Part 6

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

NED WAYBURN

THE ART OF STAGE DANCING

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.