THE
Art of
Stage
Dancing
by Ned Wayburn
NED WAYBURN
THE ART OF
STAGE DANCING
The Story of a Beautiful
and Profitable Profession
by
NED WAYBURN
Price $5.00
NEW YORK
The Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing, Inc.
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1925, by
Ned Wayburn
Studios of Stage Dancing, Inc.
Made in U.S.A.
Someway I don't care for the word "Preface." As I think the matter over, I'm not sure that I ever read a preface to any book; and this fact suggests to me that possibly others would pass by this page in my book if I dubbed it by that much-worn and very trite word. So I've hailed you all with a much more cheery and stimulating title for my opening page; and perhaps, in consequence, some may read it.
My Greetings are specially extended to certain chosen groups of people: First, to all students of the past, the present, and those hoped for in the future; second, to the hundreds of teachers of the art of dancing who esteem my original methods of instruction sufficiently to care about what I may print on the subject; and third, to a public that has sat "in front" at any or many of my productions, and enjoyed them, and is, in consequence, interested to know something about the hard work, the thought and the skill, necessary to bring about such pleasing results.
Lest so narrow a limit to my Greetings may be misunderstood, on second thought I will extend my Greetings to that world of people who love life and beauty and happiness; who appreciate honest effort to make living more enjoyable and brighter; who love laughter and smiles and the good things that go with them.
And if all that kind of people will read and appreciate my book, I shall not miss the others.
But still, to them, as well as to you, I extend
Greetings!
Ned Wayburn
As a writer of books, I confess myself to be a good stage craftsman.
I have never before attempted authorship, and this volume is simply a spontaneous outpouring of my personal love and knowledge of a great art that has filled my years with joy and happiness, and some renown in the theatrical world.
To have been one modest part of an instrument that has piped to pleasure many millions of my fellows, is surely justification for personal satisfaction. How this playing has been done, how it is being done today in greater degree than ever before, is what I have in mind to tell a curious public.
And so I became an author for this once, and what you may discover that I lack in literary ability, let me trust you will find compensated for in the plainness and simplicity of the facts, incidents and reminiscences that I relate. If not the manner, at least the matter is worthy of your approval.
My story is presented in the first person, and this is because I find it easiest to write from a personal viewpoint—not, I hope, as the result of any special desire to see the letter I in print. A more experienced author would be able to write this book with less suggestion of ego in its pages, I have little doubt, and so I have called this explanatory word An Apology that you may understand why things are as they are, and not demand of the tyro the same quality of literary excellence that you would be justified in expecting of the better qualified writer.
To paraphrase one of my earliest school-boy speeches,—"If this be an apology, make the most of it."
CONTENTS
LIST OF HALFTONE PLATES
All portraits are of artists whose careers have been directed by Ned Wayburn.
All stage scenes are of productions staged by Ned Wayburn.
All interior views are of classrooms and other departments of the Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing, Inc., 1841 Broadway (at Columbus Circle), entrance on 60th Street, New York City.
Photographs used by courtesy of Art Studios and Art Photographers whose names are appended.
[Ned Wayburn] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Gilda Gray and Ned Wayburn Pupils in "It's Getting Darker on Broadway," Follies of 1922.]
[One View of Grand Ball Room in Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Lace Ballet, Follies of 1922.]
[The Fairbanks Twins, in the "Follies," and Stars of "Two Little Girls in Blue"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Oscar Shaw, Featured with "Good Morning, Dearie," "The Music Box Revue," "Two Little Girls in Blue," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Dolly Sisters, Internationally Famous Musical Comedy Stars] (Alfred Cheney Johnston, N.Y.).
[One of over Twenty Daily Dancing Classes at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Vivienne Segal, Prima Donna of the "Follies" and many other Musical Comedies, Featured in Light Opera] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Paulette Duval and Ned Wayburn Pupils, Follies of 1923.]
[Class in Dancing Foundation Technique at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Louise Groody, Featured with "Good Morning, Dearie," "No, No, Nanette," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Partial View of Demi-Tasse Theatre, Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Conditioning Class in the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[The Astaires, Fred and Adele, Featured in "Lady, Be Good!" in America, and in "Stop Flirting," London] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Cecil Lean, Featured in "No, No, Nanette," "The Time, the Place and the Girl," "The Blue Paradise," etc.] (Apeda, N.Y.).
[Scene from "Ned Wayburn's Symphonic Jazz Revue."]
[Ann Pennington, Star Dancer with the "Follies"] (Alfred Cheney Johnston, N.Y.).
[Private Lockers in Dressing Rooms.]
[The Three Reillys, Alice, Gracie and Johnny, Remarkable Tap Dancers] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Acrobatic Dancing Practice at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Evelyn Law, Principal Dancer in the "Follies," and "Louie the Fourteenth"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Lina Basquette, Premiere Dancer in the "Follies," and other Musical Productions] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Marion Chambers, Premiere Dancer in "Poppy," and in Ned Wayburn Productions] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Virginia Bacon, Vaudeville Dancing Star, and with Ned Wayburn Productions] (Young and Carl, Cincinnati).
[Gilda Gray, Dancing Star, Who Made Her Biggest Success with the "Follies."] (Alfred Cheney Johnston, N.Y.).
[Maurice, Internationally Known Exhibition Dancer] (Ira L. Hill, N.Y.).
[The Ned Wayburn Professional Stage Makeup Box and Outfit.]
[Mary Eaton, Premiere Dancer with the "Follies," and co-starred in "Kid Boots"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Class in Stage Makeup at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[One Hundred Thousand Dollars' Worth of Dancing Costumes are Immediately Available.]
[Corner of the Wardrobe Department.]
[Scene from "Ned Wayburn's Honeymoon Cruise."]
[Frances White, Featured with the "Follies," "Midnight Frolics," Vaudeville, etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Group of Ned Wayburn Show Girls, Follies of 1922.]
[Ann Constance, with "Greenwich Village Follies," and Famous Players Pictures (Showing Her Physical Condition Before and After She Entered the Ned Wayburn Studios)] (Edward Thayer Monroe, N.Y.)
[Helen Fables, Vaudeville Dancing Star, and with Ned Wayburn Productions] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[W.C. Fields, Featured with the "Follies," "The Ham Tree," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Ray Dooley, Featured with the "Follies," "Hitchy Koo," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Moonlight Ballet, Follies of 1923.]
[Will Rogers, Celebrated American Cowboy Humorist and "Roper," Featured in the "Follies"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Dorothy Dickson, Starred in London Productions of "Sally" and "The Cabaret Girl," shown with Her Dancing Partner, Carl Hyson] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Corner in One of the Ladies' Dressing Rooms, Showing Shower Baths.]
[Private Dancing Lesson at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Marion Davies, in the "Follies," and Famous Movie Star] (Alfred Cheney Johnston, N.Y.).
[Charlotte Greenwood, Star of "So Long Letty," Featured with the "Music Box Revue," "Ritz Revue," Winter Garden Productions, etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Children's Saturday Hour at the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Ned Wayburn and Two Tiny Pupils, Herbert Colton, 6, and Patty Coakley, 5.]
[Gertrude Lawrence, English Star, Featured in Andre Charlot's Revue] (Hugh Cecil, London).
[Janet Stone and Nick Long, Jr., Formerly with the Musical Comedy, "Lady Butterfly," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Cleo Mayfield, Featured in "No, No, Nanette," "The Blue Paradise," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Al Jolson, Famous New York Winter Garden Star, Who Popularized "Mammy" Songs] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Mr. Wayburn's Private Office.]
["Little Old New York," Follies of 1923.]
[Rita Owen, with the "Follies"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Ada May (Weeks), Star of "Lollipop"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Grand Ball Room in Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Marilyn Miller, Musical Comedy Star, in the "Follies," "Sally" and "Sunny"] (Alfred Cheney Johnston, N.Y.).
[Scene from "Ned Wayburn's Demi-Tasse Revue."]
[Rita Howard, Vaudeville Dancing Star, and with Ned Wayburn Productions] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Corridor on Third Floor of Ned Wayburn Studios.]
["By the South Sea Moon," Follies of 1922, with Gilda Gray.]
[Belle Baker, Vaudeville Star] (Lowell, Chicago).
[Business Office of the Ned Wayburn Studios.]
[Pearl Regay, Dancing Star in "Rose-Marie"] (White Studio, N.Y.).
[Eddie Cantor, Star of "Kid Boots," "Follies," etc.] (White Studio, N.Y.).
GILDA GRAY AND NED WAYBURN PUPILS IN “IT’S GETTING DARKER ON BROADWAY,” FOLLIES OF 1922
THE ART OF STAGE DANCING
A BIT OF ANCIENT HISTORY
EVERY age has had its ways of dancing; every people has expressed itself in some form of rhythmic motion.
The dance originally was the natural expression of the simple emotions of a primitive people. Triumph, defeat, war, love, hate, desire, propitiation of the gods of nature, all were danced by the hero or the tribe to the rhythm of beaten drums.
Over six thousand years ago Egypt made use of the dance in its religious ritual. At a very early period the Hebrews gave dancing a high place in their ceremony of worship. Moses bade the children of Israel dance after the crossing of the Red Sea. David danced before the Ark of the Covenant. The Bible is replete with instances showing the place of the dance in the lives of the people of that time.
Greece in its palmy days was the greatest dancing nation the world has ever known. Here it was protected by priesthood and state, practiced by rich and poor, high and lowly born. One of the nine muses was devoted to the fostering of this particular art. Great ballets memorialized great events; simple rustic dances celebrated the coming of the flowers and the gathering of the crops. Priestesses performed the sacred numbers; eccentric comedy teams enlivened the streets of Athens. Philosophers taught it to pupils for its salutary effect on body and mind; it was employed to give soldiers poise, agility and health.
The dance was undoubtedly among the causes of Greek vigor of mind and body. Physicians prescribed its rhythmic exercise for many ailments. Plato specifies dancing among the necessities for the ideal republic, and Socrates urged it upon his pupils. The beauty of harmonized movements of healthy bodies, engendered by dancing, had its effect on the art of Greece.
Since the days of classic Greece, scenery, music and costume have created effects then undreamed of, but notwithstanding the lack of incidental factors, the greatness and frequency of municipal ballets, the variety of motives that dancing was made to express, combine to give Greece a rank never surpassed as a dancing nation.
The Greek stage of this age was rich in scope, and for its effects drew upon poetry, music, dancing, grouping and posing.
Then came the Dark Ages of history, and in a degraded world dancing was saved and taken under the protection of the Christian church, where it remained for the greater part of a thousand years. The vehicle that carried the ballet through this period was known as the "spectacle." These sacred spectacles, in grouping, evolution, decoration and music, possessed qualities that entitle them to a respectable place in the annals of opera ballet. The steps were primitive, but they sufficed for the times.
However, the organization of the first real opera ballet conforming to standards of modern excellence did not come till the latter part of the fifteenth century, when Cardinal Riario, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, composed and staged a number of important ballet productions.
But the greatest development of the modern type of ballet received its impetus under the reign of Louis XIV of France, who founded the national ballet academy at Paris in 1661, and often played prominent parts himself. Under this influence great performers began to appear, artists whose work, by grace of beauty alone, attested that perfection in ballet technique was approaching.
The growth of the ballet since the time of Louis XIV has been the contribution of individual artists, who by giving expression to their own original ideas have thus advanced the art to the pinnacle attained by the modern Russian ballet of today.
The above outline of the history of the dance is made brief intentionally, with no attempt to touch upon the various forms of dancing as practiced by the many nations and tribes. Numerous books have been written covering all aspects of this subject, and giving in detail the steps and rhythms of the people of every age, and of every continent and the isles of the sea; and as matters of interest, education and research they are competent and complete, and especially edifying to the student of Terpsichore.
But the subject that interests us is not concerned with ancient lore nor with historical data, however delightful they may be. I am writing for the American of today about present-day matters in the American theatrical world, and to that end choose to ignore all other phases of the subject.
In our day the development of the dance has reached its greatest heights, in both the social circle and the stage picture.
The advance made in stage dancing within the last generation has been very pronounced, yet so gradual has been this growth and improvement, that only the elders of the present time can visualize its progress, and that only by a backward look to the period of paucity and monotony that ruled in their junior years, and contrast the dearth of then with the abundance of now.
For really, whether in our multitude of revues or in our many musical shows, the dance, the pose, the rhythm and the melody that enhance our delight are all parts of the modern art of stage dancing. And it is of this art that the writer seeks to tell the story in the present volume.
Both the theatre and the dance have had their abundant historians. The dance is ages older than the theatre. The time of the coming of the dance to the theatre and their fitting union ever after has been recorded. They have advanced together hand in hand through the years since their first meeting and are closer companions at this hour than ever before.
Stage dancing is no longer the haphazard stepping of feet to music that it was in the beginning. From its earlier crude efforts it has developed into a modern art, a profession of the first class, calling for brain and ability at their very best, its devotees giving years of labor to perfecting themselves in their chosen art.
ONE VIEW OF GRAND BALL ROOM
MODERN STAGE DANCING
MODERN stage dancing differs from social or ballroom dancing in that it is the kind of dancing that one can commercialize.
Most of the artistic and financial successes of the stage today are built upon music and dancing. We find these two essential elements in opera, revue, musical comedy, pantomime and vaudeville, while the place of the dance in moving pictures may well be recognized. Should the old-time minstrel show come back, as it is certain to do, there will be added another name to the list of active entertainments that call for a union of music and dancing to insure their prosperity.
The Follies, the Frolics, the Scandals, the Music Box, the Vanities, the Passing Shows—by whatever name the modern revue is spread before an eager public, the basis of its appeal is always the same. And when the Junior Leagues—the various charity organizations and the social and college clubs of our cities stage a performance that shall appeal to the interest of their public, and consequently gather in the shekels to their coffers, these amateur organizations turn naturally to music and dance and spectacle as the mediums with the widest appeal; an appeal to both the performer and the spectator.
Incidentally, let me say that the appeal of music and the dance to the performer, whether on the professional or the amateur stage, is not given the consideration to which it is entitled. Perhaps nobody in the audience cares whether or not the dancer is enjoying the dance. But let me tell you, the dancer is having just as good a time up there on the stage as you are down in front; and probably you never gave the matter a thought!
The dancers' enjoyment of the art is an essential factor in the causes that lead to the popularity of our modern type of stage entertainment. To have acquired proficiency in their chosen profession the dancers have labored strenuously and long, and now the reward of years of effort is theirs. They love their art as well as its emoluments. By industry and perhaps frugality they have acquired an independent career for life. They have made much of their opportunities. They have a right to be happy. And they are.
Probably no man ever lived who knows personally so many dancing folks as I do, and among all my stage acquaintances and friends I can count on a very few fingers the number that I would not class as supremely happy in their profession, and those few who might be considered as unhappy are made so by circumstances entirely apart from the stage, or, in a few instances, because of their own folly and indiscretions. The stage world is a happy world in the main. Its rewards are abundant in friendships as well as in cash, and the happiness radiated to you from behind the footlights is the direct result of the happiness that permeates the very being of the smiling favorite of the gods whose efforts to please you have met with your approbation. So the pleasure of dancer and spectator are in a degree mutual, which in great measure explains the fascination that the dancing show has for the public.
In nearly every amateur stage performance in my long experience there have been present some few who exhibited natural ability as dancers, and possessed foundation requirements for professional stage work. In cases where these favored ones have placed themselves under my instruction their improvement has been rapid and sure.
There is no such thing as an untrained successful dancer; there never has been; there never will be. Given that one has the ability requisite to a knowledge of the dance, the rest comes from active training, and nothing else. And by "ability" I do not mean experience, but rather that natural talent to step to music and observe tempo and rhythm that every dancer must possess. It is a talent inborn in the dancer, and needs only proper development under competent instruction to bring out all the possibilities that are in one. Beyond that, and after the days of instruction are over, the only limit is the personality, the mental ability and the originality of the dancer himself, and these we encourage in every possible manner, for that way lies the electric sign in front of a Broadway Theatre, and all that goes with it in glory and gold.
It is to the amateur dancer of today that the professional stage looks for its recruits. There never before has been so great a demand for stage dancers as exists now, and the supply for both solo and ensemble work barely suffices. Talent naturally is encouraged by this condition of the market for its wares, and all who take advantage of this popularity and qualify for the better grade positions will find little difficulty in securing what they are entitled to.
I am anxious to get over with one part of this book that seems necessary to its complete understanding by a reading public, and that is the very personal subject of myself, its author. I am going to permit entrance into these pages of a brief biography of Ned Wayburn for two distinct reasons: First, to establish by what route I came to be an authority on stage-craft and stage dancing; and second, by a recital of my personal struggle and effort and final success, to encourage all young men and young women of ambition to themselves enter upon the stage of our great calling, with every hope of future success.
To that end, I am permitting a friend to come on the stage with his story of my stage career and experience.
As I look back upon my own history, it seems like a romance. And it is; a romance in real life; every word of it true, and the entire scenario as wonderful as anything in the movies.
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LACE BALLET, FOLLIES OF 1922
NED WAYBURN—AN INSPIRATION
By Carleton B. Case
EVERY line of endeavor has its outstanding leaders. The men and women who do great things in a grand way ever command our admiration. We like to hear about their public careers and the intimate side of their exceptional lives is of decided interest to us. This I think is especially true where the noted ones are among our public entertainers, the player-folk, who bring so much joy and happiness into the world out of nothing—creators of innocent pleasure.
Long years before this was penned, and while yet my locks were innocent of the whiteness that now typifies my years, I was closely associated with the family of Wayburn. I was a man in Chicago when Ned Wayburn was a boy in the same city, starting on what was destined to become a truly remarkable career.
I know Ned Wayburn well. He is a king and a thoroughbred, as man or as manager, and to know him is to esteem him.
His fame is peculiar in that it is based so largely[28]on the success of other people—the actors and dancers whom he has discovered or directed and so helped to become stars of the first magnitude. To name them by hundreds is easy; to number all who are approaching stardom or who, now well placed on the professional stage, have materially profited by his aid and instruction, will go into the thousands. Surely such a record of achievement is ample cause for pride.
Ned Wayburn possesses an almost uncanny faculty of discerning latent talent in the line of his profession. You may not know one dance step from another, yet his discerning eye will detect a possibility for you in some branch of the dancing art that results will later prove as correct as they are surprising to yourself.
I have heard him tell of Evelyn Law, that when she first came to the studio she exhibited a tap and step dance as her specialty.
"This type of dancing was totally unsuited to her," said Ned, "and I told her so. And I also told her what her 'line' was. She took my advice, and today she leads the world in that type of dancing, and her salary has four figures in it every week."
The man who can do that is a genius, and Ned Wayburn has done it many, many times.
There is one outstanding fact in his entire career as producer of shows and director of the education of his pupils in his dancing studios: He insists that everything and everybody about him shall be "the best." His studios are fitted up "the best," regardless of cost. Sixty thousand dollars he paid for the fittings and furnishings of the two floors contained in his perfect establishment for teaching dancing at Columbus Circle, Broadway and Sixtieth Street, New York. His instructing staff must be "the best." His pupils must be "the best." I mean by that, not that the pupils are so qualified when they enter, but that when they are ready to graduate from his institution into the professional life of the stage, then they must be "the best"; nothing else will do.
So, too, in his own stage productions, and he has several, and more are in prospect. They are nowhere slighted. The best cast, music, dancing, costumes, scenery—everything—always. Ned never was a piker. He wasn't born that way. Lavish some consider him, but he finds his luxuriant presentations are appreciated by the line in front of the box office. He couldn't put on a "cheap" show if he wanted to. One goes to a Ned Wayburn show with the assurance of getting his money's worth in beauty and pleasurable entertainment. It pays; and the financial test is after all the one criterion by which to form a final judgment in things theatrical.
Now I am going to give some details of the inspiring career that began with an ambitious boy possessed of an artistic temperament, a love of music and of the beautiful, and who was at the same time a "hustler" and a born executive—a career developed by experience, still in progress and not yet at its culmination. As you read, it will seem almost incredible that one man, still comparatively young, could in so brief a period have accomplished so much that calls for great mental stress and extraordinary physical activity.
Ned Wayburn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his parents were socially prominent. Later the Wayburn family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and thence to Chicago. During his school days he first attracted attention as an amateur athlete, winning recognition as a fast runner, trick skater, tennis player, center rush on various football teams, and finally as a semi-professional baseball pitcher and home-run hitter. While employed in his father's manufacturing plant in Chicago, he took part in many amateur theatricals, and became noted as a dramatic coach for charity entertainments and clubs, leading cotillions and taking part in many society and club entertainments.
It was at that time that his success in directing and writing dialogue for amateur theatricals attracted the attention of Hart Conway, of the Chicago School of Acting, who promptly engaged him as assistant. At the same time, he had the privilege of seeing and studying the greatest stars and the best attractions at the Chicago Grand Opera House, where he began at the very bottom of the ladder as an usher in the gallery, balcony and main floor. Finally he became chief usher—then sold tickets for the gallery—took tickets at the main door. The late Aaron Hoffman, famous playwright, was opera glass boy at that time with him, and the well-known star, Taylor Holmes, was one of his ushers! Eventually he became Assistant Superintendent of that theatre.
