The Art of Stage Dancing Part 24

Macaroni and cheese; lettuce with French dressing; fruit gelatine pudding (clear).

DINNER

Beef or lamb stew with vegetables; 2 thin slices whole wheat bread; small pat b.u.t.ter; tapioca cream pudding; black coffee.

FRIDAY

BREAKFAST

1 peach, with 1 rounding teaspoon powdered sugar; shredded wheat with 1/2 cup milk; 2 thin crisp slices bacon; thin slice dry toast.

LUNCHEON

1 French lamb chop; 1 medium baked potato; lettuce with 1/2 tablespoon French dressing; lemon ice.

DINNER

Vegetable soup; broiled halibut or other white fish with lemon; 1 medium baked potato; 1 slice bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; French ice cream (small serving).

SAt.u.r.dAY

BREAKFAST

1/2 orange; 1 French roll; small pat b.u.t.ter; gla.s.s of skimmed milk.

LUNCHEON

Clam or corn chowder; 3 saltines; moderate serving peach or strawberry ice cream, or apple, cream, or custard pie.

DINNER

2 small lamb chops or 1 large one; tomato salad with French dressing; mashed turnips; 1 thin slice whole wheat bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; raw peach.

SUNDAY

BREAKFAST

1 banana; 3/4 cup cornflakes; 1/2 cup skimmed milk; 1 slice toast; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter.

LUNCHEON

Egg or chicken salad; 1 slice bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; 1 small piece loaf cake, or 2 plain cookies; tea with lemon, no sugar.

DINNER

Hamburger steak with tomato sauce (2 cakes); string beans or asparagus; 1 thin slice rye bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; gla.s.s of skimmed milk or coffee with skimmed milk; raw apple, orange or pear.

Note: If overweight is _excessive_ omit all desserts given in menus except raw unsweetened fruits.

Any one of the above breakfasts contains 350 calories of heat or energy. Any one of the above luncheons contains 500 calories. Any one of the above dinners contains 650 calories. The day's total will be 1500 calories.

You will no doubt be interested in hearing the story of a young lady, Miss Ann Constance, who came to me a little over a year ago to be reduced. She was sixteen years old, was five feet five inches in height and weighed one hundred and seventy-nine pounds. At the end of nine months, under the treatment I am recommending for those who are overweight, she tipped the scales at one hundred and nineteen pounds.

Her photographs, in this book, taken "before and after," will tell the story better than I can in words. Miss Constance is in better health today than she has ever been before in her life; and she has become an exceedingly good dancer--recently with the Greenwich Village Follies and at this writing just beginning a career in the movies with the Famous Players at their Long Island Studios. She is, however, only one of many girls whom my diets and exercises have helped.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANN CONSTANCE.

(Before she entered the Ned Wayburn Studios.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANN CONSTANCE.

(After she entered the Ned Wayburn Studios.)]

We have never failed in reducing any of our pupils who came to us for that purpose, but we have to have their cooperation, of course. Quite recently we had a very puzzling case that challenged the Sherlock Holmes in us, and I think it will interest you to know how we solved it.

A young lady of really huge proportions, resident of another city, called on me at the studio accompanied by her mother, and placed herself in my charge for reducing. I studied her, arranged a special diet for her and she entered the cla.s.s in limbering and stretching. I watch the progress of all my pupils, and expect them to record the change in their weights every week. I watched this young lady with especial care, and was dumbfounded to notice that she was steadily gaining in weight. She never lost a pound but kept on adding fat to more fat all the time, notwithstanding that she was working her head off in the cla.s.sroom--when she came to cla.s.s. She skipped seven lessons of the twenty in the first month's course, reporting for only thirteen, finally insisting that the lessons were not doing her any good.

I felt that there must be something wrong and wrote the mother of the girl about it, as she had requested me to do. She told me that the girl had a charge account at a certain hotel where she took her meals.

I asked the mother if it would be possible for me to get the meal checks signed by her daughter, which would show just what she had eaten. The meal checks were turned over to me. I found that the girl had been eating the prohibited things; that about once in two weeks she had followed my diet, and at every other time she had eaten everything she liked--enormous meals, consisting of starchy foods and all sorts of desserts--mostly sweets. I also found out that she had been taking some of the other girls at the studio along with her, fattening them up. The mother was inclined to be easy with the girl. I called her father's attention to the matter, because the girl paid no attention at all to me, and as far as I could see was hurting the school. Of course she was only fooling herself.

