The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Art of Stage Dancing, by Ned Wayburn.

I know Ned Wayburn well. He is a king and a thoroughbred, as man or as manager, and to know him is to esteem him.

His fame is peculiar in that it is based so largely28on 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.

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."

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 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.

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.

“NED WAYBURN’S HONEYMOON CRUISE”

—an elaborate junior musical comedy, adapted for vaudeville, with a cast of dancers, principals and ensemble, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios. This act, the highest priced in vaudeville, started on tour in January, 1924, and broke all box-office records of the Poli Theatres in New England, as well as those of many other theatres on the Keith-Albee Circuit, including the premiere vaudeville theatre of the world, Keith-Albee Palace Theatre, New York, and the new $7,000,000 Earle Theatre in Philadelphia. It is still breaking records, and is one of the most sought-after acts in vaudeville.

“NED WAYBURN’S DEMI-TASSE REVUE”

—another headline act, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios. Now on the Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.

The opening engagement at Bridgeport broke the attendance record of the Palace Theatre there and the same results followed at New Haven, Hartford and Worcester, when the audiences and newspaper critics alike declared the Revue even better than Ned Wayburn's "Honeymoon Cruise," which had previously held the attendance records in those cities.

“NED WAYBURN’S SYMPHONIC JAZZ REVUE”

Another new production, also composed of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios—touring the principal motion picture theatres in the Middle West and also Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.

Staged the dances for Geraldine Farrar in an Operatic Fantasie—"Carmen" (all the dancers in this production being pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios).

SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY AND PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENTS

For Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, 2nd, devised and staged her "Mah Jong Fête" at the Hotel Plaza, New York, for the Big Sisters charity, December, 1923, and her "Persian Jazz Fête," December, 1924.

The Princeton Triangle Club's Musical Comedy, "Drake's Drum" last year and "The Scarlet Coat" this year.

The Filene Store's musical comedy, "The Caddie Girl," Colonial Theatre, Boston, in April, 1924, and "Barbara Lee," in April, 1925, presented at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, for one week, with Leah Ainsworth, a Ned Wayburn pupil, in the title role.

Penn. State College Thespian Club's Show, "The Magazine Cover Girl" last year, and "Wooden Shoes" this year.

The Third Annual Masonic Fashion and Home Exposition at Madison Square Garden, New York, May, 1924.

Elaborate entertainments for the Willys-Overland Company, at the Hotel Biltmore, New York (three years).

Jewelers' 24-Karat Club Annual Entertainment at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York (three successive years).

A Musical Revue for the New York Edison Co., 1925 (so successful it had to be repeated).

The Massachusetts "Tech" Show, "The Duchess of Broadway" (1925),—and a great many other society, charity, masonic and church entertainments.

It is out of this amazingly wide and varied experience that Ned Wayburn evolved the courses in stage dancing, stage-craft and showmanship which are being taught with such great success today at the Ned Wayburn Studios.

Ned Wayburn is known to thousands as the genius who staged the very best editions of "The Follies" and "Midnight Frolics" at the New Amsterdam Theatre, N.Y. But in the world of the theatre—among those who know—he is recognized as America's foremost creator, producer and director of musical comedies, revues, headline vaudeville productions, motion picture presentations, fêtes and every other form of entertainment that features beautiful, original or spectacular dancing.

THE NED WAYBURN
METHOD OF TRAINING

THERE are five basic types of stage dancing that I teach, covering the modern field in full, and supplying the pupil with a complete knowledge of all the steps needed for a successful stage career.

These five types consist of:

Musical Comedy Dancing,
Tap and Step Dancing (Clogging),
Acrobatic Dancing,
Exhibition Dancing (Ball-room),
Modern Americanized Ballet Dancing.

The last named includes all the best variety of ballet dances, such as toe, classical, character, interpretive, oriental, folk, national, 43 covering Spanish, Russian, Greek, Javanese, etc.

Instruction is given in any or all of the above to beginners, advanced amateurs, professionals and teachers, and is preceded in every case by the Ned Wayburn Foundation Technique, which includes my limbering and stretching process, and is one of the most important courses ever devised for the student of dancing in that it saves years of study. This original technique is described in a succeeding chapter.

In addition to the types of dancing mentioned above, we also give instruction in the art of making up for the stage.