To gain additional experience, Ned worked as a "super" with many different attractions, including the companies of Olga Nethersole, Otis Skinner, Walker Whiteside, Julia Stuart, etc., finally playing small parts in the legitimate and Shakespearian drama.
Having displayed a natural aptitude as a director while holding "prompt books" at rehearsals, he became a dramatic director and actor of eccentric comedy and character parts. Then his natural instinct for dancing asserted itself, and he became a specialty dancer, practicing from three to eight hours a day to perfect his dancing, incidentally developing his talent as a musician.
The late Col. John Hopkins saw Ned Wayburn at a society benefit performance in Chicago, and induced him to play one week's engagement. Thus Ned Wayburn made his first professional appearance at Hopkins' Theatre, State Street, Chicago, being billed as "Chicago's Leading Amateur"—a singing and dancing "black-faced" comedian, doing a "ragtime piano" specialty, and dancing act. This led to other engagements. The "piano specialty," which he originated, started the "ragtime" craze. He played in and around Chicago and the middle west. He came East to New York, and was booked by the late Phil Nash, on the Keith Circuit, billed as "The Man Who Invented Ragtime." In his piano specialty he created the idea of playing the classics in "Ragtime," being the first person on the stage to play "Mendelssohn's Wedding March," "Oh Promise Me," "Star-Spangled Banner," etc., in syncopated rhythm or "Ragtime." He was also the first on the stage to do imitations of the harp, bagpipe, mandolin, banjo, etc., on the piano. His act was much imitated all over the world.
Upon reaching New York he met with misfortune. There was no piano for him at his opening performance and his original act had been stolen and performed in New York ahead of his appearance. This culminated in a period without work. Finally he found himself walking Broadway from one Thursday morning until late Saturday night, with neither food nor money!
Having looked forward so much to New York and what he expected it to bring him, he was at first discouraged and inclined to give up and go back home with each succeeding rebuff, but he made up his mind to stick it out, no matter what he had to do until he got on in a first class company. After months of patient canvassing of all managers' and agents' offices where he was denied recognition, he was finally given an opportunity, through an acquaintance who heard him play in a 26th St. theatrical boarding house, to demonstrate his ability in a tryout for the most popular star on Broadway at the time, May Irwin. She immediately recognized his ability and gave him an engagement at $25.00 per week, to introduce ragtime to Broadway. (He was receiving $125.00 per week when he first came to New York.) He wrote for Miss Irwin the first ragtime song, "Syncopated Sandy." He was so hard up at the time that he sold a one-half interest in this song to a man named Stanley Whiting for $25.00, so this man could have his name on the song as co-author. For an entire season she sang it and he played it in the performances of "The Swell Miss Fitzwell" at the old Bijou Theatre, New York City (Broadway between 30th and 31st Sts.). "Syncopated Sandy" sold over 1,000,000 copies. It was used to teach people to play ragtime. All Mr. Wayburn ever received out of its publication was a $15.00 advance royalty, which he was glad to get. He also helped write the third act of "The Swell Miss Fitzwell," and re-wrote the second act, including some of the musical numbers, for which he received no royalty. Incidentally, he was promoted to the position of stage director by Miss Irwin, and wrote some of her most successful songs, receiving a salary of $30.00 per week. He taught society to play ragtime and to cakewalk. However, he had confidence in his ability and worked hard to gain experience. He canvassed the music stores while en route with the company and sold sheet music which helped defray his expenses, and he saved his spare pennies. Finally, he signed up with Mathews and Bulger, a very popular team of stars.
From that moment the star of success glowed brightly for Ned Wayburn. For two years following he toured the United States and Canada with Dunne and Ryley's musical comedy success, "By the Sad Sea Waves," which he helped write and stage, introducing "ragtime," now known as "Jazz," to America in nearly every city of over 5,000 population. Gertrude Hoffmann was one of his dancing girls in the chorus of this show.
FAIRBANKS TWINS
Being a born musician he turned his talents, in his spare time, to writing songs, many of which became quite popular, and from which he derived considerable revenue. "He Ain't No Relation of Mine," "Spend Your Money While You Live 'Cause You're Gonna Be a Long Time Dead," "Ragtime Jimmie's Jamboree," etc., etc.
Mr. Wayburn then staged George M. Cohan's first musical play, "The Governor's Son," and George Ade's first musical play, "The Night of the 4th," the latter at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, New York, with Joseph Coyne and Harry Bulger as the featured comedians. Thus began an unending succession of triumphs as a theatrical producer and stage director.
Mr. Wayburn was engaged by Oscar Hammerstein as producing stage director for Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre Paradise Roof Gardens, at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue, where the Rialto Theatre now stands, where he had charge three summers and staged the very first "girl" acts, including Ned Wayburn's "Jockey Club" with the Countess Von Hatzfeldt, which toured to the Pacific Coast and back to New York, booked by Martin Beck.
He was then engaged by Sire Bros. as producing stage director for their New York Theatre and Roof Gardens where he, a mere boy, staged and directed the greatest company of stars ever assembled under one roof, including Jessie Bartlett Davis, Mabelle Gilman, Virginia Earle, Marie Dressler, Nina Farrington, Thomas Q. Seabrooke, Dan McAvoy, Junie McCree, Louis Harrison, Marion Winchester, Emma Carus, etc., etc. "The Hall of Fame" was one of many productions staged for them.
He then became producing stage director for Klaw and Erlanger. During the next four years produced and helped to create:
"The Billionaire" with Jerome Sykes, "Bluebeard" with Eddie Foy, "The Rogers Brothers in London," "The Rogers Brothers in Paris," "The Rogers Brothers in Ireland," "The Rogers Brothers in Panama," "The Ham Tree" with McIntyre and Heath, "Mother Goose" with Joseph Cawthorne, "Humpty-Dumpty," "The White Cat," "The Pearl and the Pumpkin," "Little of Everything" with Fay Templeton and Pete Dailey, and many other productions for the New Amsterdam Theatre and Roof, also for the New York Theatre Roof, acting as general stage director of both. He leased and managed the New York Theatre Roof Gardens, where he conceived and produced some very successful headline vaudeville acts, among them, "Ned Wayburn's Minstrel Misses," and "Ned Wayburn's Rain-dears," which afterward played the Keith circuit and other vaudeville theatres to previously unequaled success.
Left Klaw and Erlanger to engage in the vaudeville producing field for himself through the encouragement of B.F. Keith, E.F. Albee, Percy G. Williams, William Hammerstein, F.F. Proctor and Martin Beck. Owned and produced the following headline acts: "The Futurity Winner," "The Star Bout," "The Rain-dears," with Neva Aymar; "The Dancing Daisies," with Dorothy Jardon; "The Phantastic Phantoms," with Larry and Rosie Ceballos; "The Side Show," with Harry Pilcer, and about 100 other big acts. Produced his own musical comedy attraction, "A One Horse Town."
For Mortimer H. Singer at the La Salle Theatre, Chicago, produced the following Musical Comedies: "The Time, the Place and the Girl," starring Cecil Lean—and which ran 464 consecutive performances to "standing room only"; "The Girl Question," "The Golden Girl," "The Goddess of Liberty," "Honeymoon Trail," "The Girl at the Helm," "The Heart Breakers," etc.
Founded "Ned Wayburn's Training School for the Stage," which first occupied the American Savings Bank Building, 115 West 42nd Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue, New York City, and then expanded to the entire five-story building at 143 West 44th Street, next to the Hudson Theatre and opposite the Lambs Club. John Emerson, President of the Actor's Equity Association, and Zelda Sears, author of "The Lollypop," and many other successes, were then members of his faculty.
For the Shuberts and Lew Fields staged "The Mimic World," at the Casino Theatre, New York. For Lew Fields (of Weber and Fields), at the Broadway Theatre and Herald Square Theatre staged: "The Midnight Sons," "The Jolly Bachelors," "The Hen Pecks," "The Summer Widowers," "The Never Homes," "The Wife Hunters," "Tillie's Nightmare," starring Marie Dressler; Lew Fields in "Old Dutch," Victor Herbert's "The Rose of Algeria," etc.
For the Messrs. Shubert at the Casino Theatre, N.Y., the following musical comedies: "The Girl and the Wizard," starring Sam Bernard; "Havana," with James T. Powers (made the American version of this libretto); "The Prince of Bohemia," with Andrew Mack, and "Mlle. Mischief," starring Lulu Glaser.
Staged and appeared in "The Producer," written by William Lebaron, a headline vaudeville production (fifty people) which opened at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, New York City, and played for months in vaudeville, headlining in all principal eastern cities.
Staged "The Military Girl," starring Cecil Lean and Cleo Mayfield, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Chicago. Engaged by Lee and J.J. Shubert as producer for New York Winter Garden, created a policy for that theatre and a formula for musical productions still used there; staged "The Passing Show of 1912," "The Honeymoon Express," with Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys, "Broadway to Paris," "The Passing Show of 1913," etc.
For the English manager, Albert de Courville, at the Hippodrome, London, England, at the highest terms ever paid a stage director, he directed George Robey, Ethel Levey, Harry Tate, Billy Merson, Shirley Kellogg, and other famous continental stars.
He staged "Hullo Tango" (ran over one year), "Zig-Zag" (ran one and one-half years), "Box of Tricks," "Joybells," etc.
Opened offices in London, producing "The Honeymoon Express," which ran five years in London and the provinces; produced "Dora's Doze," at Palladium Music Hall, and leased Middlesex Music Hall, London, to stage his own musical productions with American, French and English stars, in association with Oswald Stoll, but was obliged to stop productions there when war was declared.
Next he staged and presented his own production of a farce, "She's In Again," at Gaiety Theatre, New York City; also put on his own $150,000 production of "Town Topics," with Will Rogers, at the Century Theatre, New York, for which playhouse he created a Continental Music Hall policy.
It was soon after this that he accepted an engagement as producer and general stage director for Florenz Ziegfeld and staged the "Follies of 1916," "Follies of 1917," "Follies of 1918," and "Follies of 1919."
OSCAR SHAW
In addition to the above, Mr. Wayburn devised and staged for Mr. Ziegfeld nine successful Midnight Frolics and two Nine O'Clock Revues atop the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, during this time.
For Mesmore Kendall, devised and staged the opening presentation for the Capitol Theatre, New York City, September, 1919, including an elaborate and very successful revue.
For Dillingham and Ziegfeld, at Century Theatre, New York, he devised and staged the sensationally successful second act finale to "The Century Girl" (1916), where the 50-foot circular revolving stage was employed so ingeniously in the "Uncle Sam" finale.
Staged "Miss 1917" at the Century Theatre, New York, with Irene Castle, Elsie Janis and 40 other stars.
For Lew Fields: "The Poor Little Ritz Girl."
For A.L. Erlanger and B.C. Whitney: "The Ed Wynn Carnival," at the New Amsterdam Theatre, N.Y.
For A.L. Erlanger: "Two Little Girls in Blue" (with the Fairbanks Twins, Oscar Shaw and Evelyn Law), at the George M. Cohan Theatre, N.Y.
Founded Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing and Ned Wayburn Booking Offices.
Staged F. Ziegfeld's production, starring Will Rogers, also "Follies of 1922," which ran 67 consecutive weeks in New York City and about 40 weeks on tour. No other "Follies" up to this time ever ran over 16 weeks in New York. Produced many vaudeville acts, among them, "Ned Wayburn's Dancing Dozen." Arranged motion-picture presentations for the Famous Players-Lasky Theatres. In association with Ben Ali Haggin produced several tableaux, including "Simonetta," "Dubarry," and "The Green Gong," which were presented in many of the principal cities. Staged the musical comedy "Lady Butterfly," at Globe Theatre, New York.
Staged the Anatol Friedland headline girl act for the Keith-Albee and Orpheum vaudeville circuits, and "The Birth of Venus," a series of beautiful tableaux which were shown in many principal motion picture and vaudeville theatres. Staged for Florenz Ziegfeld "Follies of 1923," at New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, which attraction played to the largest week's receipts of any Follies ever produced at New Amsterdam Theatre.
Staged the following headline vaudeville productions:
“NED WAYBURN’S HONEYMOON CRUISE”
—an elaborate junior musical comedy, adapted for vaudeville, with a cast of dancers, principals and ensemble, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios. This act, the highest priced in vaudeville, started on tour in January, 1924, and broke all box-office records of the Poli Theatres in New England, as well as those of many other theatres on the Keith-Albee Circuit, including the premiere vaudeville theatre of the world, Keith-Albee Palace Theatre, New York, and the new $7,000,000 Earle Theatre in Philadelphia. It is still breaking records, and is one of the most sought-after acts in vaudeville.
“NED WAYBURN’S DEMI-TASSE REVUE”
—another headline act, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios. Now on the Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.
The opening engagement at Bridgeport broke the attendance record of the Palace Theatre there and the same results followed at New Haven, Hartford and Worcester, when the audiences and newspaper critics alike declared the Revue even better than Ned Wayburn's "Honeymoon Cruise," which had previously held the attendance records in those cities.
“NED WAYBURN’S SYMPHONIC JAZZ REVUE”
Another new production, also composed of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios—touring the principal motion picture theatres in the Middle West and also Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.
Staged the dances for Geraldine Farrar in an Operatic Fantasie—"Carmen" (all the dancers in this production being pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios).
SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY AND PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENTS
For Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, 2nd, devised and staged her "Mah Jong Fête" at the Hotel Plaza, New York, for the Big Sisters charity, December, 1923, and her "Persian Jazz Fête," December, 1924.
The Princeton Triangle Club's Musical Comedy, "Drake's Drum" last year and "The Scarlet Coat" this year.
The Filene Store's musical comedy, "The Caddie Girl," Colonial Theatre, Boston, in April, 1924, and "Barbara Lee," in April, 1925, presented at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, for one week, with Leah Ainsworth, a Ned Wayburn pupil, in the title role.
Penn. State College Thespian Club's Show, "The Magazine Cover Girl" last year, and "Wooden Shoes" this year.
The Third Annual Masonic Fashion and Home Exposition at Madison Square Garden, New York, May, 1924.
Elaborate entertainments for the Willys-Overland Company, at the Hotel Biltmore, New York (three years).
Jewelers' 24-Karat Club Annual Entertainment at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York (three successive years).
"Own Your Own Home Exposition," at Trenton, New Jersey.
Shriner's Frolic, at Washington, D.C.
Kansas City "Junior League Follies" (December, 1924).
Atlanta "Junior League Follies" (February, 1925).
A Musical Revue for the New York Edison Co., 1925 (so successful it had to be repeated).
The Providence Junior League Show, 1925.
The New Haven "Junior League Nautical Bal Cabaret," 1925.
The Vincent Club Musical Comedy, "Fez," in Boston (April, 1925).
"The Chatterbox Revue" in Rochester (April, 1925).
The Massachusetts "Tech" Show, "The Duchess of Broadway" (1925),—and a great many other society, charity, masonic and church entertainments.
It is out of this amazingly wide and varied experience that Ned Wayburn evolved the courses in stage dancing, stage-craft and showmanship which are being taught with such great success today at the Ned Wayburn Studios.
Ned Wayburn is known to thousands as the genius who staged the very best editions of "The Follies" and "Midnight Frolics" at the New Amsterdam Theatre, N.Y. But in the world of the theatre—among those who know—he is recognized as America's foremost creator, producer and director of musical comedies, revues, headline vaudeville productions, motion picture presentations, fêtes and every other form of entertainment that features beautiful, original or spectacular dancing.
DOLLY SISTERS
His versatility knows almost no limit. His wealth of theatrical experience runs the gamut from his own first appearance as an amateur actor and coach to a succession of triumphs as producing director of the most gorgeous theatrical presentations both here and abroad.
Added to his practical stage-craft there is the vital flame of imaginative genius, a creative faculty that clearly stamps all his work. It is this, as well as his extraordinary executive ability and his all-embracing knowledge of stage technique, that makes him the most sought-after of all directors. It also explains the distinct advantage which pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios have over all others, in that they are being constantly sought for desirable engagements because of the thorough way in which they are trained, both physically and mentally, in dancing.
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THE NED WAYBURN
METHOD OF TRAINING
THERE are five basic types of stage dancing that I teach, covering the modern field in full, and supplying the pupil with a complete knowledge of all the steps needed for a successful stage career.
These five types consist of:
- Musical Comedy Dancing,
- Tap and Step Dancing (Clogging),
- Acrobatic Dancing,
- Exhibition Dancing (Ball-room),
- Modern Americanized Ballet Dancing.
The last named includes all the best variety of ballet dances, such as toe, classical, character, interpretive, oriental, folk, national, [43] covering Spanish, Russian, Greek, Javanese, etc.
Instruction is given in any or all of the above to beginners, advanced amateurs, professionals and teachers, and is preceded in every case by the Ned Wayburn Foundation Technique, which includes my limbering and stretching process, and is one of the most important courses ever devised for the student of dancing in that it saves years of study. This original technique is described in a succeeding chapter.
In addition to the types of dancing mentioned above, we also give instruction in the art of making up for the stage.
Accompanying the technical instruction, each class and pupil receives without cost the benefit of the valuable stage-craft, managerial and producer's knowledge that I have acquired during my years of activity in the theatrical world. This is given in occasional lectures or inspirational talks before the class. Students also, when duly fitted, will be informed as to where and how to obtain engagements, correct forms of contract to be entered into, and other valuable business information concerning the practical side of selling their services to the best advantage, saving them much time and possible embarrassment and loss.
ONE OF OVER TWENTY DAILY DANCING CLASSES AT THE NED WAYBURN STUDIOS.
In all probability, if you love dancing and aspire to make it a career, you possess an innate sense of rhythm. You feel the swing of music and love to move your body to the strains of a lilting melody. The first great possessions of the successful stage dancer are a love of harmonious sounds and a sense of rhythmic motion. If you haven't these, you might better abandon the idea of studying with me as far as any hope is concerned of my developing you into a stage artist. While you would find much to enjoy and to benefit your health and appearance in taking my dancing exercises, if you are minus the very first dancing essentials you could not expect us to advance you beyond your own limitations.
Another important qualification for the stage dancer, which if not possessed at its fullest may be acquired under our instruction, is a sense of direction. This sense of direction is of maximum importance in stage dancing, because, as you can readily understand, since you have your audience in front of you and to your left and your right, you must do your dances so that they will appeal to all sections of your audience. And there are certain stage directions which you must know in order to grasp my method of instruction.
Your Place That you may get absolute precision in direction, let us proceed as follows: Imagine that you are standing on a stage, in a circle the diameter of your own feet; we will call that circle "your place."
Divide the stage into eight different directions. You are now facing the "front." Face the "left," the "back," the "right," and then "front" again. That makes four directions—front, left, back and right. Face half-way to the left—that is called "left oblique." Face half-way to the back—that is called "left oblique back." Now face back. Face half-way to the right—that is called "right oblique back." Now face half-way to the front. That is called "right oblique." That makes eight different directions, very easy to memorize and never forgotten after once learned, and you will employ them in your stage work every day. That they may become familiar with the necessary directions, students are given brief instructions at their first lesson, as I stand before them and take the turns with them and announce the name of each direction as I take it.
The Eight Different Directions
Left Turn In making the turn from wall to wall, when you turn to the left around, you should turn on the right heel, which thus acts as a pivot and keeps you in "your place"; like this—left oblique, left, left oblique back, back, right oblique back, right, right oblique, and front. In going around to the right turn on the left heel. Fix these directions firmly in your mind. You will need them when you get into stage dancing.
Right Turn The eight different directions are in eight counts. The first direction to the left is left oblique. That is counted "one." Left is "two." Left oblique back, "three." Back, "four." Right oblique back, "five." Right, "six." Right oblique, "seven." Front is "eight."
Turning
the Head All of our steps are taught in counts of eight. We begin to count from one and go as far as eight, then repeat. We count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or we count "1-and, 2-and, 3-and, 4-and, 5-and, 6-and, 7-and, 8-and," as may be required. After the steps have been taught by counts and learned properly, through much patient practice, they are fitted to music.
Inclining
the Head Without turning the rest of the body, turn the head sharply to the left wall, so that your face is square to the wall. You are now looking left. Look front. Look to the right (square around). Look front. Look left oblique. Front. Right oblique. Front. Now throw the head back and look up (without straining the muscles of the neck)—hold the head at an angle of about 45 degrees. Your head should not be tilted to one side, but straight back. Now look "front" again—now "down," now "front." There is a difference between turning it to the left or right and inclining to left or right. Incline your head to the left shoulder—hold your face up a little and keep it square to the front—chin high—now incline your head to the right shoulder—up straight—now turn it to the left (around as far as you can)—turn it front—turn it to the "right"—turn it "front"—throw it "back"—look up, now "front"—drop "down" and now "front."
