Ned Wayburn’s Exhibition Dancing
WHAT is technically known as Exhibition Dancing is an exaggerated form of the usual social or ballroom dancing. It is “team” work, performed by two, a man and a woman, and is never given as a solo dance, by a single artist.
There is no end to the styles of dances that may be employed in exhibition work. The public is thoroughly familiar with those most often presented to view in public and private ballroom, at social or other functions, which are either the Exhibition Fox Trot, the Exhibition One Step, the Tango, the Exhibition Waltz or the Whirlwind dance.
This by no means covers the possible field. Its limitations are measured only by the ability of the “team,” and the popularity that demands this or that style of dance, as the fickle public fluctuates in its preference.
An exhibition dance of whatever nature must have an element of the spectacular and theatrical in its presentation in order to appeal. The dancers must inject some surprise steps in an effective place, throw in a little “tricky” stuff that is new or startling—do something neat and out of the ordinary to make the dance qualify as “Exhibition” and not just the usual every-day type of some well-known form of the dance.
Among the best-known exponents of exhibition dancing one naturally recalls Vernon and Irene Castle, Maurice and his several partners, Florence Walton, Leonora Hughes and Barbara Bennett, as well as the “teams” of Clifton Webb and Mary Hay, and Basil Durant and Kay Durban. All these and many other professional exhibition dancers have amply succeeded in their efforts to please the public, and have found the financial returns to be most satisfactory. It is a very profitable line of work for dancers of the right qualifications.
Exceptional personality is essential, as well as great skill in the art of dancing, and less than a commanding supremacy will not suffice to carry the work through to a successful issue. Yet there is a large field here, open to many who may not as yet even dream of their adaptability to such a career as this suggests.
It has been my pleasure to assist in the direction of every exhibition dancer whose name I have quoted above. Some of them received their first impetus along this line from me, followed my advice and instruction, and in consequence became internationally famous and successful. I am still taking those well adapted to this line and putting them in the way they should go. I know the type of person best qualified to make a success in exhibition dancing, and if those I select will be guided by my experience and knowledge there is no reason why they should not reap the rewards their merit earns, as well as those I have named have done.
There is a knack in acquiring the necessary ability as a dancer of this type that not every instructor is able to impart. I do not teach exhibition dancing in classes in my studios. Individual private lessons is the only successful way, and that is my way. Most other forms of dancing are learned as well or even better in classwork.
I doubt if exhibition dancing will ever be overdone. It is popular, and good dancers for this line of work are not too numerous. So it seems likely to be in continued demand indefinitely.
THE Ned Wayburn Courses teach every form of stage makeup, for men as well as for women, and for every known character part as well as the “straight” makeup for youth. To put all the expert professional makeup knowledge into this book would be to practically crowd out everything else or so enlarge the volume as to make it cumbersome. To avoid this and at the same time meet a strong public demand, I have in contemplation a book devoted exclusively to this important subject, that shall post a world of waiting aspirants for stage honors in every detail of the art of correct makeup. Meanwhile, the subject has an important bearing on the art of stage dancing and so demands a prominent place in this present work.
I have, therefore, chosen for demonstration here the one most popular stage makeup, which is that adapted to the use of the professional stage woman in every modern theatre, opera house and music hall, and am here giving it a complete and thorough exposition. In presenting this form of makeup thus prominently, I do not wish in any degree to convey the idea that men and male youth are ignored in our studio teaching of makeup, and that our sole concern is to make the young woman presentable on the stage. This is not the fact. We teach makeup to men as well as to women, and every correct form of the art.
Do not confuse a stage makeup with the customary society makeup that milady applies in her boudoir. They are two entirely different problems.
To makeup correctly for the modern stage, with its multiple lights of great intensity and all the colors of the rainbow, requires special study of yourself individually and a knowledge of what effects the various lighting schemes will produce on the human countenance.
Three ladies standing side by side on the same stage may require three different makeups, depending upon their types, in order to appear at their best to the audience. The brunette, the blonde, the auburn-haired, each needs a different treatment, and if through ignorance or indifference any omits proper attention to a single item of the very important detail of her facial makeup, the result will be disastrous. All of which emphasizes the need of one’s being properly taught on the start just how to makeup in a manner to bring out one’s personality, to enhance one’s beauty, and create the most pleasing appearance before her audience. We are now speaking, of course, of the woman who is to appear in a youthful part; character makeup is an entirely different proposition, with which we are not concerned here.