I insisted that we were not going to fail with her, and her father came to New York to see me. About this time the girl was taken ill, suffering with acute indigestion and finally the mumps. On my advice her father took her home. Lately I have heard from the young lady, and she wants to re-enter the school. If I decide to take her back, she will have to keep strictly to her diet and attend regularly, which I believe she is now ready to do, as she has gained much weight since leaving here.

Lillian Russell was a beautiful woman, with a personality and a stage presence. She was fond of the good things in life, and was obliged to watch carefully a tendency to embonpoint. She has gone on record as saying that lots of walking, lots of dancing, and two meals a day was all the reducing exercise she ever employed. She advised a light breakfast, no luncheon, and a good dinner, with no between-meals, no "piecing," no candy. The chief trouble with this plan is, that one is apt to become ravenous by dinnertime and over eat at that meal, and thus undo what you are attempting. The best way is to follow the Ned Wayburn diet faithfully, and take three meals each day, just as I have suggested.

DANCING AND GOOD HEALTH

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The dance is its own justification. It needs no excuse, nor do the many millions who share its delights need to be told how beneficial it is to them. They know that they are healthier and happier men and women, and therefore get more out of life and give more to others, because they dance. If the purpose of life is, in the words of an immortal doc.u.ment, the pursuit of happiness, surely those who train their bodies to move in harmony with natural laws are fitting themselves for capacity to enjoy all that life brings. To live well requires good physical health, for which a prime requisite is an abundance of pleasant exercise. Not alone to those who are free from the necessity of the various forms of exertion that are termed "work,"

but to every human being, exercise is as necessary as food. To those whose daily callings involve substantial physical labor, the need for exercise is just as great as for those of lighter employments. And nowhere can there be found so satisfactory a bodily exercise as in the dance. Sports, outdoor games, horseback riding, etc., have their place, but are available to a comparatively small percentage of all the people. Now that the introduction of the automobile has turned America into a nation of riders on soft cushions, the need for proper exercise has become more important than ever.

To live well, breathe well, sleep well, the body demands activities that will develop and strengthen it. The most delightful form in which this want can be supplied is in the dance.

The universal desire of mankind is for enjoyment; the qualification of physical, mental and aesthetic needs. To enjoy requires the possession of the Roman prime essential; a sound mind in a sound body. So closely are physical and mental health related, so complex the reactions of a disordered nervous system on bodily health, or the effect on the mind of physical weakness, that the wisest doctors do not pretend to say this illness is either wholly mental or physical. They do know that some violation of the laws of right living, some neglect to follow natural impulses, is chiefly responsible for the long list of ills that afflict mankind. And they are unanimously agreed that proper diets and an abundance of exercise are far better than cures; they prevent disease.

It is not necessary to go into physiological details to explain why the well-nourished body demands suitable exercise. That it does is an admitted fact. The question that confronts the millions who know that their bodily condition is not what it should be is: "What must I do to make myself stronger, and capable of enjoying life better?" The obvious answer is: "Dance."

In dancing there is found a form of exercise that stimulates circulation of the blood to the remotest finger tip; that develops, under proper training, every muscle; that aids digestion to perform its functions of supplying nourishment to every tissue of the body, and brings to the dancers the glow of vigor and animation. These effects of the dance have long been proved by the experience of millions of men and women. Other millions who have not yet tried it will sooner or later make the experiment. They will find that life takes on a new outlook, that instead of listless indifference they are actively interested in many things that they formerly ignored; that with restored bodily vigor they have quickened minds and better appreciation of all their daily contacts with their fellows, and that they are enjoying each day's existence with a zest never known before.

The dance is a physical, mental and moral upbuilding. It brings a greater capacity for success in the daily tasks and duties. It stimulates and restores. It shows the door to the glooms and welcomes gladness. It brings self-confidence in undertaking new enterprises, and banishes the mental depressions that result from bodily ills. It forms new circles of agreeable companions, and affords opportunities for congenial friendships. It avoids wasted expenditures for nauseous drugs and doctor's bills. It puts humanity in harmony with fundamental natural laws, and makes of all who resort to it healthier, happier and better men and women.