The best development comes from our limbering and stretching exercises. There is nothing else like it nor anything equally as good as a foundation for all types of dancing, and it is especially needed by the amateur entering upon an acrobatic dancing career. We have put literally thousands of pupils through this course, and every student of our acrobatic dancing classes who has taken this essential preliminary course has come through in fine shape.
You must be extremely careful if you have or ever have had any abdominal trouble. You must get the abdomen strengthened before you undertake any acrobatic work. If you have had an operation for peritonitis, appendicitis, hernia, or elsewhere in the abdominal cavity or region, you must, out of consideration for your own health, avoid any violent bending exercise. This does not imply that you should not exercise properly. You should, for it is easily possible to strengthen the tender muscles into a normal condition by suitable and systematic exercises.
Try this test: Lie flat on your back on the floor. Now, without aid of the hands or elbows or any outside assistance, bring your body to a sitting position. If you cannot do this, get your back muscles into training before you attempt any difficult exertion. If you succeed in your test, you can safely consider your abdominal muscles to be in sufficiently good condition to go ahead with acrobatic dancing.
Let me describe a few of the most common of the acrobatic tricks that all acrobatic dancers must know, and you will no doubt recognize them as being also favorite tumbling acts of boys and girls on the lawn. The most complicated and difficult acrobatic exercises are taught in full in the Ned Wayburn Studios, and are printed in detail, with simple instruction for their successful accomplishment, in the Ned Wayburn Home Study Course in Stage Dancing. The few we give you here are not difficult, and can be mastered at home by anyone who persistently practices and follows the descriptions with care.
ACROBATIC DANCING PRACTICE.
BACK BEND
Stand erect. Spread the feet about fifteen inches apart. Have the toes pointed well out, at about a sixty degree angle. Raise the arms directly overhead, the hands shoulder-width apart. Put your head back, pushing forward with your knees. Lean back, bending the arms as far back as you can, till the palms of the hands rest on the floor. In doing the back bend, relax the lower jaw and keep the mouth slightly open to breathe. Throw the strain of the bend in the small of the back. To come up, acquire a little rocking motion forward and back, lean forward, and you will come up easily.
How to do a back bend while standing near a wall.