THE LESSON TO A CLASS IS AS FOLLOWS
Now, be careful to keep your lines straight up and down, directly behind one another. Let those in the first line across raise the right hand. Second line across raise hands up; third line across, and fourth line across. This is called across stage (indicating left to right). This is called up and down stage (indicating front to back), and going down this way (to the footlights) is moving down-stage. Going toward the back wall is moving up-stage or back-stage.
Diagram of Modern Theatre Stage
CONCERNING ENTRANCES AND EXITS
Correct Standing
PositionIf you come in sight of the audience from that side (indicating left) you are making an entrance from the left. If you leave in that direction, you are making an exit to the left. It is an artistic feat to make a good exit. It requires not only specialized training, but also practical experience in front of an audience. It may be a vocal exit, a dramatic or spoken exit, or a dancing exit, and one must reach a decided climax at the exit. If the dance consists of eight steps, properly spaced, the most effective steps are put in where they will provoke applause. The last or finish step must get the most applause or the dancer fails. So we put a climactic "trick" step in for a finish, and then we top that with the exit, and the exit must be a surprise. Otherwise, the dance has not built up from the time the dancer makes an entrance and gets the attention of the audience. So making an effective exit is really a difficult thing to do. You are taught in the advanced instruction how to enter and exit properly.
One draws the applause on the eighth step by assuming a certain attitude or by "striking a picture" which asks the audience for the applause, and on the exit another round of applause can be earned, and in this way the dance "gets over," or is "sold" to the audience, as we say in the show business.
Now face the right, please. If you make an exit on that side you are making an exit to the right. If you come on from that side (meaning if you come in sight of the audience from that side) you are making an entrance from the right.
The proper way to stand to learn my kind of stage dancing is with the left toe pointed left oblique, and the right toe right oblique. Have your knees together, heels together, with the weight equally distributed between the feet, hands down at the side, arms relaxed, heads up and direct your gaze straight ahead on a line with your eyes.
Movements of Eyes Only
Never recognize anyone over the footlights. Always look straight front on a line with the eyes. Never look at the floor when dancing unless specifically so instructed. To look at the floor while dancing gives an audience the impression that you have no confidence in yourself and that you are laboring to perform your dance.
In dancing, the head and arms and upper part of the body (torso or trunk) are as important as the feet and legs.
The eyes are the most expressive agent of the body.
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.
The Four Different Parts of the Foot
The Development of a “Tap” Dancing Step
Try to perfect yourselves as solo dancers. It is there that fame and fortune await you. You may not appreciate it now, but when you have mastered the Ned Wayburn courses, you will look back with satisfaction and realize the wonderful opportunity my simple courses have afforded you. There is no other school in the world that teaches the five basic types of dancing in the same thorough, rapid manner and with the same satisfactory results.
The student who has industriously performed the essential preliminary work as I teach it has obtained a satisfactory mastery of the body, and has a large range of movement at command; is now able to control the source of movement and to relax opposing muscles so that the movement may follow through; that is, may continue from its initiative in any part of the body to the desired climax, without muscular obstruction. The entire body is now ready and responsive to any call upon it, and the act of dancing becomes a pleasure and a joy it never was before, and never would have been but for the preliminary work as I have arranged it for the making of beautiful and efficient dancers.
VIVIENNE SEGAL
The result is a harmony of rhythmical coördination that will echo far beyond the dancing courses and into the various activities of one's whole life.
The great freedom and abandonment of movement now acquired is not a combination of erratic movements and gestures distributed at random. The freedom gained is the result of perfect control, not in any degree the result of unguided abandon. My dancers know how to work because they are sure of themselves; the controlled individual is the free individual.
But the dancer has gained more than mastery of movement. Valuable as are strength and skill, even more so is the resultant balance and soundness of the nervous system that directly results from such rhythmical coördination, fitting one for meeting the complex and often disturbing demands of life. Now, too, in the process of acquiring such a splendid state of general physical well-being, the pupil has absorbed and acquired some understanding of the power and the wonder of a physical self, and will proudly treat this newly discovered self with respect and consideration.
The mental gains as the result of this work have a right to consideration, also. The handicap of self-consciousness is largely overcome by the complete mastery of the movements of the body; the mind becomes freed, the mental horizon enlarged, as the direct result of body and nerve control.
The delight of free and expressive movement with a body that responds joyously to the slightest impulse of thought and feeling, develops a new resource of pleasure, and in perfection of bodily response is found a new source of beauty with endless promise for the future.
If you begin the courses with the feeling, "make me a dancer if you can," and act with indifference throughout the instruction that is given for your benefit, you are doomed to failure. No one succeeds unless they want to and work very hard.
You are here to prepare for an honorable calling, a beautiful, respected and profitable profession, that when once you acquire will remain at your disposal all your life. Most of our pupils recognize this and sincerely strive, with our help, to perfect themselves through incessant patient practice. We have no intention ever to let a small minority of indifferent, "I don't care" pupils, hold back the ambitious ones. Those who merit success shall have every opportunity always.
You, no doubt have been to good shows, seen good dancing and attractive posing and grouping, with rich scenery, proper lighting and appropriate music, and have wished that you, too, might share in the applause of the audience for your own merit as a dancer.
I want to help you become what so many others of my scholars have become, the best in their line of endeavor.
I am enthusiastic about my part of the work, and ask and expect you to be just as enthusiastic as I am. Really, you should have more enthusiasm than I have, since it is you who are to go before the audiences and get the applause and the pay, and not me. Whether or not you are enthusiastic about your work will show in your results. Your degree of interest and improvement is recorded, so I know just what you are accomplishing.
You must expect to get tired, really "tired out," in your earliest lessons and practice. That is what has invariably happened to all others before you, who are drawing down the fat salaries today. I expect it, and should be surprised indeed if any student proved to be an exception. In fact, if you do not tire, and perspire and pant after an hour of working your every muscle in a set of movements new to them, then you surely are not getting the benefit that the exercises are intended to promote. Soreness during your first four or five lessons is a sign of your having taken the lessons earnestly and honestly and actively, as you should in your own interest. The soreness will work out and be gone for good after a few lessons. Please get sore! Then I know you are all right.
But do not overdo at any time, now or later, in class work, private lessons, or home practice, and especially be careful while you are new at the work, and the novelty of it tempts your ambition to keep on and on. Alternate work and rest, strenuous toil and complete relaxation, is the ideal way to build yourself into beauty and strength and suppleness by my method, without danger of straining or injury.
In the classroom, if a pupil needs to sit and rest a bit occasionally it is permitted. But do not let our consideration for your comfort become an excuse for mere laziness! There are lazy girls as well as lazy men in the world, I have heard, and it is barely possible that one or two might decide to take my courses sometime. If they do, our required work will give them inspiration, as well as perspiration, and enable them to overcome an inclination to indolence that they must master if they hope to succeed as dancers—or in any other vocation.
Let me encourage you by saying, what I know to be true, that you will harden yourself in a few days' time so that the muscles of your body will pleasantly respond to your demands without crying out loud when called upon. Just keep at it. Don't get discouraged because it wearies you on the start. If you could see our advanced pupils going through their routines, and how easily they perform the same simple exercises you are required to do in the beginning, their muscles ready, trained and responsive, and every motion of their bodies a pleasure to them and a satisfaction after patient practice, you would be encouraged and would be able to smile at the few temporary discomforts of a few sore muscles. But do not be too ambitious and work to the point of exhaustion.
PAULETTE DUVAL AND NED WAYBURN PUPILS, FOLLIES OF 1923
NED WAYBURN STAGE DANCES
I HAVE already named the five basic types of stage dancing taught in my courses. In this chapter I shall describe them in detail in such a manner that anyone can distinguish them from one another.
No doubt when you have seen dances of the new type executed on the theatrical stage you may have been unable in some cases to correctly classify them. That is not at all surprising, since the classification is my own, as well as some of the steps themselves.
You have realized that so-and-so did a pleasing, pretty and complicated dance, but what it is called, or if it is called at all, you are unable to state. All my dances have names and are properly classified, and what these are and to what distinct type they belong is going to be spread before you here and now.
First let us consider the type that I have named American Specialty Dancing, the one that is more truly and distinctively American than any other type of dancing to be seen on any stage today.
This classification comprises every variety of tap and step dancing, and also what is commonly known as "Legmania," the latter including the high-kicking features, where the leg will execute front, back, and side kicks, and other forms of the acrobatic type of dancing. Legmania is not a possible development for every student of dancing, as nearly every other form of the art is, but is available to the few who are adapted to its exacting technique, which insures that this interesting field will never grow too many blossoms, and that supply is not likely to equal demand. I will mention Evelyn Law in "Legmania" and Ann Pennington in "Tap and Step" dancing as "sample" stars from my studios in this beautiful and lucrative type of dancing, though their dancing limitations are by no means confined to this one branch of the art.
Tap and step dances are made up of a series of steps that involve certain movements of the four parts of the foot as described in another chapter; namely, the toe, the ball of the foot, the heel, and the flat of the foot, which produce distinct rhythmic sounds or "taps" as they separately strike the floor or stage.
Under the classification of tap and step dancing, we teach the buck and wing dance, the waltz clog, the straight clog (which is like an English clog or a Lancashier clog), jigs, reels, and the old form of what we call step dancing, which was popular forty years ago in the old "variety" days. They did the jigs, reels and clogs then, and these different types of dancing modernized combine to make what we today call the American Specialty type of dancing. My course in tap dancing, for instance, includes beginners' "buck" and "soft-shoe" dances, intermediate, advanced, semi-professional and professional "buck" and "soft-shoe" dances. Of course, when you get into the semi-professional "buck" and "soft-shoe" you will begin to get complicated "taps," and you will get difficult triple-taps in professional "buck" dancing.
You are no doubt familiar in a general way with the Musical Comedy type of dancing, which is really an exaggerated form of fancy dancing. It includes the now popular but simpler "soft-shoe" dances, dainty, soft, pretty movements with many effective attitudes of the body, all sorts of "kicking" and "fancy" steps. As a matter of fact, this type of dancing is perhaps the most difficult of all to define exactly, because often musical comedy dances include a few tap steps and sometimes simple ballet movements, or combinations, as we term them. Our musical comedy dances are arranged in routines, or sequences of not less than ten steps, including an entrance, eight steps to the dance, and an exit movement. The entrance is a travelling step, a step which gets you onto the stage; then comes the dance itself consisting of eight steps; then the exit which must include a step which will make a decided climax to the whole dance. I have already explained the importance of making an effective exit. In a subsequent chapter, I will describe more in detail a musical comedy routine.
Perhaps Acrobatic Dancing is the most difficult of all the types to master—that is, it most certainly requires a degree of strength that the other dances do not demand; sufficient strength in the arms to support the weight of the body in the hand-stand and the cartwheel, flexibility of the muscles in order to do the "limbers" and back-bends. All of the acrobatic tricks—hand-stands, cartwheels, splits, roll-overs, back-bends, front-overs, inside-outs, nip-ups, "butterflies," flip-flops, Boranis, somersaults, etc., are very difficult and require special adaptability and inexhaustible patience, but almost any normal human being between the ages of four and thirty can learn even the advanced tumbling tricks in time, but only by keen application and persistent practice.
The fourth of the basic types of dancing is my Modern Americanized Ballet, a most graceful type of dance which requires and developes beauty and grace of motion of the head, the hands, the arms, the feet and legs, of the whole body, in fact. This Americanized ballet is subdivided into various types of dances—toe dancing, classical dancing, character dancing, interpretive dancing, covering all kinds of National and folk dancing. These have attention elsewhere in this volume.
Exhibition dancing constitutes the fifth type, and is varied in its possibilities. It is the kind you see exhibited by a dancing team in public and private ballrooms and at social or club functions, and may take the form of the exhibition fox trot, the exhibition one-step, the tango, the exhibition waltz or the whirlwind dance. It is very pretty and very profitable work for those who are adapted to its interpretation. This type of dancing is not taught in classes in the Ned Wayburn Studios, but is given special attention under qualified private tutors, in private lessons, and has prepared some remarkable dancers in this field. Two of the popular dances which I have conceived and arranged and which have lately swept the world are the ballroom "Charleston" dance and the exhibition "Charleston."
As my pupil you will discover in the course of your advancement that you have a particular preference for one of these types of dancing, or perhaps two, or three. Each person has his or her own personality, and certain personalities are better suited to the Tap and Step style of dancing than to the Ballet, for instance. But in order to meet the competition in stage dancing in the future, you require a knowledge of the five basic types, as outlined.
I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of personality in a successful stage career. Along with the actual mastering of the dancing steps and acquisition of health and a beautiful body, comes just as surely the development of personality. And since each individual has a distinct personality it is advisable for everyone to select the type of dancing best suited to that personality. It is because of this quality that the performance of stars like Evelyn Law, Marilyn Miller, Ann Pennington, Gilda Gray and Fred and Adele Astaire leaves a lasting impression. Every step, every movement is designed to drive home the characteristics of their individuality. Even more important than the actual dancing steps they do is the manner in which they execute them—the individuality which gives expression to all that they do. It is the almost indefinable factor called personality which lifts one out of the ranks of the chorus and makes the solo dancer. In this book I am trying to help you develop your personality, in the way that I have discovered and developed the personalities of so many of today's stars.
Most emphatically I want to impress upon you that it is not "chorus work" that you learn in my courses. It is professional, individual dancing, taught thoroughly and completely.
Anyone who masters the dances takes on a certain confident feeling in time, after exercising great patience in practice. With this confidence the happy pupil radiates a new magnetic personality which the audience feels. But more about this later on, when you will learn just how one's self is injected into the dances until they are vitalized and made living exponents of a beautiful art.
NED WAYBURN’S FOUNDATION
TECHNIQUE
THE human body is the instrument of the dancer, and must be as much under the direct command of the dancer as the violin is at the command of the musician. It must respond instantaneously and without effort to every emotion and thought in the dancer's mind. To do this it is obvious that the physical mechanism of the entire body must be completely mastered and controlled.
The first stage of the work to achieve command of the human frame as a dancing instrument is to bring about flexibility in all its parts and obtain muscular guidance and control. This demands a special technique that shall coördinate in harmonious functioning all parts of the body by an unconscious effort of the mind.
CLASS IN DANCING FOUNDATION TECHNIQUE AT THE NED WAYBURN STUDIOS.
The foundation technique which I evolved for the Ned Wayburn courses is a limbering and stretching process for the body, which precedes the teaching of dancing steps, fitting all pupils properly with a basis, a foundation for the important work to come. Without these exercises, all of which are set to inspiring music, muscles employed in dancing would remain taut or soft and not respond properly, the pupil would quickly tire, and the attempt to dance become an unavailing effort. With the limbering and stretching course, time is saved in preparing the student for the lessons to come, and the time necessary for the training and development of a dancer is much shortened from the long apprenticeship that once prevailed under the old antiquated Ballet technique. What is known as the Ned Wayburn method brings into play all the bodily muscles that are essential to the dancer's use, gives strength, suppleness and symmetry to the entire body. All forms of outdoor exercise are valuable adjuncts to bodily health and strength and beauty, but supplementing them the dancer must carry on with just the foundation technique I have devised, in order to waken and strengthen the dancing muscles, a result not brought about by even the best of romping sports or one's other usual exercising.
In connection with correct diet, which has attention in later chapters of this book, my methods of preliminary exercise will aid the over-stout to reduce pleasantly and surely, and also enable the under-developed to put on needed weight, in both cases the attendant blessings of health, strength and symmetry following in due order.
My method induces perspiration, opens the pores, eliminates unhealthy tissue, and at the same time supplies new tissue replete with health, which is placed evenly over the entire body where nature wants it.
Do not let the words "limbering and stretching" mislead you. Perhaps there may be words that describe the work better than these do. But my idea in using these words is that flexibility, suppleness, grace and freedom of movement are all covered by "limbering," while "stretching" is intended to convey the idea of a proper fitting of the body and limbs for the various forms of kicking that are absolutely essential in modern stage dancing. Some people get the idea that stretching exercises will lengthen the body or limbs. This is not so. Neither is the result of any mechanical operation whatever. You bend your body rhythmically, and by degrees acquire a proficiency that enables you to "stretch" and "limber up" yourself to an extent that may surprise you. No one was ever hurt by my exercises; you gradually limber and stretch yourself! All who have taken the exercises and have practiced them as directed have materially benefited. They bring health, graceful figures and a fitness for learning dancing as nothing else does of which I have knowledge. That is what these exercises are for, and just what they do.
And another important fact in connection with my foundation technique for dancers, it does not bunch the muscles into unsightly shape; it does not make huge, knotty muscles in the arms and legs, as has long been the case with certain Russian and Italian ballet methods. You have no doubt seen ballet dancers with distorted bodies. The American woman will not be content with any development that mars the appearance of her figure, and she is right. You have seen the Ned Wayburn trained girls on many a stage, and never yet saw one that was not pleasing in figure, to put it mildly, and that is the way we insist in developing them at the studio. Our pupils acquire agility without angularity or unsightly protuberances anywhere. We take the "raw material," child or adult, between four and forty, with or without any former experience or training, proceed with them through my foundation technique of limbering and stretching, and advance them from there to courses in any of the various forms of dancing, with the perfect assurance that they have the necessary basis of flexibility and muscle control that will support them on their way to perfect dancing success.
In conjunction with this work, all types of kicking steps are taught, front kick, side kick, back kick, hitch kick, and the others. Since strength for kicking comes from the abdominal muscles, a workout that will especially exercise these muscles around the waist line is essential, and a series of strengthening activities is given to this end.
Imagine that you are in practice costume, one of a class of students similarly dressed, standing in line on a padded rug in my Foundation Technique studio. The instructor begins with the simple exercises, and directs you through a number of them during an hour's lesson today, repeating them briefly tomorrow and adding new ones to those you learned yesterday, till soon you have progressed through the entire list. The work is done rhythmically to music, and all exercises are in eight counts. Each is repeated in measured time till the class masters it, and the student is requested to practice the lessons at home faithfully and earnestly, and the proficiency thus acquired is looked for in the class work of the day after.
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Here are a dozen of the Ned Wayburn series of Limbering and Stretching exercises selected from my Foundation Technique:
EXERCISE 1.
For limbering and stretching the triceps,
and loosening the waist line along the sides.
Stand erect, head up, heels together, arms down at sides, raise right arm straight up over the head. Bend body to left as far as you can, sliding left hand down the thigh. Return to erect position, then with left arm raised bend to right. Alternate left and right eight times to count of "one, lean; two, lean," etc.
LOUISE GROODY
EXERCISE 2.
For loosening the dorsi and abdominal muscles,
developing muscles of chest and waist line.
Stand erect, chin in, heels together, toes pointed out, raise left arm straight over head, right arm down at side. Swing right hand up over head also, and lean the body right oblique. Swing both arms down, then up and lean left oblique. Do this for eight counts of "one, lean; two, lean," etc.
EXERCISE 3.
For limbering muscles of the back, biceps of the legs,
developing abdominal muscles and reducing waist line.
(Forward bend.) Raise both arms straight over head the width of the shoulders apart, heels together, knees stiff. Bend forward and touch the floor with the palms of both hands, if you can, if you cannot, then with the ends of the fingers. Raise arms again over head and lean back as far as you can. Count "one, touch; two, lean," etc., to a count of eight.
EXERCISE 4.
For making the waist line flexible.
It limbers the muscles of the thighs and back.
Stand erect, both hands above head, arms stiff. Keep hands in this position throughout, step left foot straight forward, bend the body back as far as you can. Then body erect and left foot returned to position. Step right foot front, bend back again. Alternate with each foot for eight counts: "left, lean, straight, in; right, lean, straight, in," etc.
EXERCISE 5.
To strengthen calves and ankles.
Stand erect, knees stiff, heels together, hands on hips. Rise on the toes; down, up, down, etc., for 48 counts.
EXERCISE 6.
For limbering the back and the waist line.
Kneel, knees about eight inches apart, trunk erect. Extend arms horizontally in front to count "one." On count of "two" raise the hands above the head, shoulder-width apart and lean back. Keep arms stiff. On count of "and," trunk again erect and arms extended front. On count of "three," hands over head and lean back. Repeat for eight counts.
EXERCISE 7.
To strengthen the biceps and triceps of the arm.
From kneeling position of Exercise 6, lie flat on the stomach, palms on floor alongside the hips, elbows up, to count of "one." On count "two," raise the body, straightening arms, supporting body on hands and toes. Lower body to floor on count "three." Alternate raising and lowering body for sixteen counts.
EXERCISE 8.
For limbering and stretching the abdominal muscles.
Stand erect, heels together, chin in, chest out, step right foot forward, bend body front, place both hands flat on floor (foot-race starting position). Jump, bringing right foot back and left foot forward at the same time. Jump, bringing left foot back and right foot forward. Right, left, right, left, for sixteen counts.
