The Art of Stage Dancing
by Ned Wayburn · English · Gutenberg #27367 · 662,756 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Art of Stage Dancing
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The Art of Stage Dancing
Author: Ned Wayburn
Release date: November 30, 2008 [eBook #27367]
Most recently updated: January 4, 2021
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27367
Credits: Produced by Roger Taft, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF STAGE DANCING ***
Produced by Roger Taft, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
The Art of Stage Dancing.
[Illustration: NED WAYBURN]
THE ART OF
STAGE DANCING
_The Story of a Beautiful
and Profitable Profession_
[Illustration]
A MANUAL
OF
STAGE-CRAFT
_by_
NED WAYBURN
Price $5.00
NEW YORK
The Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing, _Inc._
PUBLISHERS
[Illustration]
Copyright, 1925, by
NED WAYBURN
STUDIOS OF STAGE DANCING, INC.
Made in U.S.A.
GREETINGS!
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: NW]
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
[Illustration: NW]
An Apology
[Illustration]
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."
[Illustration: NW]
CONTENTS
Page
A Bit of Ancient History 19
Modern Stage Dancing 23
Ned Wayburn--An Inspiration 27
The Ned Wayburn Method of Training 42
Ned Wayburn Stage Dances 57
Ned Wayburn's Foundation Technique 62
Mr. Wayburn Addresses the Beginners' Class in Foundation Technique 75
Ned Wayburn's Musical Comedy Dancing 83
Mr. Wayburn Addresses a Class in Musical Comedy Dancing 90
Ned Wayburn's Tap and Step Dancing (Clogging) 97
Mr. Wayburn Addresses a Class in Tap and Step Dancing 103
Ned Wayburn's Acrobatic Dancing 108
Mr. Wayburn Addresses a Class in Acrobatic Dancing 115
Ned Wayburn's Modern Americanized Ballet Technique 121
Terms Used in Ned Wayburn's Modern Americanized Ballet Technique 130
Mr. Wayburn Addresses the Beginners' Class in Ballet Technique 132
Ned Wayburn's Toe Dancing 137
Ned Wayburn's Specialty Dancing 141
Ned Wayburn's Exhibition Dancing 144
Ned Wayburn's Professional Stage Makeup 146
Stage Costumes 165
Dancing Tempos 169
Diet and Dancing 178
Dancing and Good Health 195
Showmanship 198
"Who's Who" in the Show 203
Professional Coaching and Producing for Amateur Entertainments 216
Private Instruction 239
Experience 241
Inspiration 246
Atmosphere 251
Dancing Children 254
Dancing Hands 259
Dancing Feet 262
Dancing Shoes 265
The Quest of Beauty 270
Who's Afraid! (Stage Fright) 273
The Dance and the Drama 278
Personality in the Dance 280
Dancing and Ease of Manner 284
Dancing and Civilization 286
Dancing and Cheerfulness 290
Dancing and Country Life 293
Dancing as a Social Accomplishment 297
Universal Appreciation of the Dance 299
The Melting Pot of the Dance 301
Your Opportunities 303
Stage-craft 307
Making a Name 317
Forms of Stage Contracts 327
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.).
"The Birth of Venus." A Ned Wayburn Pantomime Presented in Leading
Motion Picture and Vaudeville Theatres.
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.
Mildred Leisy, recently with Geraldine Farrar's Operatic Fantasie,
"Carmen"; wearing type of costume favored for Ballet practice.
Polly Archer, late with the "Follies," wearing type of costume
(bathing suit) preferred for Limbering and Stretching and Acrobatic
Dancing.
Olive Brady, with "Ned Wayburn's Honeymoon Cruise," dressed in special
practice romper, designed by Ned Wayburn, recommended for use in all
dancing classes except the Ballet.
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).
Types of Dancing Shoes.
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.).
Fifteen Thousand Square Feet of Floor Space, Two Floors, Comprised in
Ned Wayburn's Studios of Stage Dancing, at Columbus Circle and
Broadway, New York.
_The
ART
of
STAGE
DANCING_
[Illustration]
_NED WAYBURN_
[Illustration: GILDA GRAY AND NED WAYBURN PUPILS IN "IT'S GETTING
DARKER ON BROADWAY," FOLLIES OF 1922]
THE ART OF STAGE DANCING
[Illustration: Overture]
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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: ONE VIEW OF GRAND BALL ROOM]
[Illustration: NED WAYBURN REVUE]
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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: CINDERELLA]
His fame is peculiar in that it is based so largely 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.
[Illustration: 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."
[Illustration: 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
Fete" at the Hotel Plaza, New York, for the Big Sisters charity,
December, 1923, and her "Persian Jazz Fete," 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, fetes and every other form
of entertainment that features beautiful, original or spectacular
dancing.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: NW]
THE NED WAYBURN METHOD OF TRAINING
[Illustration]
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,
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.
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.
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."
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _The Eight Different Directions_]
[Illustration: _Left Turn_]
[Illustration: _Right 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.
[Illustration: _Turning the Head_]
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."
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.
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."
[Illustration: ONE OF OVER TWENTY DAILY DANCING CLASSES AT THE NED
WAYBURN STUDIOS.]
[Illustration: _Inclining the Head_]
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.
[Illustration: _Diagram of Modern Theatre Stage_]
CONCERNING ENTRANCES AND EXITS
If 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.
[Illustration: _Correct Standing Position_]
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.
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.
[Illustration: _Movements of Eyes Only_]
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.
[Illustration: _The Four Different Parts 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.
[Illustration: _The Development of a "Tap" Dancing Step_]
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.
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.
[Illustration: VIVIENNE SEGAL]
The result is a harmony of rhythmical coordination 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 coordination, 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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: PAULETTE DUVAL AND NED WAYBURN PUPILS, FOLLIES OF
1923]
NED WAYBURN STAGE DANCES
[Illustration]
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
[Illustration]
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 coordinate in harmonious functioning all parts of the body
by an unconscious effort of the mind.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: NW]
Here are a dozen of the Ned Wayburn series of Limbering and Stretching
exercises selected from my Foundation Technique:
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: LOUISE GROODY]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: PARTIAL VIEW OF DEMI-TASSE THEATRE, NED WAYBURN
STUDIOS]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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."
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: NW]
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."
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: NW]
MR. WAYBURN ADDRESSES A CLASS IN MUSICAL COMEDY DANCING
[Illustration: NW]
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: ANN PENNINGTON]
NED WAYBURN'S TAP AND STEP DANCING
SOMETIMES CALLED CLOGGING
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: _Straight Tap_]
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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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."
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: PRIVATE LOCKERS IN DRESSING ROOMS]
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
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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 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
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: LINA BASQUETTE]
NED WAYBURN'S MODERN AMERICANIZED BALLET TECHNIQUE
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: 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 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.
[Illustration: _First Ballet Position_]
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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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
[Illustration]
_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.
[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF VENUS]
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
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: VIRGINIA BACON]
NED WAYBURN'S TOE DANCING
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: GILDA GRAY
[Handwritten] With sincere appreciation to Ned Wayburn whose producing
genius created the record breaking "Follies of 1922" Gilda Gray]
NED WAYBURN'S SPECIALTY DANCING
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: NW]
NED WAYBURN'S EXHIBITION DANCING
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: MAURICE]
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.
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
[Illustration]
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
con
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/27367