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.



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."



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.



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.



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.



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.

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.



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.



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."



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.

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.



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 cooperate 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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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 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 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 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 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 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.

Assemble—To bring the feet together.

Attitude—A posture executed with both feet on the floor.

Balance—A combined slide (glisse), closing of the feet, rising on the toes and lowering of the heels.

Changement de Pied—Changing the position of the feet.

Chasse—A chasing step in three movements: Slide (glisse), cut (coupe), slide (glisse).

Ciseaux—The scissors step: A point and swing with one foot while hopping twice on the other.

Coupe—To cut.

Degager—To sway; to transfer.

Demi Pas de Basque—A half or incomplete pas de basque.

Ecarte—To jump from a closed position, open the feet in the air, and land in a closed position.

Echappee—(Escaped.) Any changement done on the toes.

Elever—To rise on the toes.

Entrechat—To spring into the air and change the position of the feet as often as possible before landing.

Fouette—A swinging of the leg.

Frappe—To stamp the foot.

Glisse—To slide.

Glissade—Three movements combined: Elever (to rise on the toes), glisse (to slide), assemble (to close the feet).

Grand Battement—High beating.

Jete—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) Glisse—to slide; (4) Tourne—to turn; (5) Tortiller—to twist; (6) Battu—to beat; (7) Saute—to hop; (8) Jete—to leap; (9) Coupe—to cut.

Pas—A step.

Pas Ballonne—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, jete (describe half circle in air with leg, leap); glisse (slide); coupe (cut).

Pas de Bourree—(Stuffing step.) Three little steps on ball of the foot.

Pas de Chat—(Cat step.) Four sideward movements: Leap, slide, step, step.

Pas Marche—(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 assemble in front with the leg that did the hop.

Petit Battement—Low beating.

Petit Battement avec Port de Bras—Low bending [Transcriber's Note: beating?] 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.

Saute—To hop.

Step—A placing of the foot in any direction and transferring the weight onto it.

Terre a Terre—A series of pas de bourrees 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 Jete—Jete with a turn; one step sideward to right, one leap and complete turn; one step sideward onto right foot.

Tour Saute—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.



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.



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.