It is impossible to go on the stage today without makeup. Should any actress try to do so, the appearance of her features would be almost deathlike. She would be repulsive to the eyes of the audience, a condition that neither she nor the producer of the show would tolerate. The very lights that render superbly beautiful the person with proper makeup cause the bare flesh to lose its natural tints, cast shadows under the brows and above the face, create hollows where they do not exist and are not wanted, and utterly destroy the pleasing picture.
Makeup, then, is one of the first essentials to stage success, and it makes no difference how truly beautiful you may be in features and natural coloring off the stage, the fact persists—you must makeup, and makeup right.
But the uninstructed amateur, whose sole knowledge of makeup is confined to the boudoir, is very prone to overdo in her maiden attempts at stage makeup, and so disastrously decorate her face that under the unaccustomed and little understood lights of the theatre she appears hideous to the folks out in front. And this is especially true of the most beautiful type of women, who think they know, and don’t.
Anyone with regular features can learn to apply makeup so that on the stage she will be as prepossessing as her naturally more favored sister-woman. A beauty unadorned by facial makeup, or a beauty not properly made-up, will be far outclassed in apparent beauty on the stage by the plainer woman who has mastered the art of makeup and knows how to apply it judiciously and correctly. It is all in knowing how, and the learning is not difficult. The professional actress will not fail to obtain personal instruction in this art from expert teachers, which is decidedly the best way. Pupils in our studios avail themselves of our classes and private lessons in makeup and in doing this lay a foundation of invaluable knowledge that will continue with them through life. The aspirant or amateur who for personal reasons cannot come to our studios for this instruction will absorb much of value by a perusal and study of this chapter. For, while it is not possible to advise an unseen person, whose type you do not know, with the same exactness as you could if she stood before you, there is much here that is general in its application to all types, and the care we are taking to make our information broad enough to cover all these greatly simplifies matters for the absent students.
There are two steps to a correct knowledge of your personal needs in the makeup art: First, what to use; and second, how to use it.
I am going to start you right on both of these steps.
Any actress of experience will tell you that her most valuable stage possession is her Makeup Box. It contains the necessary tools of her trade, without which she would be helpless to carry on. It is to her what the brush and colors and palette are to the painter; the needle and thread to the seamstress; the hammer and saw and plane to the carpenter. Before you enter upon a stage career supply yourself with a complete makeup box equipped with all the needed tools and ingredients for making up for the part you are to assume. This is a necessary purchase, and will prove one of the best paying investments you ever made.
Ordinarily a makeup box stocked with the best materials will cost about $12.00 and is not extravagantly expensive at that price. So many of our students sought our advice as to their purchases in this line, as they left our studios for the professional stage, that we fitted out a line of makeup boxes, completely stocked, for each complexion type, which we are selling to them over the counter at $9.50. The actual cost to us of each set is about eight cents more than we sell it for; plainly indicating an absence of grasping commercialism in our nature, for which we hope and expect due commendation.
THE NED WAYBURN PROFESSIONAL STAGE MAKEUP BOX AND OUTFIT
A—black cosmetique. B—black mascaro. C—baby brush. D—black crayon pencil. E—dark blue pencil. F—carmine grease paint. G—blue lining grease paint. H—foundation grease paint. I—orangewood stick. J—paper felt liners. K—cosmetic stove. L—pink velour powder pad. M—face powder. N—cold cream. O—dry rouge. P—rabbit’s foot. Q—moist lip rouge. R—art steel box. S—special mirror.
Buying expertly and in quantities has enabled us to get together this Ned Wayburn Professional Makeup Box of the best stuff in the world for its purpose, some of the ingredients being made in America, others in Paris, and still others in Berlin,—all standard goods and used every day in the year in every theatre of the civilized world,—and at the same time keep the cost to our students down below a ten dollar bill. (Applause.) We thank you.