EXERCISE 9.
To develop the front of the thighs and the biceps.
Stand erect, feet fifteen inches apart. Raise arms straight above the head, shoulder-width apart. Keep toes and heels flat on the floor. Squat down, lowering arms as you do so until they are horizontally straight in front of you. Rise to erect position, raising arms at the same time above the head. Keep arms stiff. Down, up, down, up, for sixteen counts.
PARTIAL VIEW OF DEMI-TASSE THEATRE, NED WAYBURN STUDIOS
EXERCISE 10.
To strengthen the lower abdominal muscles.
Lie flat on your back, arms at sides, palms on floor. Keep knees stiff and together and toes pointed. Raise both feet so that toes point to ceiling. Count "one"; lower the feet to the floor. Count "two"; (do not hit the floor hard in lowering the feet). Count "one, down; two, down;" etc., to eight.
EXERCISE 11.
To strengthen the upper abdominal muscles and the diaphragm.
You are lying on your back. On count "one," sit up, bend forward, touch your toes with your hands and place your head against your knees. Count "touch." On count "two," bring your trunk erect, arms straight overhead. On count of "down" you are again lying on your back. Count "one, touch, two, down, three, touch, four, down," etc., to "eight, down."
EXERCISE 12.
To strengthen the thighs and biceps.
Stand erect, heels together. Raise arms horizontally to the sides. Bend the knees and assume a squatting position. Rise to erect position. Count "down, up, down, up," etc., eight times.
There are more than thirty different exercises given in the Ned Wayburn courses in this work. If you desire a complete list, address an inquiry to the Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing, Inc., 1841 Broadway (at Columbus Circle) entrance on 60th St., New York, for prospectus of the New Ned Wayburn Home Study Courses in Dancing.
MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES THE BEGINNER’S
CLASS IN FOUNDATION TECHNIQUE
YOU are starting on a course of not less than twenty lessons and exercises in my Foundation Technique for dancing, which is a feature exclusive to this studio, known as the Ned Wayburn Limbering and Stretching process for the human body.
This is one of the most important things that ever came into your life. It is at once a necessary foundation upon which to build the perfect dancer and an unequaled system of cultural exercises for the correction of certain physical ills in those who have no expectation of pursuing a professional career.
Primarily I originated this series of exercises to make good dancers quickly. There was nothing of the kind in existence that would do the work I wanted done, so I carefully thought it out myself, and finally developed the complete plan. Some of it will be taught you here. It has proven to be all I anticipated,—a method of preparing the muscles and ligaments to respond instantly to the dancer's call upon them for precise action. It is the object of this series of exercises to eliminate fatigue, create sturdy yet symmetrical and flexible frames and increase the health, grace and beauty of the participant. It is, therefore, no wonder that others than those who expect to enter upon a stage career have sought these exercises for their own improvement in personal appearance and physical well-being.
Now all please stand in line around the room, stand quietly and without leaning against the wall. Stand shoulder to shoulder, hands down at sides, heels together, feet flat down, toes pointing left oblique and right oblique; the weight equally distributed between the two feet. Hold your chin high and look straight ahead on a line with your eyes.
I organize the class by first arranging the pupils according to their height. There is a reason for this. If you are five feet tall and stand next to a girl who is five feet eleven, you at once become conscious of your size. It is to avoid this handicap of self-consciousness that I grade you by height.
You are now in line as to heights. Please each of you stand in front of a chair, one pupil to a chair, and number from "one" at the left end. Number thirteen will be called twelve and a half. Speak out your individual number loud and clear. This number you are given is your personal, distinctive number during the life of this class and is never changed. The number of this class is 501. As you call your number out loud please be seated in the chair back of you, and while the stenographer takes your names and the instructor collects your weekly tickets I will say a few words.
I expect you to arrive promptly in the classroom, and request that you time your arrival so as to be here in the studio at least fifteen minutes before class time, so as to be in your practice costume and ready for the call to class right on the hour set.
We have to observe discipline in all your work in the courses, otherwise nothing would be accomplished. We have printed rules posted in the office and elsewhere, and expect you to read and observe them.
Please do not talk at all during class work. It interrupts the work seriously. You have all been to school before and know that silence is one of the important rules of every school. This one is no exception.
Now, the first thing to do is to have your ticket ready. You must have your name signed on the ticket, where it says "Signature of pupil." Turn the ticket over and read it through on both sides. Remember your class number and your individual number in the class. The success of our school depends largely upon the way the classes are organized and thereafter dominated. Much of the success of the work depends upon the lectures you hear in the classes. They are in the form of inspirational talks based on different subjects. You are required to read all of our literature. Get and read the booklet entitled "Your Career." Every month we issue a school paper, "The Ned Wayburn News," which tells of the activities of pupils of the school who are now appearing in New York, or out on the road, and which has many interesting articles and information monthly for students of the dance. Please get a copy and read all of our literature—because it gives you an idea of what the school and its present and graduate pupils are accomplishing.
It is a well established rule of the studio that pupils shall weigh themselves every Monday and keep a record of their weight from week to week. For this purpose use the scales in the main office of the studio, please. They are accurate. We have them tested and adjusted at intervals to be sure that they are right. You are requested and expected to come into my private office and talk with me once a week, and when you do so I shall ask you about your weight, and you must be prepared to tell me. I know just how much you ought to weigh, and am interested in hearing whether you are gaining or losing flesh in the proportion that you should. At the end of the four weeks' period I shall ask each of you individually in the class about the variation in your weights, and I am then able to tell who is faithfully following my instructions as to practice, diet, hours of sleep and the other simple and necessary requirements of our courses. For I know that if my regime is observed as I request that it be, you will show it, and if you neglect to follow my advice you will not have made the progress you should, and will show that. You cannot disguise the real facts from me.
I do not want any of you to overexert at these limbering and stretching exercises. They are scientifically constructed to do for you what no other known cultural movements of this kind will do. At first they will tire you, leave you "all in," I have no doubt. I expect that. You see, in these exercises you are putting into play a lot of muscles that have been lying dormant, perhaps never been used in the way you will use them in this class as preparation for health, comeliness and dancing strength. You need to use these muscles. It is to stir them up and make you strong, and at the same time supple and shapely, that I have devised this series of exercises. It was not made by guess, this plan of developing and conditioning, but as the result of years of study and proof.
These exercises will make you feel perfectly wonderful after a while. Nothing else will do you as much good. But do not, please, expect the perfected results to show in a day or two. It cannot be done so quickly. You have been several years getting the way you are, and if you can improve greatly in a few months you must consider yourself fortunate.
CONDITIONING CLASS AT THE NED WAYBURN STUDIOS.
Let me say, as a word of caution, that if you have any organic trouble, or have been weakened by a serious operation or recent illness, I wish you would report the facts to your class instructor or to me before you take on this work. In any event, don't overdo at any time, neither here nor in your home practice. If you find it necessary, stop at any time and sit down in your chair a few minutes till you get your breath. But don't stay out of class tomorrow because you find your muscles are tired. Every other student's muscles will be sore tomorrow, as well as yours. If you remain absent you will be much slower in getting those sore muscles feeling right than if you come into class and work the soreness out.
If you are absent you may miss something you will want to know. There is something new taught every day—or there may be a special lecture which you cannot afford to miss.
I hope you are going to be patient. I hope you are not going to say: "This is too much for me!" No matter how tired you are this work will do you more good than any medicines. You are not to take medicines without telling me about it. You are not to eat between meals; you are not to take any liquids with your meals. Masticate your food carefully. Don't bolt your meals in a hurry. Take time to eat properly. Don't sleep more than eight hours. Don't dance half the night away. You must look out for your health while you are training. Some of you are underweight, because you are not properly regulated so far as your meals and living is concerned. You are eating things you should not eat. Others are eating in such a hurry that the food is not properly assimilated by the body. You should drink not less than forty-five ounces of water a day. That is about nine glasses. You should drink a glass of water before and after each meal, NOT during your meals—one about eleven o'clock in the morning, another about four o'clock in the afternoon, and one just before you go to bed at night. NOT ice water. Water not only flushes the system but it induces perspiration. And you must perspire freely in all of our work because you get rid of many impurities through the pores. I reduced my own weight, by diet, exercise, and dancing, from 262 pounds to 207 pounds. But you have got to be very patient in reducing or building up. If you take off or put on a pound a week you will be doing very well. But let me regulate that, please. Sometimes pupils who are underweight when they first come here begin to lose weight, and they get worried about it. But you shouldn't worry. That means that you are losing unhealthy tissue, which will be replaced in time by healthy muscular tissue. That doesn't mean that you will get big knots of muscle on your arms and legs, such as you see in pictures in some of the magazines. The new tissue will be evenly distributed over the body. It is my business to manufacture symmetrical bodies. I have manufactured hundreds of celebrated beauties since I began my theatrical career, sometimes through facial makeup, sometimes through exercises and diet, but always with dancing as the chief feature in health and beauty culture.
There is a reason why this school has grown to its present proportions. It is because I have made a thorough study of anatomy and know how to make human bodies healthy and beautiful. I could tell you a very interesting story of Clan Calla, a little Irish princess who came to me with curvature of the spine to see if I could help her. She was very weak and hardly able to walk; they had to carry her to the studios from the subway. Now she is strong and well and dances beautifully.
Don't try to reduce too fast. I had two friends who died as a result of reducing with medicine. They took some sort of baths for reducing, and some kind of medicine to shrink themselves. That is why I became interested in reducing and began to practice on myself.
Now make up your minds to make this class a success. Don't make it necessary for your instructor to have to address any one of you personally. When your instructor gives an order execute it at once. Always get into your places promptly. Don't forget that you are going to be lame—but you must work it out.
You will begin with mild calisthenics—then, later on, you will learn several kinds of kicks—the side kick, the front kick, the hitch kick, etc. But before you can kick, you must have the strength necessary for kicking. You must practice the exercises in order to get this strength.
Now you are organized and you can accomplish real work. If there are any questions you would like to ask me, come to my private office at the end of the hall on the second floor—Broadway front. You will progress according to the way you practice. You must put in hours of faithful practice. If you take one hour of instruction a day at the studio, you should practice three hours a day at home. If you can possibly do so, always go through your Foundation Technique when you first get up in the morning. The lesson itself is not enough. Faithful practice means success, and without practice you won't succeed at all, and you won't get your weight off or you won't build up. Three times the length of a lesson is my rule for practice. Some practice from three to eight hours a day so as to gain dancing strength. You must have a lot of flexibility in order to dance in a professional manner.
Get the habit of deep breathing. Gradually you will increase your breathing capacity and deep breathing makes good blood. The oxygen you take into your lungs goes through the blood and takes off the impurities in the blood, and oxygen is necessary in properly assimilating your food.
Don't let anybody else advise you about diets. If a doctor has put you on a diet, let me know about it. My diets won't do you any good unless you are taking the limbering and stretching work along with them. You will enjoy them; you do not have to starve yourself.
Another thing let me warn you about! Don't bring or wear valuable jewelry to the studios. All of our employees are trustworthy, and besides, we investigate the pupils who come into our studios. We know all about them. If the wrong kind of person does get in, he or she doesn't stay more than an hour or two. We also have detectives in the classes. But don't take any chances. Don't bring valuable things into the place. Do not leave pocket-books in the dressing rooms; bring them into the class room.
We keep a strict record of the attendance and the progress of each individual pupil. We insist that you have the best that money can provide for you. If anything should happen at any time to which you could take exception, I hope you will report it to me. Our policy of giving you the very best to be had has appealed to a world of ambitious youth.
Be careful about giving advice to other girls. I don't want anybody in this class to presume to give advice to anybody else in the class. Many times a girl comes here to the school from clear across the continent. She comes with great hopes and aspirations, ready to work hard, and with all the enthusiasm in the world. Then, some girl in her class may tell her that she doesn't dance well—and her hopes will be shattered and she will become discouraged. Now none of you has any business to give advice or criticize other members of the class. If you can learn stage dancing anywhere, you can learn it in the Ned Wayburn Studios. Persistent practice will do wonders. Remember all I have said about this, and keep smiling.
NED WAYBURN’S MUSICAL COMEDY
DANCING
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
Two of my most famous pupils in Musical Comedy dancing are Fred and Adele Astaire, brother and sister. They came to me to study from Omaha, Nebraska, as little tots of about six and seven years of age. Adele was always fond of coming to her classes; but Fred says that he just "followed on" through brotherly association rather than from any preconceived ambition to become a professional dancer. Then, through reverses of family fortunes, the time came when they felt that they should be supporting themselves. They continued to study under me, and I was very happy to be able to place them in vaudeville in a singing and dancing act, which I had prepared for them. This started them on their career, which has led them to Europe and back again. They have appeared in "Over the Top," "The Passing Show of 1918," "Apple Blossoms," and in "The Love Letter." They then scored a sensational success in London in "Stop Flirting" (575 performances). Now they are starring in "Lady, Be Good," on tour after a long run in New York.
In this chapter I shall now describe in detail 32 bars of a simple musical comedy dance, a "soft shoe" routine, as we call it, to give you some understanding of how modern stage dances are developed at the Ned Wayburn Studios.
MUSICAL COMEDY ROUTINE—4/4 TEMPO
Tune: "Way Down Upon the Swanee River."
The dancer enters from stage left.
Step right foot to right oblique on count of "one." Step left foot behind to right oblique back on count of "two"; step right foot around behind the left on count of "and"; step left foot to right oblique on count of "three"; repeat same for "four," "five," "and," "six." Step right foot to right oblique, count of "seven"; drag left foot in air behind to right oblique and slap left heel with right hand on count of "eight."
Step left foot to left on count of "one"; drag right foot in air behind to left oblique and slap right heel with left hand on count of "two"; step right foot to right on count of "three" and drag left foot across in front in air on count of "four"; step left foot to left facing left, count of "five"; right foot front small step on count "and;" step left foot back facing back, count of "six;" right foot to left, small step on "and." Left foot to right facing right, count of "seven"; right foot to back, small step on "and." Left foot to front facing front, count of "eight." Now repeat entire movement.
These two movements should take the dancer to the centre of the stage; done in eight measures of 4/4 time.
Step right foot to right oblique count of "one"; hop on it in same place with left foot in air behind to left oblique back, count "two"; step down to left oblique back with left foot on count of "three"; hop on left foot, extend right foot in air right oblique on count "four"; step right foot back behind left foot on count "five"; step left foot to left oblique back, count "six"; step right foot across to left oblique, count "seven"; hop on right foot, extend left foot in air right oblique back, count of "eight." Now reverse this entire movement to other side. These two steps are done in four measures of 4/4 tempo in the centre of the stage.
Step right foot to right, count "one"; step left foot behind to right oblique back, count "and"; step right foot down in same place, count "two." Reverse to left for count of "three," "and," "four"; then step right foot to right, count "five"; step left foot in front to right, turning and facing up stage, count "six"; step right foot around stage front to right, turning front again, count "seven"; drag left foot across in front of right to right, count of "eight." Reverse this entire step to other side. These two steps are done in four measures of 4/4 tempo in centre of the stage.
This finishes the first half of the chorus, or 16 measures.
Facing left oblique, drag right foot from left oblique to right oblique back, count of "and"; hop on left foot in same place, count of "one"; drag right foot from right oblique back to left oblique, count "and"; hop on left foot same place, count of "two"; drag right foot from left oblique to right oblique back, count "and"; hop left foot same place, count of "three"; displace left foot with right foot from right oblique back, left foot extending to left oblique, all on count of "four." Hop on right foot same place, count "and;" step left foot to left oblique, count "five"; step right foot across in front to left oblique, count "six"; hop on right foot same place, count of "and"; step left foot to left oblique, count of "seven"; hop on left foot same place, and turn, kick right foot to right oblique, count "eight."
Going up stage right oblique back facing right oblique, step right foot back to right oblique back, count "one"; step left foot to right foot, count of "and"; step right foot to right oblique back, count "two"; step left foot to right foot, count of "and"; step right foot to back, facing back, count "three"; hop on right foot turning right to face front on count "four." Step left foot to left oblique on "five"; step right foot to left foot on "and"; step left foot to left oblique on "six"; step right foot to left foot on "and"; step left foot to left oblique on "seven"; hop on left foot and kick right foot to right oblique on "eight." Reverse all of these steps. These are done in eight measures of 4/4 tempo in the centre of the stage.
Step left foot to left oblique, count "one"; step right foot behind to left, bend left knee, count "two"; hop on right foot and kick left to left oblique, count "three"; swing left foot back to right oblique back on "four"; bring right foot around behind left on count "and"; step left foot to front, count "five"; step right foot back to left on "six"; bring left foot around behind right on count "and"; step right foot to front on count of "seven"; step left foot to left oblique on count "eight."
CECIL LEAN
Step right foot to right on count "one"; swing left foot up stage and step to back on "and"; right foot straight in place, facing up stage, count "two"; step left foot to stage right on count "three"; facing right swing right foot to right, count "and"; step left foot straight in place, count "four"; now facing front, having made complete left back turn. Now step right foot to right oblique back, count "five"; step left foot to right oblique back behind right foot, count "and"; straight with right foot in place, count "six"; step left to left oblique back, count "seven"; step right foot to left oblique back behind left foot, count "and"; straight with left foot in place, count "eight." Reverse these steps.
These steps are done in eight measures of 4/4 tempo, in the center of the stage.
This completes the first chorus, or 32 measures.
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MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES A CLASS IN
MUSICAL COMEDY DANCING
IN Musical Comedy dancing it is necessary that you should have control of every muscle in the body in order to do the work effectively. If you have not that control you are going to fail to get the steps. That is the reason for the limbering and stretching work of our foundation technique, a necessary preliminary for all who enter this class. Our foundation process will give you the mastery of the muscles of the feet, the upper leg, the lower leg and your whole body, without which you will never be able to learn this type of dancing. It requires concentration, patience, incessant practice, on your part, but you soon see the good results of your efforts in the strengthening and flexibility of all your muscles.
This class is organized for a period of not less than twenty lessons, during which time you will have the satisfaction of acquiring four complete routines. Each routine consists of not less than ten steps. Some have more, but the average routine consists of ten steps, one to bring you onto the stage, which is called a travelling step, eight steps in the dance proper, usually set to about 64 bars of music, or the length of two (2) choruses of a popular song, and an exit step, which is a special step designed to form a climax to the dance and provoke applause as you go off stage. Now, there may be two travelling steps to bring you onto the stage instead of one, depending upon the arrangement of the routine, but you will be taught about two steps every lesson, in the beginners' courses, so that at the end of each week, or five lessons, you will have learned one complete routine.
You must learn to throw your personality into the dances. And when you get further along in the dances you can begin to work your facial expressions into your dancing. There are many things to learn about dancing besides the steps, and you will do well to improve your opportunities in every way you can while you are preparing for a stage career. Go to see as many expert professional dancers as you can—study them—and absorb all you can about stage dancing from the "Ned Wayburn News" and other dance magazines.
This course teaches complete professional routines such as you would do on the stage, and may be used as solo dances. "Routine" is a professional term for musical comedy or any kind of a stage dance. It is a sequence of steps. Routines are arranged so that they will provoke applause. Maybe the fourth or the eighth step will be "climactic" steps, especially arranged to make a climax in the dance and win applause. In different routines, the climax you will find comes on different steps, depending upon the arrangement of the routine. In order to put over a climax you must throw your personality into it.
Exits as well as entrances are difficult of successful accomplishment. It takes a great artist to make an effective exit. The exit should always be made with the face toward the audience (unless there is some special reason why the back is turned), so that the audience gets the full effect of your facial expression.
All the dances in my courses are taught in a professional way. That does not mean, of course, that you have to go on the professional stage. Many girls and boys study with me who have no intention of ever going on the stage. They do so because they know that my limbering and stretching work and my type of dancing will make them healthy, flexible and graceful, but nevertheless they are all taught in a professional stage way, which is the only successful method.
My stage dancing is the type of dancing that gets over with an audience. The old folk dances and the old-fashioned fancy dances no longer appeal to the interest. But I teach the kind of dancing that is in demand. If you should appear in any kind of entertainment for charity or any private theatrical performances, you can make use of my really professional stage dances; and since you are properly taught, you will make a success, providing you profit by expert advice and devote ample time to practice every day.
One reason that we get such good results in our school is on account of the way in which we organize and conduct our classes. Everybody must conform to discipline. You certainly will get discipline if you go on the stage.
