Ned Wayburn’s Acrobatic Dancing
THERE is a very decided distinction to be drawn between acrobatics pure and simple, and acrobatic dancing, which is quite another matter. It is, of course, acrobatic dancing that you see on the stage accompanying and accentuating the more formal dancing steps in musical comedies, revues, and spectacular performances, and it is this acrobatic dancing that receives wide attention in the teaching of the dancing art in the Ned Wayburn courses.
There are properly two divisions into which acrobatic dancing is naturally separated:
(1) Bending exercises; including the back bend, hand-stand, inside-out, front over, back limber, cartwheel, tinseca, nip-up, the various splits, and several more advanced feats that should be attempted only after thorough physical preparation.
(2) High-Kicking exercises; including all the so-called “legmania” varieties of dancing, which are best acquired by thorough preparation of the body in the Ned Wayburn foundation technique and studious attention to the drill in the Ned Wayburn Americanized ballet technique.
All of the acrobatic dancing tricks that are properly classified under bending exercises have for their foundation the back bend and the hand stand, as they are called, both of which must be mastered absolutely before attempting other and more complicated acrobatic exercises.
I want to go on record with the emphatic statement that acrobatic dancing must not be attempted except by those who are entirely and absolutely physically fit. The acrobatic dancer must possess unusual strength in the arms, in order that the weight of the body may be safely supported; and there must be strength and flexibility of the waist muscles and the abdominal muscles, and of all the muscles of the back and shoulders, to enable the performer to execute the front and back bends and their companion strenuous exercises. First, the pupil must have an unusual adaptability to this type of dancing, and then must prepare carefully and properly in advance of entering upon the real work of the course.
The best development comes from our limbering and stretching exercises. There is nothing else like it nor anything equally as good as a foundation for all types of dancing, and it is especially needed by the amateur entering upon an acrobatic dancing career. We have put literally thousands of pupils through this course, and every student of our acrobatic dancing classes who has taken this essential preliminary course has come through in fine shape.
You must be extremely careful if you have or ever have had any abdominal trouble. You must get the abdomen strengthened before you undertake any acrobatic work. If you have had an operation for peritonitis, appendicitis, hernia, or elsewhere in the abdominal cavity or region, you must, out of consideration for your own health, avoid any violent bending exercise. This does not imply that you should not exercise properly. You should, for it is easily possible to strengthen the tender muscles into a normal condition by suitable and systematic exercises.
Try this test: Lie flat on your back on the floor. Now, without aid of the hands or elbows or any outside assistance, bring your body to a sitting position. If you cannot do this, get your back muscles into training before you attempt any difficult exertion. If you succeed in your test, you can safely consider your abdominal muscles to be in sufficiently good condition to go ahead with acrobatic dancing.
Let me describe a few of the most common of the acrobatic tricks that all acrobatic dancers must know, and you will no doubt recognize them as being also favorite tumbling acts of boys and girls on the lawn. The most complicated and difficult acrobatic exercises are taught in full in the Ned Wayburn Studios, and are printed in detail, with simple instruction for their successful accomplishment, in the Ned Wayburn Home Study Course in Stage Dancing. The few we give you here are not difficult, and can be mastered at home by anyone who persistently practices and follows the descriptions with care.