. Put the first, second and third steps together, and so on all through the routine of eight or ten steps. No other way you can think of to practice will result as well as this particular way. It is a systematic, practical way.
I am taking a big responsibility with you, because when you finish your course you are going to appeal to me and ask if I know of an opportunity for you; where I think there is a good chance for you to begin; how you can get started. You are now getting along in advanced work. Try to get on in some charity entertainment; some place where you are employed in the day may have some benefits. Try for church entertainments. Some evenings in the neighborhood where you live there may be little entertainments. No matter how small an affair, try to go on. Get in front of an audience and feel the tension of an audience; it will give you encouragement, and on each succeeding appearance you will gain confidence and see how you "get over" with an audience. After a few appearances any feeling of stage fright will gradually disappear, and eventually you will gain confidence in yourself. Do not try to go on at first in any Broadway benefit. Be satisfied to make a very small beginning.
You have to begin now to put yourselves in the work. You can't be looking down at the floor and wondering what step comes next. That is no longer possible. You must acquire a method of executing the step; a little smile on your face; a little personality behind it; inject character into all your work.
Recently the Friars put on a Minstrel Show in New York that was a sensation. It shows that the public are gradually coming back to the old-time Minstrel Shows. The show business moves around in cycles; styles change in dances the same as in fashions. Light operas and musical comedies are coming in. Those of us who watch the theatre know that the styles are changing, and when I tell you this type of dancing is coming in you can believe it. Many prominent society women are studying this style of dancing. The Universities are taking it up, and we are gradually establishing it. Kansas City, Atlanta—the Junior League Follies, all did this type of work. There are 10,000 dancing teachers in America, and out of these, 2,350 are already teaching it, and there is every incentive for you to learn it, for it is popular and profitable, and with our foundation technique already acquired as a basis for this work you should not find it difficult to master.
This class is going to be taught four complete professional stage dances this month. If you got that outside of this school you would have to pay not less than $100 to $200 for each routine. I make it a point to give my scholars the very best there is in the line of instruction, and at the same time charge them only a reasonable fee.
We also give you the backing of every part of this establishment—publicity, advertising, and bookings when we can, but not until you have made good during your study.
Now there is one little thing I am going to talk to you about that really is a bigger thing than it seems—and that is gum—chewing gum. If you had had stage experience you would know that gum is taboo in the theatre, and the reason for this is not only that to chew in sight of an audience would be an insult and result in immediate dismissal, but also for this very important reason, that a cud of gum if dropped on the stage would destroy that stage for dancing—your own dancing and everybody else's. And it would be the same way here in the studio. We have here the finest of clear-maple dancing floors in every one of our studios. Drop a piece of gum on this floor and then try your dance and see what would happen to you. You'd step on it and you'd get a fall; you couldn't help it; and an unexpected fall like that might break your ankle, very easily. It has been done before now. Just make believe that you are under a theatrical producer on a Broadway stage, while you are with us here, and park your gum on a lamp post before you come into this building. Then you and the rest of the young ladies will not be in danger of meeting with an accident from that source.