Everybody should get a copy of our booklet, "Your Career", if you haven't already done so, and read it through from cover to cover. (A copy will be sent free on request.) Read the call-board outside in the office. In the professional theatre the call-board is usually placed near the stage door. Anything of interest to the company is posted on the call-board. Pupils in my courses are required to read the call-board because in reading the call-board, the booklet and the other literature that we get out, you will absorb a lot in the way of showmanship and stage-craft. Any one of you, after taking my course, should make a success on the stage because you will know how to dance in a professional way. You will know how to sell your dancing. Specialized training is very necessary in order to get a foothold, and the rewards are enormous for those pupils who do get over. Make an effort to acquire an easy presence. This you must get by appearing before an audience. Now, I represent your audience. I come in to visit your class in order to make constructive criticism, and to watch your physical progress. Whenever any of our pupils are appearing in the city theatres you should go and see them, because from their work you will get inspiration, and you must have inspiration. Without it you can't do anything; you won't get any benefit out of the work at all. You must concentrate on the work and enjoy it. Only through patient practice will you ever make a success of it. Some girls come into the musical comedy work and are inclined to take it lightly. They don't practice enough. Or perhaps they get discouraged if they miss one step and can't seem to get it at first. You must be enthusiastic about your work if you are going to succeed.
SCENE FROM “NED WAYBURN’S SYMPHONIC JAZZ REVUE”
I want to tell you about a group of my girls who recently started out on their professional work. They were in the Ned Wayburn "Symphonic Jazz Revue," which was arranged by my producing department for the Middle Western Moving Picture Theatres. These girls had all been around the Studios for about six months, practicing and working hard, and this was the first experience for most of them. They were a wonderful bunch of girls, mentally and morally. Four of the girls had their mothers with them as chaperones. One of them saved $275.00 in 24 weeks out of a salary of $50.00 per week.
Ned Wayburn's "Honeymoon Cruise" is made up of pupils from the Studio, also, and has made a great success. They are girls and boys of good breeding, personality and good minds.
I want you to come to me and advise with me about what you are going to do with yourself. Let me be the one to guide you, please. Don't listen to any girl you may meet in classes. You will learn to like some girl in the class very much and you will become great friends. All of a sudden she gets an idea about a professional engagement and she drags you along with her, and you both think you are ready to start in and do something big. But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about getting started, and you must start with the right manager for the sake of your whole future success. Remember that I am always glad to talk with you and to help you about engagements when you are ready, but you must prove your ability first.
No girl or boy can get an endorsement from me who misses a lesson without offering a plausible excuse. You must be regular in attendance and you must be punctual. If you miss a class you are obliged to telephone in before the class starts. If you are ill you must bring a doctor's certificate the next time you come to class. Your excuses must be sent to me personally. If you telephone in, be sure that it is sent through to me. I keep track of all the past pupils, and I do not recommend pupils who have not worked faithfully or who have been irregular in attendance.
There is a great incentive in class work, since you can get encouragement and inspiration from the other girls. Some girls in the class will take to the work more easily than others because they are in better physical condition, but if a girl gets along faster and better than you do, don't be discouraged by it. Just let it make you more ambitious to do as well. Your time will come if you keep at it. Do not try to practice in this room. This is a place to learn. Practice your lesson, go over the exercises, at home, several hours a day or use the practice rooms we provide. Don't be satisfied to come into class and try to perfect your routines there. It isn't possible.
When you go on the stage professionally you will be expected to be already fully informed as to certain necessary facts that concern all actors everywhere. Much information about showmanship is given in our makeup classes. You must take lessons in makeup before you go on the stage. You will do well to practice the same things here in the studio, now and all the time, in order to make you stage-wise and perfect in necessary stage deportment.
One of the things required of you on the stage is to stand still. Don't move about or turn your head or lop around or move your hands or feet. You will have a fixed position established at rehearsals, when you enter upon professional stage work, and if you do not hold it and observe the rules about standing still, you will not be wanted and will not last long. It seems a very simple thing to do, when you think of it, but unless you do it right here, while you are learning the basic facts about a stage career, you may fall down on it there. Heed this advice, and you will be grateful to me for it sometime.
If you are on the stage and someone is playing a scene, and your head is going from side to side, you attract the attention of the audience from the actor to yourself. When you do it here you take the attention of the class away from me, and you also take my attention away from the class, and if one or all of you do a "go as you please" about your movements, your talking and your attitudes in class, we have a pandemonium here that will drive your teacher frantic and prevent you from getting the instruction that you are paying for.
In this studio we insist upon and enforce discipline, just as your stage director will do when you join some company. It is good for you to get the disciplinary practice now that you must expect to receive when you pass from here to a regular stage. Those of you who really mean business and are going to succeed do pay attention to the studio discipline, always.
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ANN PENNINGTON
NED WAYBURN’S TAP AND STEP DANCING
SOMETIMES CALLED CLOGGING
YOU will remember that in a preceding chapter I said that Tap and Step dances were those composed chiefly of motions of the feet which resulted in combinations of various sounds made by different parts of the foot tapping or beating the floor, these sounds or beats being called "taps." This type of dancing expresses the American syncopated rhythms. It was the most popular type of stage dancing about forty years ago, when it was most beautifully performed by the greatest American dancing stars like the late George H. Primrose, the famous American minstrel.
Buck-dancing is done to syncopated rhythms, and you must get the right accent on those syncopated beats or taps or you cannot get the knack of doing a buck dance properly. So it is most important that you practice over and over again the four kinds of "taps" and "hops" which I shall describe now. First of all, stand in an imaginary circle the diameter of your feet, with your heels together, your right toe pointed right oblique and your left toe pointed left oblique, your weight equally distributed between the two feet, as described in a previous chapter.
Straight
Tap Every dancing step is in counts of eight. Remember that all of your counts begin with the left foot unless you are instructed to the contrary. Remember always, when you hop, to land with the knees bent; otherwise, the landing of the body with stiff legs after the hops will be a shock to the nervous system which in time will undermine your health.
The first tap is called a "straight" tap. Put your weight on the whole right foot. The left foot should be held about one inch from the floor. Tap the floor with the ball of the left foot for seven counts, working the foot on a hinge from the ankle, keeping your feet directly opposite and inside the circle or place. On the eighth count put the flat of the left foot down on the floor, shifting your weight to the left foot. Now in doing these straight taps count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, flat. And when you say "flat" you shift your weight to the left foot by putting it flat on the floor. Then comes the same with the right foot—seven taps with the ball of the right foot and "flat" on the eighth count. Now do the sixteen counts, first with the left, then with the right. Thus: (left) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, flat; then (right) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, flat.
Front Tap The next tap is a "front" tap. The front tap goes front—it gets its name from the direction it takes. Swing the lower leg (from the knee down) like a pendulum. The tap is made with the inside edge of the sole of the shoe, striking the floor as the foot goes front only, clearing the floor as it goes back, the back swing being made to the count of "and." Put the accent on the number as you say it out loud. "Front-and," "2-and," "3-and," "4-and," "5-and," "6-and," "7-and," and "8-flat" (weight on the left foot). Swing the lower leg from the knee back and forth, not the upper leg at all, striking or tapping the floor only on the front swing. Then execute the same taps with the ball of the right foot, stopping after the count of "8-flat" with both feet flat on the floor, the weight equally distributed between them. Now, you have had the "straight-tap" and "front-tap" with both feet.
Back Tap The next is the back tap. Make the back tap like the snap of a whip, swinging the lower leg from the knee only, like a pendulum, with a sharply accented move to back, striking the floor with the ball of the foot as it goes back only to the counts, and swinging it front to the count of "and" when the foot must clear the floor each time. Snap it down—"Back-and," "2-and," "3-and," "4-and," "5-and," "6-and," "7-and," "8-flat" (with the left foot); then with the right foot, "Back-and," "2-and," "3-and," "4-and," "5-and," "6-and," "7-and," "8-flat."
Heel Tap We now come to the heel tap, which is made and counted like this: Heel, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, flat (8 counts). The same with the right heel for the same counts (8).
Practice these four taps, the straight, the front, the back, the heel, and the hop faithfully before you try to learn the buck dance, because from these four taps and the hop are built up many combinations which form complicated steps which you will want to learn later on. And the more you practice these fundamentals the better dancer you are going to be. Be sure to review, too, over and over again, the eight stage directions—front, left oblique, left, left oblique back, back, right oblique back, right, and right oblique.
In "tap" dancing, as in the musical comedy dances, there will usually be ten steps; one "travelling" or entrance step which will bring you onto the stage (from "off stage" into the line of sight of the audience), eight dance steps, and one exit-step to take you "off," out of sight of the audience, which will always be in the nature of a climax to provoke applause.
But, as I have said above, in buck-dancing or in any type of tap and step dancing, the rhythm is most important, and in order to be thoroughly grounded on syncopated rhythms, I shall give you first of all a beginner's "time-step." After that you will learn a beginner's "break."
The "time-step" and "break" are the keys to tap dancing and must be mastered before the tap dance can be learned. The "time-step" and "break" must be perfectly timed to the syncopated rhythm. And it is going to take long, patient periods of practice in order to perfect them. Do not get discouraged. Apply yourself keenly to both of these fundamental steps.
THE TIME STEP
The purpose of the time step is to get the syncopation into the dancing step, and establish the "tempo" of the dance.
With the weight on the left foot, front tap with the right, back tap with the right, hop with the left, with the right foot back and raised from the floor. The count is "And a one," with strong accent on "one." Now straight tap with right foot to count "two" and accent it.
Do a front tap with the left (count "and"), left foot straight front (count "three" and accent), right foot straight (count "four" and accent).
With the weight on the right foot, front tap with the left, back tap with the left, hop with the right, with the left foot back and raised from the floor. The count is "And a one," with strong accent on the "one." Now straight tap with left foot to count "two" and accent it. Do a front tap with the right (count "and"), right foot straight front (count "three" and accent), left foot straight (count "four" and accent).
Repeat all six times.
PRIVATE LOCKERS IN DRESSING ROOMS
THE BREAK
With the weight on the left foot, front tap with the right foot, back tap with the right, hop with the left, with the right foot back and raised from the floor. The count is "And a one," with strong accent on the "one." Tap right foot straight (count "two" and accent). Tap left foot front, tap left foot back, then left foot straight, to the count of "and three and." Now right foot straight, to count of "four" accented. Hop on the right foot with the left raised from the floor in front, count "five" and accent it. Front tap with the left (count "and"), straight tap front with the left (count "six" and accent it), straight tap with the right, place the right toe even with the arch of the left foot (count "and") then left foot flat front to count of "seven" accented.
Now, first of all you had the eight different directions; after the eight different directions the four different parts of the foot and the "hop," and then the different kinds of sounds or taps that I just gave you. We begin to make all sorts of combinations of those sounds. For instance, one of the primary steps which you must know is a combination of front, back and straight tap together. Stand on the ball of each foot; the weight is off the heels, and equally distributed between the balls of the feet.
Now beginning with your left foot, do one front-tap, one back-tap, and one straight-tap, accenting the straight tap—counting it 1, 2, 3. Now, begin with the right foot and do one front-tap, then one back-tap, and one straight-tap, counting it 1, 2, 3, and then alternately with each foot. On the third count your weight should rest on that foot. When perfected, that makes the first actual step in "Tap and Step" dancing.
One of my pupils of whom I am very proud is Miss Ann Pennington, another of the "Follies" stars. She became one of the leading exponents of "Tap and Step" dancing, and although she has reached this high point in her career, she still comes to me for advice and for pointers, and I am glad that she does this, because it shows that she realizes the necessity of new ideas and hard work to keep herself at the top. In dancing, as in many other professions, one must "keep everlastingly at it." The story of Miss Pennington's career is similar to that of many who have come to me for instruction. She had innate ability, good looks, a sense of rhythm and a willingness to work hard and patiently, and with these qualities has achieved success.
MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES A CLASS IN
TAP AND STEP DANCING
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.
Real flowers are not allowed on the professional stage for a similar reason. A flower petal falling on the floor acts as a banana skin would, making a slip and a bad fall possible to anyone on the stage. You'd not like to have your dance spoiled by a wad of gum or a flower petal, and perhaps get put out of commission and have to forfeit a contract because of a personal injury. So let's play we are on the professional stage here and do as real professionals do—cut out the cud and forego the posies. If you have flowers handed to you over the footlights when you get to be stars, ladies, let it be at the final curtain. Then you won't break anybody's neck.
THE THREE REILLY’S—ALICE, GRACIE AND JOHNNY
I say often to every class, and I say it again to you—come and see me in my office and tell me how you are getting along here. And I mean this for every one of you. If I wasn't certain that I am going to be able to help you I wouldn't ask you to do this. If I didn't care I might do as some others do—take your money and let you go along in the class work as you choose to without bothering myself whether you made good or not. But that is not my way—not this studio's way at all. You must make good, for your own sake—and for the sake of this school's reputation. Now remember, there is absolutely no charge for my advice or counsel about anything that concerns you—your health, your reducing, your improvement in dancing—anything you want to know.
One day a girl came to me for the first time after she had been in the school about four months. I asked her in some surprise why she hadn't been in to see me before. "Why, Mr. Wayburn," she said, "I understood that you charge a high price for consultation, and I didn't feel that I could afford it."
Not only do I not charge anything for counseling you, I esteem it a favor to myself to be allowed to advise you. Candidly, I have never yet had a girl or boy take my courses here who has made a success of a dancing career who didn't write to me or talk things over with me first. If you don't come, you cannot get my ideas, cannot coöperate with me in matters that concern you.
Come to my office at any time. Between 11 and 1, or 4 and 6 are usually the best times. If I am busy with some important matter I may have to ask you to wait awhile or come in at some other time. I'm a pretty busy man some of the time, myself!
Weigh yourself and tell me about your weight.
NED WAYBURN’S ACROBATIC DANCING
THERE is a very decided distinction to be drawn between acrobatics pure and simple, and acrobatic dancing, which is quite another matter. It is, of course, acrobatic dancing that you see on the stage accompanying and accentuating the more formal dancing steps in musical comedies, revues, and spectacular performances, and it is this acrobatic dancing that receives wide attention in the teaching of the dancing art in the Ned Wayburn courses.
There are properly two divisions into which acrobatic dancing is naturally separated:
(1) Bending exercises; including the back bend, hand-stand, inside-out, front over, back limber, cartwheel, tinseca, nip-up, the various splits, and several more advanced feats that should be attempted only after thorough physical preparation.
(2) High-Kicking exercises; including all the so-called "legmania" varieties of dancing, which are best acquired by thorough preparation of the body in the Ned Wayburn foundation technique and studious attention to the drill in the Ned Wayburn Americanized ballet technique.
All of the acrobatic dancing tricks that are properly classified under bending exercises have for their foundation the back bend and the hand stand, as they are called, both of which must be mastered absolutely before attempting other and more complicated acrobatic exercises.
I want to go on record with the emphatic statement that acrobatic dancing must not be attempted except by those who are entirely and absolutely physically fit. The acrobatic dancer must possess unusual strength in the arms, in order that the weight of the body may be safely supported; and there must be strength and flexibility of the waist muscles and the abdominal muscles, and of all the muscles of the back and shoulders, to enable the performer to execute the front and back bends and their companion strenuous exercises. First, the pupil must have an unusual adaptability to this type of dancing, and then must prepare carefully and properly in advance of entering upon the real work of the course.
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.
Stand about 3 feet from the wall, with your back to the wall, feet about two feet apart. Bend back, touch the wall with the palms and walk down the wall with your hands until you touch the floor. Then walk up with your hands until you are erect.
The Back Bend on the Flat, and Near a Wall
HAND STAND
Take a wide step forward with the left foot, place both hands flat on the floor at least eighteen inches apart in front of the left toe, fingers open and pointed directly front, right leg perfectly straight, extended straight back. Swing the right leg up and over and follow it with the left leg, and when you come down bring down the left leg first, then the right leg, bringing the left knee close up to the chest. Do not kick hard or you will go over.
How to do a hand stand while standing near a wall.
Advance whichever foot comes natural to you to do this act (people are right and left footed as well as right and left handed); let us say your right foot. Stand facing the wall with the right foot advanced to within about two feet of it. Place both hands on the floor, about eighteen inches apart, in front of left foot, fingers open and pointed front, right leg extended back and straight. Kick up with the left foot over your back so as to bring the soles of both feet against the wall, the left foot reaching the wall first; knees straight, heels together.
The Hand Stand on the Flat (A, B), and Near a Wall
CARTWHEEL
The cartwheel is the hand stand done sidewise. Instead of kicking up, as in the hand stand, put one hand down and then the other, going sidewise, kicking your feet up. Keep your head back, so as to retain your sense of direction.
The Cartwheel
One of my star pupils in acrobatic dancing is Miss Evelyn Law, a principal dancer of the "Follies," and in "Louie the Fourteenth." She came to me four years ago, a little girl fifteen years old. There are few girls who have worked so hard to succeed as has Evelyn, and there are certainly few who have achieved the top line in their profession as quickly as she has. In every respect, Miss Law is a credit to the American stage. She started in her first appearance in an engagement which I got for her at a salary of $75.00 a week. Then her salary jumped to $125.00 a week, in "Two Little Girls in Blue," plus her mother's fare; later, as a featured member of the "Follies," which engagement I was also very happy to secure for her, her weekly salary reached the $750.00 mark. But Evelyn deserves her good fortune, because she has worked hard. Indeed, no girl could do the remarkable work which she is doing were she to live anything but a life of rigorous attention to every detail pertaining to health and physical fitness. She not only has ability, but she has the capacity for putting her heart into her job. She writes: "The encouragement which I have received urges me on to greater effort; and I am constantly trying to improve myself. I realize that only by constantly striving can I hope to win the recognition of producers and at the same time please the public." She writes of her present work that it is "a privilege which must be honored by my unflagging effort to put forth my best."
There's inspiration for all my dancing pupils in Evelyn Law's success.
EVELYN LAW
MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES A CLASS IN
ACROBATIC DANCING
I HAVE watched this class with a great deal of interest. You really are getting a physical foundation here for wonderful dancing; you are beginning to handle yourselves in a scientific way. I congratulate you.
To make a success at acrobatic or any other dancing you must not strain yourselves. Train, but don't strain. Be patient and keep practicing, and you will go far.
You are very wise to develop your ability along the line of acrobatic dancing rather than as an acrobat. There is a vast difference. As a mere acrobat one has to be a top-liner and wonderfully expert to get any kind of a salary at all, but as an acrobatic dancer you can command a place in the very best stage productions, high class musical comedies, musical revues, vaudeville, etc., and also in the better grade motion pictures and presentations, and get a very good salary. But if you let the acrobatic tricks dominate your dance, you will be classed as an acrobat, and not as an acrobatic dancer; so look out—keep your dancing up to grade and throw in these acrobatic tricks as a surprise and a climax, and you've got something the public and the producers want and will pay for.
After you have acquired these wonderful tricks and gotten hold of your bodies, and succeeded in bringing out in a physical way all the grace that nature gave you, then you can be taken and schooled in the soft, beautiful Americanized ballet work, and you will find that after this training you are now getting, our ballet technique will delight you and be comparatively easy for you. You know, of course, that in this course the ballet is not taught in the old, antiquated way, taking years of your time before you are permitted to do solo work. We teach you our own modern, scientific way, giving you first our foundation technique, then letting you learn how to use your arms, head, the upper part of your body and your legs gracefully and prettily, and making you as good ballet dancers as the old long-drawn-out practice ever made, enabling you to qualify for a paying engagement without a discouraging wait of years and years. Pavlowa, you know, was kept subordinate twelve years before she was permitted to attempt a solo dance in public. Imagine our American girls submitting to such apprenticeship! Not one of you would consider such a thing. And fortunately you do not have to, for we have revolutionized all that.
Now you are getting a wonderful dancing repertoire, with acrobatic dancing, musical comedy work and the tap and step dancing. When you add our ballet course to that, then you are ready for any call that may come to you in your lifetime. This is my aspiration for you. We are trying to realize ideals. When you have finished here you will be accomplished dancers, not mere machines going through a bunch of set exercises. Add the spiritual touch to your work now as you start on the home stretch. Finish here going strong, and your speed will carry you far.
Don't be satisfied to qualify merely as acrobats. When you come to me for a letter of recommendation to some first-class theatrical manager, I don't want to have to say to him: "Enclosed you will please find one acrobat." I have better hopes of the graduate pupils of my courses than that.
I want to say a word here to any who feel that they are slow and not keeping up with the pace set by the rest of the class, and that word of advice is, take the same class for another four weeks' period. Don't have any false pride about it. You want to fit yourself perfectly for your profession. If the four weeks you have already had here are not time enough to do that, go in for another month. Really, two months is a very short time for completing a training of so much value to you.
I tell pupils in the courses in the other branches of dancing we teach, that if they feel stiff or have difficulty in performing their steps, they would do well to go into this class, the acrobatic dancing class, for a month, because here the students get all sorts of primary acrobatic tricks and gain in strength and flexibility. All dancing is easier to those who take this work. And besides, if you go out and accept an engagement you will be proficient in cartwheels, splits, and many other neat tricks that will be of great service to you. These are stunts that you cannot learn in a theatre; no one has time to teach them to you, nor the necessary equipment or facilities, and you want to be ready when the stage director calls for those who are capable of doing something unusual, to show him on the spot. And you cannot afford to try to learn things from another girl. You may injure yourself severely if you do. These difficult feats should only be attempted under the best instruction. Do not allow any girl or boy who is inexperienced to try to teach you anything in the line of acrobatic work.
