St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-20
AN AMAZON MARCH.
1t is a Very Difficult Thing for O
Manager to Design.

Manager to Design.
81 suppose that very few of the peo-
pie who have ever seen the marches of
ballet girls in spectacular productions
have stopped to think of the immense
amount of labor involved in the prepar-
alton of those Marches" said a we'll
known theatrical manager the other day
to New York Sun man. 1.-The aud
fence looks at the long lines of brill
iantly arrayed girls as they go through
the most intricate figures with never
thought of the work of the designer OF
the figures. The girls do their part
with such apparent ease that there
is no indication of the weeks Of toll
which were required to produce the
effect. Let me tell you how march
for the ballet girls is made: There are
only two OF three professional march
designers in this country and they prob
ably pursue different methods in get
ting up new figures. but will tell you
of the way went about it year ago
when / wanted to train some girls. L
had never given a thought to the fact
that it was one thing to train the girlS
to march and quite another one to de-
sign the figures. | told my stage mana
ger to train the girls for an Amazon
march, and thought that that was all
that was required. He asked me II
had any figures: | told him that l
hadn't. and he said that l would have to
get some for him before he could do
ANYTHING with the girls. / went to the
baIlet-master and asked him for some
figures. He told NE to call the next
day. | did so, but he said that he
wasn't quite ready for me yet. called
several times and he always had some
new excuse to offer. l went to another
balIet-master and had the same eXpe-
rience. They were evidently unwilling
to let any one have their figures. There
were no other men in the city to whom
could apply. SO | said to myself.
Il will invent some figures myself
After giving the matter some Thought
| l bought a set of poker chips and began
| my work. 1 took sixteen red chips and
sixteen white ones. Then L got down
on the floor and arranged the poker
chips in two long rows, a white row
| and redrow. Then Strengthened up
and locked at them. l tried hard to
imagine that the poker chips weree.girls,
| but | only partially succeeded. Down
| got again and began to move the chips
one at time into curious figures, but
| it was slow and unsatisfactory work. L
| found that would have to work with
other material. procured some large
beads and strung sixteen OF them on a
string, fastening them about an inch
apart. l strung sixteen beads Of an
other color in the same way. These
beads represented the thirty-tWo girls
who were to take part in the march.
| Then | began to arrange them in figures,
and when 1 had good one l made a
note of it. For over two months l
worked in this way with the beads and
the poker chips before l was satisfied
with the figures. handed the diagrams
to my stage manager, and with my help
and explanations he trained the girls.
This took two months more, but even
when they were perfectly drilled the
work was not over. 1t is never over.
The reason of this is that very frequetly
l either have to discharge one of the
girls OF She may leave Of her own ac-
cord. Then a new one-a raw recruit
has to be taken on and trained. 10
train one girl it is necessary to make
the entire thirty-two go through the
march over and over again. The next
time that any one proposes that l shall
start an Amazon march l will strike
him off my list of friends. have had
enouph Of it,