Now we are getting orders for our professional makeup box to be sent by mail and express to professionals and amateurs throughout this continent, and while we are glad to accommodate all who honor our own profession by their presence in it, please do not expect us to do so at cost. It is one thing to hand a box over the counter, and quite another to pack that box for shipment so as to conform to established requirements by the government post office or the express companies, prepay postage, insure it, and deliver it to the New York postal authorities. So we have put a price of $10.95 on this makeup outfit for parties who do not call for it in person at our studio, with postage extra, according to the zone in which you reside, if it goes by mail. We would rather send it by express and let you pay the charges for carriage at your end, if it is all the same to you. The weight of this outfit packed for shipment is about seven pounds. We insure it in transit at $10, which adds a few cents to its cost to you.
It will save correspondence and the disappointment of delay if when you order you tell us your age, sex, color of hair, color of eyes, color of complexion, for what character you wish the makeup (youth, maturity, old age, advanced old age, or any of the possible character parts known to the stage); the nature of the play; whether for a large theatre or the more intimate small theatre or hall; if for moving pictures (which calls for a decidedly different makeup from all other stage work), and everything else bearing on this matter that you can think of. Always bear in mind when you order, that each box is fitted for one type of person only, and cannot be used indiscriminately by a brunette and a blonde and someone else who ranks between the two in coloring and type, and that in consequence each must have a personal makeup box of her own.
The Ned Wayburn Professional Makeup Box for a “straight” stage makeup for a blonde youth, suited to the use of a young woman with light hair, blue eyes and light complexion, in musical comedy, light opera or any dancing or speaking part in the usual stage performance, for presentation in a hall or theatre, with modern stage lighting facilities, is as follows:
The Box. Art steel, about 6⅜ in. wide by 9½ in. long, 5 in. high, with handle and lock and key. Strongly made on purpose to stand the wear and tear of travel and dressing room handling, and should last a lifetime. Have your name painted on it as soon as you get it, to make it your very own. It may be your frequent companion for many years.
One-half Pound Tin of Cold Cream. Usually Stein’s, to which we give the preference, since it is slightly less hard and contains a little more oil than most of the others. This cold cream is the same for all types, blonde, brunette and the others.
One-half Pound Tin of Face Powder. Stein’s No. 2. (Brunettes would use Stein’s No. 2½ face powder.)
One Glass Jar Moist Rouge. Stein’s medium. This medium lip rouge is suitable for blonde and brunette types. It is standard, can be bought anywhere, is always uniform and the colors run true. If you are ever in Chicago, visit Warnesson’s. He specializes in lip rouge and makes a very good kind.
One Stick Foundation Grease Paint, Flesh. Stein’s No. 2. (For brunettes, Stein’s No. 3.) This is the large stick.
One Stick Grease Paint, Special Blue Lining Color. Stein’s No. 11. For lining the eyes.
One Stick Grease Paint, Carmine. Stein’s No. 18. Red foundation, for both blondes and brunettes.
One Box Mascaro, Black. Leichner’s No. 60. For darkening the eyebrows.
One Package Cosmetique, Black. Roger and Gallet. For beading the eyelashes.
One Box Dry Rouge. Dorin, No. 18.
One Pink Velour Powder Pad. Gainsborough No. 350. This is about the finest procurable; is of large size, so it will not fall in the powder box and scatter the contents.
One Black Crayon Pencil. 6B Venus, American Pencil Co. For putting shadows under the eyes.
One Dark Blue Pencil. Faber No. 6625. For shading around the eyes.
One Orange Wood Stick. For applying beading to the eyelashes.
One Rabbit’s Foot. Also called rouge paw.
One Baby Brush, with handle. For blending. Very necessary tool.
Paper Felt Liners, one package. To outline lips and to place red dots in corners of the eyes.
Cosmetic Stove, Lockwood’s. For heating cosmetique to bead the eyelashes. This stove is approved by Fire Insurance Underwriters. It encloses a candle in a safe way and avoids the use of dangerous fuels in the dressing rooms.
One Mirror. 6x8 inches, in wood frame, with metal support. Will stand alone or serve as hand mirror. Strong, clear glass. The best to be had for its purpose.