Fresh air in your lungs, correct diet, and nine glasses of water a day will do wonders for you in many ways. You have heard me say this before. Well, I shall say it a good many times more, just as long as I have students under my charge who want to be "healthy, wealthy and wise"—and good looking and good dancers. And please do not treat this advice lightly. I can only ask you to observe these simple rules. I have no way of enforcing them, and possibly because they are simple you do not give them the consideration they deserve. Now let me tell you some facts, and then you decide whether or not you think it wise to neglect yourself.
Surely none of you will object to taking a glass of water nine times a day. Do not drink ice water, nor take water with meals. Liquids taken while eating will bloat you, make you fat, or make it impossible to assimilate your food properly, and that will keep you underweight. Take a glass on arising, one after breakfast, one before and after dinner and luncheon, one at about eleven in the morning and another at four, and one just before getting into bed. Water taken into the system this way induces a healthful perspiration which eliminates the bodily impurities. Your skin must be ventilated, which means that the pores must be opened, and water-drinking as I have directed will do this. If you drink milk, sip it slowly; don't pour it down. Don't eat between meals. Have a meal an hour and a half before class or before a performance, then the digestive process will have had time to complete its work and leave you in the best condition for mental and physical exertion.
After exercising here in your class, do not dress and hurry out into the street until your pores are closed. You have free shower baths at your disposal in your dressing rooms here in the studios, put there for just the purpose of enabling you to get into perfect condition before you go outdoors. Use them, with my compliments, please, and keep fit; then take a good rub down.
It is important to you to have a good clear skin and complexion. Some of you have it, and you want to keep it; some will be glad to know how to get it. I am going to tell you just how to acquire it and keep it, and clear up any little blemishes on your skin,—but it is so simple I am afraid you won't think it worth doing. To have clear skins you must have pure blood and good circulation of the blood, and to obtain these you must breathe deeply and correctly and so get fresh air, full of oxygen, into your lungs. That's all there is to it. And now, here is the correct way to breathe to accomplish all this, and I wish you would practice it now here in the class as I tell you about it:
Breathe in through your nostrils, with the mouth closed. Inhale slowly and way down deep, filling your lungs as full as you can; then exhale slowly through your mouth. Do this as an exercise, and do it ten times before you stop. Then do it again whenever you think of it, not less than three times a day. You cannot do it too often, no danger of that! It won't hurt you or cost you a cent. The air drawn into your lungs this way expands your chest and increases your lung capacity. This makes good wind for dancing, and all dancers need lots of wind; you have to have it, you have to call for lots of breath when you dance rapidly or long. Start in right now, and by the time you have a stage engagement you will be prepared with a bellows that will furnish all the air you call for—and meanwhile watch your skin and your complexion put on the clear, healthy, beautiful appearance that every woman envies. The air in this room, as in any room, is not entirely free of impurities; it is not the best air for your breathing exercises. Outdoors—say, over in Central Park, only a block from here—is where you find the beautifying, pure oxygen that will start your blood tingling, expand your chest, and give you the real beauty of skin and complexion that nature meant all women should have. Walk. Exercise. While you're out walking, take your beauty-breathing exercise as you go.
In my office I have a list of foods, with sixteen rules for good health. The word "diet" suggests starvation and going hungry and a lot of disagreeable things like that, I suppose, and so you would much rather not hear about it. Well, it isn't as bad as you think, and a proper diet is a health insurance, and should be carefully observed. Do you know that I have made a study of diets and dieting, and of anatomy—the structure of the human body? My interest in dancing and in my pupils here—and in my own health—has prompted me to study that subject thoroughly. I could tell you a great deal about getting and keeping healthy, if you cared to hear it and if I had time to go into the subject.
My best dancers, and all good dancers, diet. That is, they are careful to eat what is best for them, and not everything that may tickle the palate yet raise a rumpus inside one and upset the whole system, and make them cross and cranky and homely and bad actors generally.
Good food, pure air, plenty of water, internally and externally, the right amount of sleep, not more than eight hours, and not less than seven, proper exercise and practice—all of these are essential to make good dancers—to make you good dancers.
Come in to my office tonight after class. Weigh yourselves before you come in. Then talk to me about yourself and get my diet list to take home, please.
LINA BASQUETTE
NED WAYBURN’S MODERN AMERICANIZED
BALLET TECHNIQUE
I HAVE invented a method of teaching the ballet that eliminates the long and tedious training formerly considered necessary, and fits the pupil for a stage appearance in the briefest possible length of time. That my method is a perfect success is evidenced in the best theatres everywhere. I have taken amateurs who never did a ballet step in their lives, put them in training by my personally devised method, and made perfect solo dancers of them in a few months' time, secured them engagements, and their fame as ballet dancers par excellence is today world-wide. Elsewhere in this book I shall name several of these whom you know best, and you will admit that I am right in what I have just said when you peruse their names.
I am assuming that you are aware of the fact that in all foreign countries the ballet student is taught for years before she is allowed to attempt a public appearance or permitted to consider a professional engagement. This ultra-conservative custom has been brought across the water, and the idea has always held here in America that the four, six, ten year apprenticeship was a necessity; that no dancer could qualify for a professional appearance in a shorter period. It was taken for granted that there was no short cut to this trade, and up to the recent present there has been none. But our American girls who are gifted with a talent for this superb form of graceful dancing will not consent to devote the best years of their lives to unproductive labor. The idea of signing away several years of their happy lives in order to become entitled merely to a critical teacher's approval, and all this time without compensation of a financial nature, does not appeal to any, and least of all to that very person, the young person who would make the best dancer.
Yet there was an increasing demand for capable ballet dancers, and the supply was limited and dwindling. So, in order to make a world happy, I put my wits to work and evolved a plan that has revolutionized the entire industry. And I have called it Ned Wayburn's Modern Americanized Ballet Technique; and it is a Ballet Technique at its very best. If I had done nothing else in the years of my theatrical experience, I should still feel that I had accomplished much that is worth while.
And, really, it is all very simple. The wonder is that others did not figure it out before I did. And it is no secret. I am going to tell you all about it, and what the results have been, and then you can see for yourself why it is no longer best or necessary to go to foreign lands and take lessons the old way, for years and years.
There is what is called the Universal Ballet Technique. It is the standard of the dancing world, recognized and observed everywhere that the ballet is taught or danced. My method follows this Universal Technique closely, and is identical in many of the essentials. The chief difference between the old way and my new method is in the preparatory work. Now, this will never become a world full of ballet dancers, because not everyone could learn this graceful undulation if they wanted to. (All the more reason, I say, why those who have the talent should profit by it.) Not all of my pupils, nor all of my best pupils in other forms of the art, can hope to become solo artistes in ballet work. I can glance over a class at work in any of my studios, and select the few who may hope to perfect themselves in the ballet. I have had to discourage and no doubt disappoint some of my ambitious ones who have aspired to master the great art of ballet dancing; but I know I did what was best for them in advising them as I did. These same girls will be topnotchers in other fields of stage dancing, and I would rather direct their pathway to sure success than to let them wander into byways where their feet might stumble. So first of all, the candidate for ballet dancing must have my approval, she must be qualified according to my high standards, and when I say "Yes," and the student enters faithfully upon the work as I lay it out, she is going to make good.
And the first instruction she will receive in my courses is in the nature of a muscle culture, a foundation technique that consists of exercises, on the felt floorpad, in limbering and stretching. It is very beneficial to everyone in every way, and unqualifiedly essential to the beginner in stage dancing in any of its forms. The prospective ballet dancer, by going through these exercises in the studio for a series of twenty lessons or so, and practicing three hours or more at home daily during the same period, develops strength in the muscles of the back, legs, ankles and feet that fits her for the ballet technique; and it is this foundation work that enables her to eliminate the antiquated exercises and some combinations of steps, and the unduly long, tedious and once necessary trials that fell to the lot of the old-country ballerina. So the secret is out; it is our special foundation work in limbering and stretching combined with my Americanized Ballet Technique that builds our American pupil into a strong, healthy, flexible, graceful person, well prepared for advancement into the beautiful art of the ballet.
This does not mean that the entrant for ballet honors has nothing to do but go at once upon the stage, a completed artiste. If this statement of my easier plan suggests such a thing, let me hasten to correct so erroneous an impression. There is work, and hard work, too, and lots of it, before our pupil becomes a ballet dancer, even under our less strenuous and much shortened course of training.
Grace of the entire body is sought and taught, graceful movements of the head, arms, legs and torso. In addition to grace and poise, there is need of great muscular strength, and this we are able to develop in our pupils without bunching the muscles of their calves, thighs or arms into unsightly knots. And this fact is not one of the least of the recommendations of our system. We insist upon symmetry and beauty of figure. This is really more important to the professional dancer than beauty of face. To possess both, a beautiful face and form, is the ideal condition, of course, but the figure is susceptible of being made attractive by our development technique, and any imperfections of the facial contour or features, and any defects in the complexion, are easily disguised or corrected by my method of teaching stage-makeup.
MARION CHAMBERS
It must be considered that in the ballet the movement of the arms is very important, and to perform it properly requires long study and extreme accuracy. Just as the art of painting blends and composes colors, and by the composition of scenes and figures makes a whole that is pleasant to the eye, so the movements of the arms in dancing add many and diverse forms of grace to the body, guiding and regulating its movements so as to result in a harmonious whole. One authority has styled dancing "the music of the eye." The dancer who neglects the difficult study which the arms require because she believes that the only necessity is brilliant execution in the legs, will be an imperfect artist. It is not enough to know how to dance with one's legs; the ballet must also be executed with the trunk of the body and the arms. Their movements must be graceful and in harmony with those of the legs, since they constitute a weight for the equilibrium of the body when it rests on one leg. The arms must accompany the trunk, making a frame for it.
The movements of the head, of the eyes, the expression of the face, all are of tremendous importance in perfecting the ballet. It is because of the necessity of bearing constantly in mind the various attitudes of head, torso, arms and legs that I believe that the ballet contributes more than any other type of dancing to the general development of grace and poise of the whole body.
In addition to teaching what we call the legitimate American Ballet, we add to the students' repertoire what are known as "tricks," which earn applause for the dancer. Many of our pupils go directly from our courses to the professional stage, since it would be difficult for them to earn a supporting salary in the musical comedy field doing straight ballet work alone. We teach straight toe dances, and also eccentric toe dances, as will be demonstrated in another chapter.
You are now a student in our beginner's ballet class. First, you must provide yourself with soft ballet slippers, as without them it would be impossible to do this type of work. As you enter our ballet room you note full length mirrors on the walls, to enable you to watch yourself as you dance—the original "watch your step" propaganda. Also you will see a wooden rod, technically known as a "bar," running around the walls of the studio. This is about three and a half feet above the floor, and is easily grasped by the hand for support in practicing.
In your practice at home, in the absence of such a bar, substitute an ordinary chairback or other firm object as a support, being careful that its height is correct.
Now the first thing to acquire is a knowledge of the fundamental rules of the dance, since everything depends upon them, and no one may hope to attain proficiency without this knowledge.
The fundamental positions of the ballet are five, and their complete mastery has been the prime factor in the success of every ballet dancer since the dance was invented. You will be constantly referred to "first position," "third position," and the others throughout your instruction, and you must know instantly and intuitively what each reference means as you hear it or read it, and to do this you must have the five position thoroughly absorbed into your inner consciousness. That means, practice the five positions over and over, day after day. No ballet dancer ever was entitled to this name without she knew these five rules of the dance.
The five positions for practice at the bar are here given, and the primary exercise at each position described and pictured.
First Ballet Position
First Position: Stand erect, with the head up, the legs straight, the heels together, the toes pointed out, the weight of the body evenly distributed between the two feet. Extend one arm to lightly grasp the bar, and carry the other arm straight out from the shoulder, in a slightly relaxed position, as shown in the diagram. The thumb should rest on the tip of the first finger, the middle and ring fingers slightly bent, the little finger extended so that it is slightly separated from the others, the wrist bent slightly downward. The whole attitude should be flexible and graceful.
Now lower the body by bending the knees. The feet should be kept flat on the floor, the heels raised from the floor as little as possible when bending the legs. The knees should be extended to the sides, as shown in the diagram. The free arm should follow the attitude of the legs—that is, it should be lowered to the waist when the knees are bent. This bending should be repeated four times.
Second Ballet Position
Second Position: From the first position, keeping both legs straight, slide the right foot sideways until leg and foot are fully extended without moving the torso. Then place the weight of the body on both feet with heels on the floor. The head should be in a straight line above the center of the space between the heels. Now bend and rise slowly four times, without raising the heels from the floor.
Third Ballet Position
Third Position: From the second position, shift the weight to one leg, fully extending the foot and toes of the other leg. Then glide the extended leg slowly in front of the other, the heel leading, until the ankle of the leg behind is covered by the front leg. Bend and rise slowly four times; keeping the head in a straight line above the heel that is in front.
Fourth Ballet Position
Fourth Position: From the third position, slide the front leg forward as far as possible without moving the body, until foot and toes are fully extended; then put the heel on the floor, the foot turned outward. Place the weight of the trunk on both legs, the head being vertically above the heel of the front foot. Bend and rise slowly four times.
Fifth Ballet Position
Fifth Position: From the fourth position, shift the weight to the back leg, fully extending the front leg and foot. Slide the front leg slowly back to the other leg with heel well turned out, until the feet are on a parallel line, with the heel of the front leg in front of the toes of the back leg. The weight of the body should rest on both legs, and the throat should be virtually above the ankle of the front leg. Bend and rise four times.
TERMS USED IN NED WAYBURN’S MODERN
AMERICANIZED BALLET TECHNIQUE
Arabesque—A posture executed with one foot on the floor.
Assemblé—To bring the feet together.
Attitude—A posture executed with both feet on the floor.
Balance—A combined slide (glissé), closing of the feet, rising on the toes and lowering of the heels.
Changement de Pied—Changing the position of the feet.
Chassé—A chasing step in three movements: Slide (glissé), cut (coupé), slide (glissé).
Ciseaux—The scissors step: A point and swing with one foot while hopping twice on the other.
Coupé—To cut.
Dégager—To sway; to transfer.
Demi Pas de Basque—A half or incomplete pas de basque.
Écarté—To jump from a closed position, open the feet in the air, and land in a closed position.
Échappée—(Escaped.) Any changement done on the toes.
Élever—To rise on the toes.
Entrechat—To spring into the air and change the position of the feet as often as possible before landing.
Fouetté—A swinging of the leg.
Frappé—To stamp the foot.
Glissé—To slide.
Glissade—Three movements combined: Élever (to rise on the toes), glissé (to slide), assemblé (to close the feet).
Grand Battement—High beating.
Jeté—To leap or throw the weight from one foot to the other.
Movement—An activity of the body from a resting position; also a change from one activity to another.
The nine standard dancing Movements are:
- (1) Droit—to swing the foot forward and backward;
- (2) Overt—to swing the foot from right to left;
- (3) Glissé—to slide;
- (4) Tourné—to turn;
- (5) Tortiller—to twist;
- (6) Battu—to beat;
- (7) Sauté—to hop;
- (8) Jeté—to leap;
- (9) Coupé—to cut.
THE BIRTH OF VENUS
Pas—A step.
Pas Ballonné—A combination of hop, step, hop.
Pas Boiteaux—A limping step in three movements: Hop on right foot and raise left leg forward with the knee straight; step forward on left foot; step forward on right foot.
Pas de Basque—A step of three movements: Demi rond de jambe, jeté (describe half circle in air with leg, leap); glissé (slide); coupé (cut).
Pas de Bourrée—(Stuffing step.) Three little steps on ball of the foot.
Pas de Chat—(Cat step.) Four sideward movements: Leap, slide, step, step.
Pas Marché—(Marching step.) Four movements: step, swing, step, close.
Pas Sissonne—Imitation of opening or closing of a pair of scissors, done by bending in fifth position, hopping to one side, at the same time lifting opposite leg in second position; then leg down in front and assemblé in front with the leg that did the hop.
Petit Battement—Low beating.
Petit Battement avec Port de Bras—Low bending with arm movements.
Petit Battement sur le Cou de Pied—Small beatings around the ankle.
Petite Rond de Jambe—Small foot circles described on the floor.
Plier—To bend the knees.
Pirouette—An artistic turn executed on one foot.
Pointe—The toe.
Port de Bras—Carriage of the arms. The five arm movements are: Bending, stretching, raising, lowering, turning.
Rond de Jambe—Circles in the air executed by the leg.
Sauté—To hop.
Step—A placing of the foot in any direction and transferring the weight onto it.
Terre à Terre—A series of pas de bourrées of four or more steps.
Three-step Turn—A complete turn, right or left, in three steps.
Tortiller—To turn or twist the leg.
Tour de Basque—A basque turn; pirouette de basque.
Tour Jeté—Jeté with a turn; one step sideward to right, one leap and complete turn; one step sideward onto right foot.
Tour Sauté—One step, one hop, turning completely around in direction of the step.
MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES THE BEGINNERS’
CLASS IN BALLET TECHNIQUE
YOU have now advanced in your studies to where it becomes necessary to train yourselves for the stage mentally as well as physically. You have acquired the flexibility, strength of body and symmetry of form that was promised in my earlier courses to those who faithfully attended class and persistently practiced at home.
You have progressed through the hard foundation technique to a point where you are physically fitted to undertake the beautiful work of our ballet technique.
But now that you are entering on a new phase of your life work, it is no time to let down and by carelessness lose what you have already acquired by your obedience to your studio instruction. I am sure you will not disappoint me by doing this.
Please bear in mind you have still some hard work before you, both mental and physical hard work, before you are ready to capitalize your efforts, to get the substantial rewards that come to the graduate pupils of these courses. You can by looking back a few weeks see your own improvement. You are able today to do many things of value in a stage career that when you entered here you found impossible of accomplishment. But you are still in the formative period as to the finished product, as represented by the solo ballet, the stage work par excellence, to which you all aspire, and in which you will realize your fondest hopes when you possess its full technique as we teach it.
You are more fortunate than you may realize in having available the benefit of our ballet technique instead of having to go through the long years of excessive labor that would have been your lot if you lived abroad and wished to become a premier danseuse. Long training, at least four years' daily instruction and practice, is required of ballet students in England, France, Italy, Russia, or anywhere else in the world. The foreign methods tend to bunch the muscles. You have seen dancers with knotted calves, bunchy knees, huge thighs, all the result of the old technique. As you know, we insist upon your preparing for the ballet course by taking our limbering and stretching exercises, and today you know why. You have a genuine foundation to build upon. Your bodies are lithe and supple, your muscles hard yet not misshapen, and you have advanced by easy stages through the foundation work to where you are today, ready for the finishing touches.
In your ballet work you must be careful how you land when you jump into the air. My system lands the body with the knees bent, otherwise you might undermine your health. To come down full weight on your heels repeatedly would prove very injurious.
Keep your muscles exercised. There is no better exercise for the dancer than walking, and three miles a day is none too much. Take long deep breaths out of doors. Horseback riding, golf, tennis, all are good for you. Dancing itself is the best exercise you can have, but when you have a one-hour lesson or more, and then practice at home three or more hours daily you will find walking a rest, a relaxation, because it is a change of work.
Occasionally we have a Pupils' Frolic in our own Demi-Tasse Theatre, to give you a chance to do a turn before a friendly audience. This is good experience and encourages talent.
Some of you sing. Some are accomplished in other forms of dancing. I like to hear your voices and see your dances. They may be valuable aids to you in your stage work, even if not just of a stage character. I can tell about that when you sing or dance for me. Anyway, they indicate that you have talent and are accomplished and able to improve yourself, and that suggests that you possess a personality of your own, one of the great essentials of your future success. Sometimes we arrange special exhibitions for charity affairs and call upon our best talent to appear in these. Such an opportunity is very valuable experience for you and I am glad for your sake always when I can get you a chance to appear in public or social affairs, to give you self-confidence and inspiration.
Now one more very important lesson you must learn before you finish here, and that is in the art of makeup. For it is an art, and one that every actress must be fully posted upon. If you don't know how much depends upon correct makeup, come and ask me about it and I will tell you. We hold classes in makeup in our Demi-Tasse Theatre on occasional Saturday afternoons. I advise you to secure a place in this class soon. You will find it very interesting and valuable. Your application should be made at the counter in the main business office. The charge is $2.00 for a class lesson, and we teach our own methods, dry, cream, and grease-paint makeups. Usually we take three girls, a blonde, a brunette and a red-head, and make them up in class, explaining the work as we do so. For private instruction in makeup our charge is $5.00 a lesson.
It is very practical instruction and you will obtain much positive benefit from it. It is not always the girl who is most beautiful on the street or in the parlor who makes up best. Often the contrary is the case, and the girl with the ordinary street appearance becomes very attractive looking on the stage with the proper makeup. In any event, my makeup directions will make a vast improvement in your appearance for stage effect, as well as for street.