Accompanying the technical instruction, each class and pupil receives without cost the benefit of the valuable stage-craft, managerial and producer's knowledge that I have acquired during my years of activity in the theatrical world. This is given in occasional lectures or inspirational talks before the class. Students also, when duly fitted, will be informed as to where and how to obtain engagements, correct forms of contract to be entered into, and other valuable business information concerning the practical side of selling their services to the best advantage, saving them much time and possible embarrassment and loss.

Another important qualification for the stage dancer, which if not possessed at its fullest may be acquired under our instruction, is a sense of direction. This sense of direction is of maximum importance in stage dancing, because, as you can readily understand, since you have your audience in front of you and to your left and your right, you must do your dances so that they will appeal to all sections of your audience. And there are certain stage directions which you must know in order to grasp my method of instruction.

Your Place That you may get absolute precision in direction, let us proceed as follows: Imagine that you are standing on a stage, in a circle the diameter of your own feet; we will call that circle "your place."

Divide the stage into eight different directions. You are now facing the "front." Face the "left," the "back," the "right," and then "front" again. That makes four directions—front, left, back and right. Face half-way to the left—that is called "left oblique." Face half-way to the back—that is called "left oblique back." Now face back. Face half-way to the right—that is called "right oblique back." Now face half-way to the front. That is called "right oblique." That makes eight different directions, very easy to memorize and never forgotten after once learned, and you will employ them in your stage work every day. That they may become familiar with the necessary directions, students are given brief instructions at their first lesson, as I stand before them and take the turns with them and announce the name of each direction as I take it.

Left Turn In making the turn from wall to wall, when you turn to the left around, you should turn on the right heel, which thus acts as a pivot and keeps you in "your place"; like this—left oblique, left, left oblique back, back, right oblique back, right, right oblique, and front. In going around to the right turn on the left heel. Fix these directions firmly in your mind. You will need them when you get into stage dancing.

Right Turn The eight different directions are in eight counts. The first direction to the left is left oblique. That is counted "one." Left is "two." Left oblique back, "three." Back, "four." Right oblique back, "five." Right, "six." Right oblique, "seven." Front is "eight."

Turning
the Head All of our steps are taught in counts of eight. We begin to count from one and go as far as eight, then repeat. We count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or we count "1-and, 2-and, 3-and, 4-and, 5-and, 6-and, 7-and, 8-and," as may be required. After the steps have been taught by counts and learned properly, through much patient practice, they are fitted to music.

Inclining
the Head Without turning the rest of the body, turn the head sharply to the left wall, so that your face is square to the wall. You are now looking left. Look front. Look to the right (square around). Look front. Look left oblique. Front. Right oblique. Front. Now throw the head back and look up (without straining the muscles of the neck)—hold the head at an angle of about 45 degrees. Your head should not be tilted to one side, but straight back. Now look "front" again—now "down," now "front." There is a difference between turning it to the left or right and inclining to left or right. Incline your head to the left shoulder—hold your face up a little and keep it square to the front—chin high—now incline your head to the right shoulder—up straight—now turn it to the left (around as far as you can)—turn it front—turn it to the "right"—turn it "front"—throw it "back"—look up, now "front"—drop "down" and now "front."

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.

Standing Correct Standing
PositionIf you come in sight of the audience from that side (indicating left) you are making an entrance from the left. If you leave in that direction, you are making an exit to the left. It is an artistic feat to make a good exit. It requires not only specialized training, but also practical experience in front of an audience. It may be a vocal exit, a dramatic or spoken exit, or a dancing exit, and one must reach a decided climax at the exit. If the dance consists of eight steps, properly spaced, the most effective steps are put in where they will provoke applause. The last or finish step must get the most applause or the dancer fails. So we put a climactic "trick" step in for a finish, and then we top that with the exit, and the exit must be a surprise. Otherwise, the dance has not built up from the time the dancer makes an entrance and gets the attention of the audience. So making an effective exit is really a difficult thing to do. You are taught in the advanced instruction how to enter and exit properly.

One draws the applause on the eighth step by assuming a certain attitude or by "striking a picture" which asks the audience for the applause, and on the exit another round of applause can be earned, and in this way the dance "gets over," or is "sold" to the audience, as we say in the show business.

Now face the right, please. If you make an exit on that side you are making an exit to the right. If you come on from that side (meaning if you come in sight of the audience from that side) you are making an entrance from the right.

