Art of Stage Dancing — Chapter 9: 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 . 00 in 24 weeks out of a salary of . 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