There is no doubt but that you are obtaining in my courses the most valuable ballet instruction in America, if not in the entire world. The instructors I am supplying you with have had years of professional ballet training and experience both abroad and in this country, as I am sure you all know. Furthermore, they are not only remarkable dancers, but also very competent as teachers. So if you give attention to their instruction and watch them as they illustrate the various elements that constitute the complete ballet technique, and learn the several basic positions and the graceful movements and attitudes and kicks that go to make up the complete whole, you may expect to become expert in this beautiful art yourselves. But you must practice, practice at home, every day, many hours a day, and keep it up right along. There is no other way to succeed in any dancing, and especially in ballet work.
You have been told in your former classes in this studio about keeping yourselves fit and healthy and charming by consuming nine glasses of water daily, aided by deep breathing, correct and careful diet and eight hours' sleep. Continue to observe these simple laws of health and beauty, if you value your present opportunities and your future success, as I am certain you do. Form regular habits now, treat your bodies well. The recompense is so great if you do, you cannot afford to be careless in any respect.
Feel free to come to my private office any time, or write me, and discuss with me personally any matters that concern yourself in relation to your health or prospects for the future. We are both, you and I, interested in and working steadily for your future. This is a forward-looking establishment where futures are made to order. Your future, and that of the hundreds of young pupils who favor us here with their presence, may depend in large measure upon your energy and studiousness while you are with us and under our tutelage. Let us help you. Let me help you. It is my mission in life to direct folks straight along the pleasant paths of health, beauty and financial independence, and I feel sure I can be of aid to you and your future if you will give me the opportunity to do so.
VIRGINIA BACON
NED WAYBURN’S TOE DANCING
ALL forms of modern toe dancing—and there are several—are based upon the ballet technique, of which a synopsis of my own Americanized form appears in a preceding chapter.
There is toe dancing of the really classical school in the perfected ballet. That is the kind with which we are most familiar. When a mother says, "I want my child to be taught toe dancing," she usually expects to be understood as referring to the ballet in its entirety, of which dancing on the toes seems symbolical.
But of later years there has developed in the terpsichorean art other forms and combinations of toe dancing besides the strictly classical, as for instance, the eccentric toe dance and the acrobatic toe dance.
As to the classical form, reference to the ballet chapter will find its present development duly set forth.
The eccentric toe dance and its fellow, the acrobatic toe dance, both have their beginnings in the fundamental ballet technique, in which one must be well and properly schooled before expecting to succeed in the more advanced work of these laterday favorites.
For they are favorites, as an hour at any modern playhouse where the newer dances are featured, will demonstrate.
It is at the behest of the great American audience that these newer toe dances are with us. You and the rest of the public that constitute our audiences demand action, tricks—or at least tricky and novel touches here and there—in your dancing entertainment. The old stuff doesn't "get over" with you any more. So we invent new things that present what you are bound to like, and the eccentric and acrobatic toe dances are the result.
It may be jumping down a flight of steps on the toes, or a continued hopping on one toe for 16 counts to music, or a swinging of one leg back and forth, like a pendulum, in an acrobatic way while the dancer hops on one toe—such stunts as these are the applause-getters nowadays, and they are well worth applauding, too, for they are pleasing demonstrations of real skill, and are acquired by the dancer only after long and continued effort and practice. Few if any, I am sure, fully appreciate the time and labor it takes to make a modern toe dancer, one who shall be able to perform something new and catchy in a clever way,—a real feat nowadays, and one that theatrical producers are quick to see and seize when it appears.
The fact is, the tricks I have spoken of must never dominate the dancing, but must be entirely secondary and incidental, as it were. Otherwise the dancer becomes an acrobat. You don't care for straight acrobatics, Mr. Public, but acrobatic dancing, or dancing with a neat acrobatic stunt thrown in incidentally as a bit of seasoning, is really very palatable and pleasing to you. It must remain a beautiful dance, aided and added to by a pretty surprise in the form of a bit of unexpected toe work—then you like to see it, so we are careful in my courses to promote in this kind of work only that form for which there is a demand,—and this is equally true with every other kind of dancing that we teach.
Before any toe dancing is undertaken by the ambitious student there must be a foundation laid to build upon that shall be lasting and efficient. The body must be under perfect control; every muscle immediately responsive and ready, strength placed where it is essential. Our students who have passed through the limbering and stretching course (foundation technique) and have advanced to the ballet work and through that, are ready for the advanced features in modern toe dancing. We work this way with such of our more promising pupils as desire it, and then teach them the "tricks," as we call it, that are so effective when properly done. Every toe dancer should have one-hour lessons five days each week till perfected, and at least three hours daily practice six days in the week at home.
I have already stated and now say it once more in this connection, that children should not go on their toes in the dance until they have taken what I know to be a necessary foundation course, to fit them to do so without danger of permanent distortion of feet and legs, enlarged ankles, and other ill effects. It is the parents' fault, of course, when children are forced into toe dancing at too early an age or without proper preparation. I simply will not consent to do it. I have seen children of sixteen who ought to be at their best at that age in this work, yet because of the forcing process in early years were incapable of sustaining themselves on their deformed feet.
Many of my well-known graduate pupils have been seen in the Follies and other first class productions. Their work is an inspiration to all who love exquisite dancing of this kind. They secured the right foundations on the start, and now have strength, speed, grace, and ability to do what their dances call for. There are lots and lots of toe dancers graduated from my courses, and I cannot think of one who has failed to make good.
That, I think, is because their personality plus practice plus honest and capable instruction and a knowledge of showmanship and stage-craft absorbed from my "inspirational talks" has brought forth the natural result.
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GILDA GRAY
With sincere appreciation to Ned Wayburn
whose producing genius created the record breaking
“Follies of 1922”
Gilda Gray
NED WAYBURN’S
SPECIALTY DANCING
THERE is a wonderful field for the dancer who can create an appealing dance of his or her own, or who can take some type of dance and by sheer personality so develop it as to be identified with it as the representative of that form of dancing.
Not everyone can be a specialty dancer of this sort, but to be one is well worth the effort of every ambitious exponent of the dancing art.
Any kind of stage dancing may become a specialty dance. But it really takes a person with good mental capacity as well as expert dancing ability to develop what others may do well, make of it an outstanding and triumphant success, and identify it with one's self before the public as one's very own.
But the rewards are great for those who accomplish this, and I am always glad to see an effort made along these lines, since it means so much in the way of fame and fortune to those who make the grade.
And one may become a specialty dancer in more than one line. Gilda Gray, for instance, in the Follies of 1922 did three separate and distinct specialties in her work at every performance: A musical comedy specialty, an Hawaiian dance, and her "Come Along" character dance, which she built up under my direction into a pronounced hit.
So with these facts before us, that any dance may be made into a specialty, taken out of the ordinary and individualized, and that no dancer is limited to a single line in this work, but can spread out over the entire field if competent to do so, there is surely ample encouragement to the dancing pupil to make an effort to profit by the opportunity my studio instruction affords, and become not only a good dancer but also a good, better, best specialty dancer—something quite worth while on every stage, European as well as American.
Almost any pupil will naturally specialize in some one form of dancing in the learning process. Thus one may show a preference for the musical comedy work, or tap and step, clogging, acrobatic dancing, whatever it may be. It is preferred because one takes to it easiest, or is most proficient in it, or has a personal liking for it. That is the dance for you to specialize in. Perfect yourself in it. Do a little better than anyone else does, and you are on the boulevard headed toward becoming a specialty dancer.
Legmania is a form of specialty dancing. The Charleston, at present so popular with the multitude, is another. The Hula Hula and all other kinds of character dancing are specialties. Clogging, the ballet, interpretive and toe dances—why enumerate them. Let it go at this: Any form of dancing that you like best and are most efficient in can be made your specialty dance if you give it personality, atmosphere,—if you vitalize it so that it stands out alive and distinctive—your very own.
It takes brains as well as legs to become a specialty dancer of real quality, capable of controlling the public's interest. Yes, and it takes competent instruction to guide you right, and it takes practice on your part after you get the instruction, too. But it is quite worth while. The rewards are sure if you merit them.
NED WAYBURN’S EXHIBITION DANCING
WHAT is technically known as Exhibition Dancing is an exaggerated form of the usual social or ballroom dancing. It is "team" work, performed by two, a man and a woman, and is never given as a solo dance, by a single artist.
There is no end to the styles of dances that may be employed in exhibition work. The public is thoroughly familiar with those most often presented to view in public and private ballroom, at social or other functions, which are either the Exhibition Fox Trot, the Exhibition One Step, the Tango, the Exhibition Waltz or the Whirlwind dance.
This by no means covers the possible field. Its limitations are measured only by the ability of the "team," and the popularity that demands this or that style of dance, as the fickle public fluctuates in its preference.
An exhibition dance of whatever nature must have an element of the spectacular and theatrical in its presentation in order to appeal. The dancers must inject some surprise steps in an effective place, throw in a little "tricky" stuff that is new or startling—do something neat and out of the ordinary to make the dance qualify as "Exhibition" and not just the usual every-day type of some well-known form of the dance.
Among the best-known exponents of exhibition dancing one naturally recalls Vernon and Irene Castle, Maurice and his several partners, Florence Walton, Leonora Hughes and Barbara Bennett, as well as the "teams" of Clifton Webb and Mary Hay, and Basil Durant and Kay Durban. All these and many other professional exhibition dancers have amply succeeded in their efforts to please the public, and have found the financial returns to be most satisfactory. It is a very profitable line of work for dancers of the right qualifications.
MAURICE
Exceptional personality is essential, as well as great skill in the art of dancing, and less than a commanding supremacy will not suffice to carry the work through to a successful issue. Yet there is a large field here, open to many who may not as yet even dream of their adaptability to such a career as this suggests.
It has been my pleasure to assist in the direction of every exhibition dancer whose name I have quoted above. Some of them received their first impetus along this line from me, followed my advice and instruction, and in consequence became internationally famous and successful. I am still taking those well adapted to this line and putting them in the way they should go. I know the type of person best qualified to make a success in exhibition dancing, and if those I select will be guided by my experience and knowledge there is no reason why they should not reap the rewards their merit earns, as well as those I have named have done.
There is a knack in acquiring the necessary ability as a dancer of this type that not every instructor is able to impart. I do not teach exhibition dancing in classes in my studios. Individual private lessons is the only successful way, and that is my way. Most other forms of dancing are learned as well or even better in classwork.
I doubt if exhibition dancing will ever be overdone. It is popular, and good dancers for this line of work are not too numerous. So it seems likely to be in continued demand indefinitely.
NED WAYBURN’S
PROFESSIONAL STAGE
MAKEUP
THE Ned Wayburn Courses teach every form of stage makeup, for men as well as for women, and for every known character part as well as the "straight" makeup for youth. To put all the expert professional makeup knowledge into this book would be to practically crowd out everything else or so enlarge the volume as to make it cumbersome. To avoid this and at the same time meet a strong public demand, I have in contemplation a book devoted exclusively to this important subject, that shall post a world of waiting aspirants for stage honors in every detail of the art of correct makeup. Meanwhile, the subject has an important bearing on the art of stage dancing and so demands a prominent place in this present work.
I have, therefore, chosen for demonstration here the one most popular stage makeup, which is that adapted to the use of the professional stage woman in every modern theatre, opera house and music hall, and am here giving it a complete and thorough exposition. In presenting this form of makeup thus prominently, I do not wish in any degree to convey the idea that men and male youth are ignored in our studio teaching of makeup, and that our sole concern is to make the young woman presentable on the stage. This is not the fact. We teach makeup to men as well as to women, and every correct form of the art.
Do not confuse a stage makeup with the customary society makeup that milady applies in her boudoir. They are two entirely different problems.
To makeup correctly for the modern stage, with its multiple lights of great intensity and all the colors of the rainbow, requires special study of yourself individually and a knowledge of what effects the various lighting schemes will produce on the human countenance.
Three ladies standing side by side on the same stage may require three different makeups, depending upon their types, in order to appear at their best to the audience. The brunette, the blonde, the auburn-haired, each needs a different treatment, and if through ignorance or indifference any omits proper attention to a single item of the very important detail of her facial makeup, the result will be disastrous. All of which emphasizes the need of one's being properly taught on the start just how to makeup in a manner to bring out one's personality, to enhance one's beauty, and create the most pleasing appearance before her audience. We are now speaking, of course, of the woman who is to appear in a youthful part; character makeup is an entirely different proposition, with which we are not concerned here.
It is impossible to go on the stage today without makeup. Should any actress try to do so, the appearance of her features would be almost deathlike. She would be repulsive to the eyes of the audience, a condition that neither she nor the producer of the show would tolerate. The very lights that render superbly beautiful the person with proper makeup cause the bare flesh to lose its natural tints, cast shadows under the brows and above the face, create hollows where they do not exist and are not wanted, and utterly destroy the pleasing picture.
Makeup, then, is one of the first essentials to stage success, and it makes no difference how truly beautiful you may be in features and natural coloring off the stage, the fact persists—you must makeup, and makeup right.
But the uninstructed amateur, whose sole knowledge of makeup is confined to the boudoir, is very prone to overdo in her maiden attempts at stage makeup, and so disastrously decorate her face that under the unaccustomed and little understood lights of the theatre she appears hideous to the folks out in front. And this is especially true of the most beautiful type of women, who think they know, and don't.
Anyone with regular features can learn to apply makeup so that on the stage she will be as prepossessing as her naturally more favored sister-woman. A beauty unadorned by facial makeup, or a beauty not properly made-up, will be far outclassed in apparent beauty on the stage by the plainer woman who has mastered the art of makeup and knows how to apply it judiciously and correctly. It is all in knowing how, and the learning is not difficult. The professional actress will not fail to obtain personal instruction in this art from expert teachers, which is decidedly the best way. Pupils in our studios avail themselves of our classes and private lessons in makeup and in doing this lay a foundation of invaluable knowledge that will continue with them through life. The aspirant or amateur who for personal reasons cannot come to our studios for this instruction will absorb much of value by a perusal and study of this chapter. For, while it is not possible to advise an unseen person, whose type you do not know, with the same exactness as you could if she stood before you, there is much here that is general in its application to all types, and the care we are taking to make our information broad enough to cover all these greatly simplifies matters for the absent students.
There are two steps to a correct knowledge of your personal needs in the makeup art: First, what to use; and second, how to use it.
I am going to start you right on both of these steps.
Any actress of experience will tell you that her most valuable stage possession is her Makeup Box. It contains the necessary tools of her trade, without which she would be helpless to carry on. It is to her what the brush and colors and palette are to the painter; the needle and thread to the seamstress; the hammer and saw and plane to the carpenter. Before you enter upon a stage career supply yourself with a complete makeup box equipped with all the needed tools and ingredients for making up for the part you are to assume. This is a necessary purchase, and will prove one of the best paying investments you ever made.
Ordinarily a makeup box stocked with the best materials will cost about $12.00 and is not extravagantly expensive at that price. So many of our students sought our advice as to their purchases in this line, as they left our studios for the professional stage, that we fitted out a line of makeup boxes, completely stocked, for each complexion type, which we are selling to them over the counter at $9.50. The actual cost to us of each set is about eight cents more than we sell it for; plainly indicating an absence of grasping commercialism in our nature, for which we hope and expect due commendation.
THE NED WAYBURN PROFESSIONAL STAGE MAKEUP BOX AND OUTFIT
A—black cosmetique. B—black mascaro. C—baby brush. D—black crayon pencil. E—dark blue pencil. F—carmine grease paint. G—blue lining grease paint. H—foundation grease paint. I—orangewood stick. J—paper felt liners. K—cosmetic stove. L—pink velour powder pad. M—face powder. N—cold cream. O—dry rouge. P—rabbit’s foot. Q—moist lip rouge. R—art steel box. S—special mirror.
Buying expertly and in quantities has enabled us to get together this Ned Wayburn Professional Makeup Box of the best stuff in the world for its purpose, some of the ingredients being made in America, others in Paris, and still others in Berlin,—all standard goods and used every day in the year in every theatre of the civilized world,—and at the same time keep the cost to our students down below a ten dollar bill. (Applause.) We thank you.
Now we are getting orders for our professional makeup box to be sent by mail and express to professionals and amateurs throughout this continent, and while we are glad to accommodate all who honor our own profession by their presence in it, please do not expect us to do so at cost. It is one thing to hand a box over the counter, and quite another to pack that box for shipment so as to conform to established requirements by the government post office or the express companies, prepay postage, insure it, and deliver it to the New York postal authorities. So we have put a price of $10.95 on this makeup outfit for parties who do not call for it in person at our studio, with postage extra, according to the zone in which you reside, if it goes by mail. We would rather send it by express and let you pay the charges for carriage at your end, if it is all the same to you. The weight of this outfit packed for shipment is about seven pounds. We insure it in transit at $10, which adds a few cents to its cost to you.
It will save correspondence and the disappointment of delay if when you order you tell us your age, sex, color of hair, color of eyes, color of complexion, for what character you wish the makeup (youth, maturity, old age, advanced old age, or any of the possible character parts known to the stage); the nature of the play; whether for a large theatre or the more intimate small theatre or hall; if for moving pictures (which calls for a decidedly different makeup from all other stage work), and everything else bearing on this matter that you can think of. Always bear in mind when you order, that each box is fitted for one type of person only, and cannot be used indiscriminately by a brunette and a blonde and someone else who ranks between the two in coloring and type, and that in consequence each must have a personal makeup box of her own.
The Ned Wayburn Professional Makeup Box for a "straight" stage makeup for a blonde youth, suited to the use of a young woman with light hair, blue eyes and light complexion, in musical comedy, light opera or any dancing or speaking part in the usual stage performance, for presentation in a hall or theatre, with modern stage lighting facilities, is as follows:
The Box. Art steel, about 6⅜ in. wide by 9½ in. long, 5 in. high, with handle and lock and key. Strongly made on purpose to stand the wear and tear of travel and dressing room handling, and should last a lifetime. Have your name painted on it as soon as you get it, to make it your very own. It may be your frequent companion for many years.
One-half Pound Tin of Cold Cream. Usually Stein's, to which we give the preference, since it is slightly less hard and contains a little more oil than most of the others. This cold cream is the same for all types, blonde, brunette and the others.
One-half Pound Tin of Face Powder. Stein's No. 2. (Brunettes would use Stein's No. 2½ face powder.)
One Glass Jar Moist Rouge. Stein's medium. This medium lip rouge is suitable for blonde and brunette types. It is standard, can be bought anywhere, is always uniform and the colors run true. If you are ever in Chicago, visit Warnesson's. He specializes in lip rouge and makes a very good kind.
One Stick Foundation Grease Paint, Flesh. Stein's No. 2. (For brunettes, Stein's No. 3.) This is the large stick.
One Stick Grease Paint, Special Blue Lining Color. Stein's No. 11. For lining the eyes.
One Stick Grease Paint, Carmine. Stein's No. 18. Red foundation, for both blondes and brunettes.
One Box Mascaro, Black. Leichner's No. 60. For darkening the eyebrows.
One Package Cosmetique, Black. Roger and Gallet. For beading the eyelashes.
One Box Dry Rouge. Dorin, No. 18.
One Pink Velour Powder Pad. Gainsborough No. 350. This is about the finest procurable; is of large size, so it will not fall in the powder box and scatter the contents.
One Black Crayon Pencil. 6B Venus, American Pencil Co. For putting shadows under the eyes.
One Dark Blue Pencil. Faber No. 6625. For shading around the eyes.
One Orange Wood Stick. For applying beading to the eyelashes.
One Rabbit's Foot. Also called rouge paw.
One Baby Brush, with handle. For blending. Very necessary tool.
Paper Felt Liners, one package. To outline lips and to place red dots in corners of the eyes.
Cosmetic Stove, Lockwood's. For heating cosmetique to bead the eyelashes. This stove is approved by Fire Insurance Underwriters. It encloses a candle in a safe way and avoids the use of dangerous fuels in the dressing rooms.
One Mirror. 6x8 inches, in wood frame, with metal support. Will stand alone or serve as hand mirror. Strong, clear glass. The best to be had for its purpose.
MARY EATON
This completes the list of contents in the Ned Wayburn Professional Makeup Box, for a "straight" stage makeup, for young ladies. For other types and different characterizations the ingredients are changed to suit each case, while the price remains uniform.
There is but one necessity for completing the makeup that is not included in the outfit as given, and that is Liquid White, which comes in white or flesh. This is to be applied as a wash to exposed flesh not otherwise made up. It comes in liquid form only, and can be purchased locally in any first-class drug store. We know Suratt's make of liquid white to be good, and there may be others.
A towel, a cake of soap, a basin of water and a few yards of cheese cloth should be assembled before commencing makeup operations.
