The Art of Stage Dancing Part 8

Exhibition dancing const.i.tutes 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 cla.s.ses 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 compet.i.tion 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

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLa.s.s 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 a.s.surance 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s work of the day after.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NW]

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUISE GROODY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXERCISE 9.