The proper way to stand to learn my kind of stage dancing is with the left toe pointed left oblique, and the right toe right oblique. Have your knees together, heels together, with the weight equally distributed between the feet, hands down at the side, arms relaxed, heads up and direct your gaze straight ahead on a line with your eyes.

Never recognize anyone over the footlights. Always look straight front on a line with the eyes. Never look at the floor when dancing unless specifically so instructed. To look at the floor while dancing gives an audience the impression that you have no confidence in yourself and that you are laboring to perform your dance.

In dancing, the head and arms and upper part of the body (torso or trunk) are as important as the feet and legs.

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.

Tapping the toe of the left foot to the floor makes the first count; stamping the ball of the left foot, the second count; the heel of the left, the third count; and the flat of the entire foot the fourth count. These four different parts of the foot become an exercise by counting 1, 2, 3, 4, with the left foot, and 5, 6, 7, 8, with the right foot, beginning with the right toe on the count of 5. This exercise if practiced faithfully will give flexibility to the muscles and ligaments that control the entire foot, all of which are used in musical comedy dancing, for the American tap, step and specialty work (clogging), for social or ballroom dancing, for exhibition dancing, as well as in the acrobatic dancing work, and for my Americanized ballet training, including toe dancing.

Do this exercise first with the left foot, then with the right foot, to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and practice it often, till it becomes a perfectly natural action. It is the basis of the best "bread and butter" dancing steps, as you will discover in later lessons.

In doing this exercise, remember that in dropping the toe to the floor it must be placed straight back, and not left or right oblique back; straight back from the "place" where you stand. The knees should be kept together. When you stamp the ball of your foot, the feet are directly opposite each other.

I want you to note that each of the four movements of this exercise has a distinct sound. The dropping of the toe, the stamping of the ball of the foot, of the heel, and of the flat foot, each creates a separate and distinct sound. I have named these sounds "taps," and it is the various combinations of these sounds that are used so effectively in musical comedy dances, in tap, step, and American specialty dancing (sometimes called clogging), as well as in some of our choicest acrobatic dancing.

Some of our pupils are apt at tap and step dancing, others are more apt at ballet dancing, musical comedy or acrobatic dancing. Some of our young ladies take four classes a day; some take three; others two; and still others but one class a day. In addition to this, there are pupils, among them a great many young gentlemen, who take private lessons in their chosen style of dancing every day while some only take one private lesson a week.

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.

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.

NED WAYBURN STAGE DANCES

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

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.

Here are a dozen of the Ned Wayburn series of Limbering and Stretching exercises selected from my Foundation Technique:

EXERCISE 1.
For limbering and stretching the triceps,
and loosening the waist line along the sides.

Stand erect, head up, heels together, arms down at sides, raise right arm straight up over the head. Bend body to left as far as you can, sliding left hand down the thigh. Return to erect position, then with left arm raised bend to right. Alternate left and right eight times to count of "one, lean; two, lean," etc.

EXERCISE 2.
For loosening the dorsi and abdominal muscles,
developing muscles of chest and waist line.

Stand erect, chin in, heels together, toes pointed out, raise left arm straight over head, right arm down at side. Swing right hand up over head also, and lean the body right oblique. Swing both arms down, then up and lean left oblique. Do this for eight counts of "one, lean; two, lean," etc.

EXERCISE 3.
For limbering muscles of the back, biceps of the legs,
developing abdominal muscles and reducing waist line.

(Forward bend.) Raise both arms straight over head the width of the shoulders apart, heels together, knees stiff. Bend forward and touch the floor with the palms of both hands, if you can, if you cannot, then with the ends of the fingers. Raise arms again over head and lean back as far as you can. Count "one, touch; two, lean," etc., to a count of eight.

EXERCISE 4.
For making the waist line flexible.
It limbers the muscles of the thighs and back.

Stand erect, both hands above head, arms stiff. Keep hands in this position throughout, step left foot straight forward, bend the body back as far as you can. Then body erect and left foot returned to position. Step right foot front, bend back again. Alternate with each foot for eight counts: "left, lean, straight, in; right, lean, straight, in," etc.

Stand erect, knees stiff, heels together, hands on hips. Rise on the toes; down, up, down, etc., for 48 counts.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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."

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