A makeup is easiest applied while seated at a table with your materials spread out conveniently before you. If possible, elevate your mirror so that you can see the reflection of your features without the necessity of bending over. Always make up in incandescent light, never in daylight.
When making-up is a matter of daily routine the clothing will become badly soiled in a short time if worn during the process. To save your costume, either wear a washable kimono over it, or better, don the kimono over undergarments and put on the costume after the makeup is applied.
In private lessons at our studios we teach all the required forms of stage makeup, taking every type of person that comes to us and developing each individually along such lines as the character or part demands. Men, women, and youth come to us here for development of their correct makeup in private lessons.
In our class instruction in this line of work only the "straight" makeup for youth is presented, that being the one our young lady pupils find especially adapted to their stage needs. These special classes are held as occasion requires to meet the students' demands, and are given in our own Demi-Tasse Theatre, connected with the studios. Usually a demonstration is made with a blonde, a brunette and a red-head, to show the class the different requirements of the different types. Following this demonstration, each member of the class puts on a makeup under the advice and constructive criticism of the teachers, until thoroughly versed in the art, as it applies to his or her own individual type.
Since the reader of this may not be coming to us for either private or class lessons, we will describe the correct manner of applying makeup in simple language that will enable the distant aspirant to learn all that may be learned by reading without the presence of a personal teacher.
You are now seated at your dressing table, your mirror at a convenient elevation in front of you and between two good lights, your lay-out of tools and materials spread on a towel on the table top, a kimono or other garment spread over your person. Now take a strip of cheesecloth three or four inches wide and tie around the forehead, back of the ears, and behind the neck; or one may use a close-fitting skull cap. Tuck in all straying locks. The idea is, of course, to keep powder, grease paint and cold cream from getting into and soiling the hair. Now you are going to apply makeup.
First stage. Cold cream. Apply this liberally all over the face from the hair line to the upper part of the throat, but not on the neck. Rub it in thoroughly to fill all the pores of the skin. Be careful to cover all the space around the eyes, also rub in on the eyelashes, using care to keep it out of the eyes, for it will cause stinging. Greasing the eyelashes this way makes the removal of the makeup much easier. Now rub your face with a piece of cheesecloth until all the superfluous cold cream has disappeared. If the face shines too much, you have not removed enough of the cream. The surface should give the appearance of being well oiled, but not have a sticky, pasty or greasy surface.
Second stage. Foundation Grease Paint. The quality of your makeup depends upon this. It will be smooth or rough according to the way you develop it. Rub the end of the grease paint stick several times on each cheek, once across the chin, once or twice on the forehead and once down the nose. Use the ends of the fingers and pat this into place rather than rub it, till it is thoroughly worked into all the surface you have just covered with the cold cream. Every pore must be filled with the grease paint. Do not apply it too thick, which would give the face a pasty, unnatural look. Do not forget underneath the chin. Do not apply it to the ears or behind them. Leave no streaks or neglected spots. Have it uniform all over. Blend the paint till the face has an even tone. Watch your mirror carefully. It is better to have the grease paint a little too thin on the face than too thick, but you will soon learn to get it just right, which is what you are aiming at.
Third stage. Under rouge; foundation red; Stein's No. 18 carmine. Make a few dots with the carmine grease paint stick on each cheek and on the end of the chin. Use but little, and blend it by patting with the first and second fingers of both hands, rather than by rubbing. Begin well up against the nose, go under and around the eyes, and toward the temples, working it down below the ear and off the jaw in case there is a hollow in the lower part of the cheek. The color should extend down on the cheek, over on the temple and well up to the eye, patted and blended till no one can see where the red fades into the foundation. The chin is then blended in the same way, to leave no line between foundation color and under rouge. If your chin is pointed, blend in front, not below, or it draws the chin way down. Put on a lighter makeup for a small, intimate theatre, and a heavier one for the large auditorium.
Fourth stage. Enlarging and beautifying the eyes. This is a very important detail of correct makeup, and is indispensable on every well-lighted stage, where even the most soulful orbs with long, thick lashes will dwindle to half their size and have a faded, dull appearance if not properly made up. It is essential that the two eyes match in every detail, and to secure this result will require the taking of considerable pains and close study of your mirror. Stein's No. 11 blue lining stick is for use by the blue-eyed, regardless of the color of the hair or complexion. Stein's No. 17, for the dark-eyed. Titian-haired folks use Stein's No. 21 purple for the same purpose. With this grease paint stick of the color suited to you, draw a line across the upper eyelid between the eyebrow and the eyelashes, as close as possible to the lashes. With the fingers blend this line into a shadow, making it dark close to the upper lashes. Either pencil can be used for this purpose also. Do not get the shadow up to the eyebrows, but cover all the upper eyelid, and a little beyond the eye at the outer corner. Use the Faber No. 6625 blue pencil or Venus 6B black for shading under the eye. Draw a line with it directly under the eyelashes, and with the fingers blend this into a shadow. Carried too far down this blue suggests illness, so be careful. The shadows thus placed above and below the eyes serve to outline them to the spectators in the theatre, where otherwise the eyes would practically disappear and not be seen at all owing to the strong footlights.
Fifth stage. "Fixing" the makeup. Powder No. 2 for blondes; No. 2½ for brunettes. The creamy tints are for the dark skins, the flesh and delicate pinks for the fair ones. Press the powder first on the chin. It is feminine instinct to start on the nose, but let your start in this case begin with the jaw or chin. Don't rub it in. Pat it on thick till the underlying paint is fully covered up. The powder absorbs the grease. From the chin work upward, reaching the nose after the pad has lost some of its original load, and the nose will not stare out so white on your face as it would if you began there first. Raise the eye and powder underneath; look down, and powder the space beneath eyebrow and eyelid.
Sixth stage. Smoothing off and blending. Use the baby brush for this; there is nothing else so good. It is surprising in its results. Do not press the brush too hard on the face; dust the surplus powder off carefully with a light touch, to leave no streaks or patches anywhere. If now the face has a greasy look, you have not used sufficient powder.
Seventh stage. High lighting. Take some of your No. 18 Dorin's dry rouge on the rabbit's foot and dust a very little on your cheeks. Do not press it down, just tickle about the edges of the rouge to be sure it blends perfectly with the foundation. If there is too much white about the nose, dust it lightly with the rabbit's foot. You can turn the paw around and blend with the end that is free of paint. Never show a white ear to the audience. If ears come into style again, as they will, the lobe and rim should be made a healthy pink, but not a strong red, with the rabbit's foot.
Eighth stage. Darkening the eyelashes and eyebrows. Use Leichner's No. 60 black mascaro; dark brown for light blondes. The lower lashes are better left without the treatment, since they are almost certain to smear the face if treated, and the shadow you have already placed there takes care of the lower lashes all that is necessary. Apply the mascaro to the upper lashes with the brush that comes with the mascaro, or any fine brush will do. Start a delicate line on the edge of the eyelid at the outer corner of the eye, let it curve slightly downward at the start. This line should not exceed half an inch in length and is never carried beyond the eye socket. Do not make the line heavy nor longer. A very little mascaro must be brushed lightly on to the eyebrows, following the curve of the upper eyelid. Fix the eyebrows carefully about three-quarters the size of the mouth, using black or brown mascaro according to whether your type is dark or light.
In this place we are going to tell you how to bead the eyelashes, but unless you are a professional actress and your part will be decidedly enhanced by having the eyes very much in evidence, we advise against your undertaking it. It is not a necessary stage in the makeup process, but it comes into the story of makeup naturally and we give it here for the benefit of those who may wish to make use of it. Beading the lashes consists in placing a small bead of cosmetique on the extreme tip of each lash. This is best done on the upper lashes only, leaving the lower ones free. The Lockwood Cosmetic Stove is a small affair that holds a piece of candle and a baby-size frying-pan, or skillet, and is one device for its purpose that has the approval of fire insurance companies and so will not be objected to by the theatre fireman. There are some heating devices that you are not permitted to use in any theatre, and persistence in their use after being once cautioned has caused arrest more than once.
CLASS IN STAGE MAKEUP AT THE NED WAYBURN STUDIOS
In this connection many interesting true tales might be told of principal actors being taken bodily from the stage in the midst of a play and landed in the local jail, causing the curtain to be lowered and the audience dismissed. The stage fireman, assigned to every first class theatre during a performance, has authority to enforce all ordinances intended to prevent fire and eliminate fire risk in playhouses, even to go to the extremity of arresting offenders against the public's safety. So be careful to use only a Lockwood Cosmetic Stove or some equally safe affair in your dressing room.
You light the candle, place a small amount of Roger and Gallet black cosmetique in the little pan and heat it over the candle flame till melted. Take up some of this molten cosmetique on the flat end of your orange wood stick and apply it with a deft quick stroke to the upper lashes, painting each one separately and without clotting, so that a little bead hangs to the tip of each upper lash. Use care not to drop any of the black on your makeup. The effect of this beading is to beautify the appearance of the actress by bringing out her eyes in a wonderful manner under the strongest of spot lights.
Ninth stage. Red dots in the inner corners of the eye. Dip the paper felt liner in the moist lip rouge and with it make a tiny red dot in the extreme inner corner of each eye, but on the lid—not in the eye—to space the eyes and make them look to be the distance of one eye apart. Keep these dots well away from the nose, or they will tend to make you look crosseyed from the front.
Tenth stage. Rouging the lips. Stein's moist lip rouge, medium. If the lips are left their natural color the footlights bleach them white and colorless. Shape the upper lip into a cupid's bow and round out the lower lip. Dip the little finger into the rouge and press it tightly against the lips, being careful not to smear it; open the mouth and draw the upper lip tight over the teeth. When necessary the upper lip can be shortened in appearance by blending and putting the cupid's bow a little higher. Do not put color on the lips beyond the angle of the nose, otherwise it will make your mouth appear very large. A blonde should not apply the rouge full strength, as it is too dark for her. The lips should not be heavily painted, and the line about the edges should be soft and smooth.
Eleventh stage. Finish with a little powder, dusting the face very gently, using a swan's-down puff. Put a very little powder on the lines about the eyes, but not enough to dull them.
Now look in your mirror with critical eyes. Your handiwork should have resulted in a velvety, soft yet rich complexion that will stand the strong lights of the modern theatre.
What you have just put on is known as a grease-paint makeup. There is also a cream makeup, so called, but it is less desirable for the modern professional stage. It fails to give the right effect for a real musical show with powerful lights. I have used both and do not hesitate to give this opinion based on my own experience.
There is also a dry makeup, with powder, known in theatrical parlance as a "lazy" makeup, suitable only for a "dumb" chorus girl who has no interest in her work, who comes in late and does not care whether she appears to advantage or not.
To complete any makeup, apply liquid white with a soft sponge to the neck, chest, arms and other exposed flesh that is not already made up. If, as in some of the modern revues, the legs are not covered with stockings or tights, they too must have an application of liquid white. To look right, any flesh that is exposed must be made up, because the lights bleach the exposed flesh, making it appear bloodless and giving one a gruesome, corpse-like color.
You are wise if in the matter of makeup you study your own face. Experiment, and note the results. When you are certain you have acquired the best for your own purposes, practice it often, till you can put it on properly and always with the same result. Don't seek to look made-up, ever, but to look your best for the part you are playing, always. If the makeup ingredients are in evidence to the audience you have not created the proper illusion and must practice making up until you acquire skill. It usually takes about one-half hour to put a good makeup on after you have perfected the process with your own features.
Removing Makeup. First remove the beads of cosmetic from the lashes. Then get rid of the little red spot in the inner corner of the eye. Work this toward the nose with cold cream. Then take plenty of cold cream on the fingers of both hands and massage the face thoroughly, to soften the makeup all over. Wipe it off with cheesecloth or an old towel, that you can throw away. Now wash the face with warm water and soap, dry thoroughly, apply a bit of powder, and you are all ready to dress.
SOME MAKEUP NOTES
You makeup for the lights of the theatre, which nowadays are very strong, and may come from many directions and in various colors. The switchboard controlling all the lights is in the first entrance of the stage, and the electrician in charge has his plots and cues all carefully planned for each act. He does not throw lights on or off for the fun of it or at his pleasure, but exactly as carefully designed and mapped by the show's producing director.
The front lights are those in the body of the house as distinguished from the stage. On the stage we have the footlights in red, white and blue, a row of each, and overhead are the border lights in the same three colors. There is the first border, second, third—sometimes even seven border lights, according to the size of the theatre stage. The spotlight is an arc light. It has usually a color wheel that revolves so that either red, blue, straw, light straw, or pink or any other color may be projected onto the "spot" on the stage that it is to illuminate and emphasize. There are dimmers for the footlights and the border lights. With these you can go from daylight effects to sunset, to moonlight, dawn, etc., with gentle gradation. There are two kinds of moonlights on the stage. Number 29 blue in the spotlight gives a summer moonlight; number 35 is best for a winter moonlight scene. Good gelatines, or "mediums" as they are called, are made by the Gelatine Products Company, in Brooklyn, or may be had from Kliegl Bros., the New York Calcium Light Co., the Display Stage Lighting Co., all first-class concerns in New York City.
Under strong blue lights the under-rouge in the makeup will come to the surface, which is not desirable, so get to your dressing room and powder your makeup down if you are going to be under a blue light. The makeup will stand a white spotlight or a pale yellow, but will not look well under too much blue and never well under green.
Put liquid white on with a soft sponge. Put this on only exposed flesh that is not otherwise made up, as the arms. Never put powder on the arms. It comes off on everything it touches. Liquid white is far preferable in every way.
The baby brush for blending facial makeup is one of the most important tools in the makeup box. If you try to buy one in a small town they will insist upon your buying a tray and comb, and everything else that goes with the baby set—everything, practically, but the baby. Better buy the outfit than try to go without the brush, but it is still wiser to supply yourself with the brush in time. You can buy it separately in the large cities.
Never put your mirror in your makeup box, for powder and grease will ruin the best mirror made. The mirror furnished with the Ned Wayburn professional makeup box is almost non-breakable; it is clear as well as strong, and in every way one of the best for its purpose. It will stand up where you want it.
Never makeup while in your street clothes or in stage costume. A drop of cosmetique on satin slippers or silk stockings will never come out. A washable kimono or bath-robe is the best garment to wear. Long fingernails will cut and ruin thin stockings. Don't ever wear the fingernails pointed.
In using the 6B Venus pencil to darken the upper eyelid, use the side and not the point of the pencil. Do not use a pencil sharpener, for it leaves too sharp a point. Keep your pencil free from grease. Wipe it often.
Rouge will fade under bright lights. Much depends upon the condition of one's health as to how long rouge will keep its color on the face. There will be certain times when rouge will disappear rapidly and you will have to renew the outer rouge, perhaps before the act is over.
Do not throw powder at your face, nor rub it in or smear it. Pat it on gently with the pad and use the blending brush.
The tiny dot of rouge placed in the inner corner of each eye is to fix the distance of the eyes apart. When the eyes are finished they should appear to be about the distance of one eye apart.
Rarely is makeup used in the nostrils. A big nose will look very wide if made up, but a small and very straight nose can stand a very little number 18 rouge in the nostril—not lip rouge, which would be too dark. But it is very seldom that the nostrils are made up.
Unless very careful in removing makeup, your face will feel raw and chafed when you go out in the wind. Take time and plenty of cold cream in the removal of makeup, and dry and powder your face before exposing it to outdoor weather.
If you wish to you can leave the mascaro on the eyelids, working over and under it in removing the rest of the makeup, and so use the mascaro on the street. On matinee days you will see shadowy eyes on Broadway, as some of the ladies of the cast keep the mascaro on till the evening performance.
$100,000.00 WORTH OF DANCING COSTUMES IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE.
STAGE COSTUMES
ON THE stage, as on the street, effective costuming is a matter of good taste. The dancer must be particular always to appear in a costume in keeping with the idea and character of the dance. The producer will be certain to adhere to this rule in all cases where the company supplies the stage costumes, as is customary. In vaudeville, or in a home-talent show, where the dancer furnishes the outfit, the same rule of fitness and appropriateness must be observed, or the resulting incongruity will greatly mar the presentation. Have your stage costumes prepared with the idea of creating proper atmosphere for the dance you are giving or the scene in which the dance appears.
There are special designers of stage costumes in all the large cities, here and abroad. Bakst, the Russian artist, is a name all have come to know because of the bizarre effects he creates for the stage. In London, Comelli was an outstanding name as costume designer for the Drury Lane productions; Erte, in Paris, and there are many others abroad. New York has several concerns of the first grade whose work along these lines is in evidence in the best theatres throughout the country and overseas.
The first step in costume making for the stage is made when the costume designer and the scenic artist are brought together under the producing director to arrange and settle upon a definite color scheme for each act and scene, so that colors of costumes and stage settings shall be in full harmony throughout. This is most important for the pictorial effects and is given careful study. With the color schemes effectively planned, there follows a further conference between producer and costume designer, in which plot, locale, atmosphere, characters, lyrics, music, and everything else with a bearing on the dance or play in contemplation is fully gone over and considered. The personality of the principals is given attention, and the various possible effects of the ensemble or chorus groupings, evolution and pictures are carefully planned, with regard to lights and color effects.
The designer thus consulted submits pencil sketches of his ideas. The next step is a water color design in the actual colors to be employed. The accepted costume plate in color becomes now the working basis for the actual process of manufacturing the garments. The cost of these color plates for each design is at least five dollars, but usually more, as high as $25.00 sometimes, before a garment is cut or a stitch taken, the price for a costume plate or design depending a good deal upon the standing or reputation of the designers.
Materials as well as colors are given careful thought. Sometimes the artist's design is made around a sample of the actual materials, though usually the color idea is developed first and the goods to be used in the garments considered later. The quality of the material for stage costumes should be the very best to be had regardless of cost. It is unquestionably true that the best is the cheapest in every way. Not only do costumes of cheap fabrics not hold together, and the colors fade out when exposed to the strong modern stage lights, and repairs and renewals become a frequent necessity, but the very people on the stage who are compelled to wear the inferior costumes are literally let down to a lower level in morale as a consequence.
A CORNER OF WARDROBE ROOM
It is human nature for a well-groomed man or woman, on the stage or off, to be in better spirits and a better mental attitude for the very reason that they are correctly attired. Cheap garments and inferior costumes detract from the dancer's ability to do the best work, however unconscious of this fact the dancer may be. So I contend that it pays to use the best material and employ the best workmanship, if only to keep the performers up to pitch and put the show over in a way that spells success.
Then, too, there is the audience to be considered. They know the difference between silk and cotton, and are quick to judge the show by the appearance of the costumes that greet them on the stage. It is little less than an insult to modern American audiences to expect them to pay modern prices for seats in the theatre and then parade a lot of second-rate costumes before them as your idea of something that will "get by" without detection or adverse comment.
The cost of costumes varies, of course, and the range is wide. Professional costumes worn in Broadway productions under my direction have been made for as little as $23.00 and as high as $1500.00 for an individual costume. Chorus costumes have been shown on Broadway costing $50.00 to $400.00 for each girl in the ensemble. However, a satisfactory chorus costume can be produced today for around $75.00 and that for a principal about $100.00.
There are large and satisfactory rental establishments in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and others of our prominent cities where costumes can be rented for almost any character of show, in single garments or for a complete production. In the east, among the best are Brooks or Eaves, of New York, and Van Horn of Philadelphia.
In the wardrobe department of the Ned Wayburn Studios there is carried a varied line of up-to-date costumes well over a hundred thousand dollars in actual cash value. There is one set of twelve dancing costumes there alone worth $4800.00, or approximately $400.00 per costume. Any of my stock of costumes is available on a rental basis for amateur shows when my organization is employed to stage the productions, and an expert wardrobe mistress goes along with the outfit to insure proper adjustment and fitting of all the costumes to their wearers.
The complete costume when rented from any concern includes headdress, bloomers and parasols (if the character calls for them), besides the gown or costume proper, but never includes wigs, shoes, stockings or tights, which must be purchased outright.
In our studio work and during the rehearsal period on the stage we recommend the Ned Wayburn rompers as a form of practice dress best suited for ladies' use, except in our foundation technique and acrobatic dancing classes, in both of which the bathing suit is given the preference.
MILDRED LEISY WEARING TYPE OF PRACTICE COSTUME WORN FOR BALLET DANCING.
POLLY ARCHER WEARING COSTUME (BATHING SUIT) FOR LIMBERING AND STRETCHING, AND ACROBATIC DANCING.
OLIVE BRADY WEARING PRACTICE ROMPER SUGGESTED FOR USE IN ALL CLASSES EXCEPT THOSE IN BALLET DANCING.
DANCING TEMPOS
ONE must possess an inherent sense of rhythm in order to become a successful stage dancer. To be able to walk or dance to music in perfect time, and find enjoyment in doing it, is one of the first essentials. I can tell by the way a person walks across the floor when an orchestra or any musical instrument is rendering a sprightly bit of dance music, whether or not the walker has the dancing sense that is so necessary to perfection in the art.