New Britain herald., 1926-03-23

appeal to the American youthful spirit in this syncopation which is unknown in Europe. Paris and London have gone wild over jazz; yet they don't respond to 1t as we do.
 "W1HEN am teaching boys and girls
 W to dance in my productions, the first thing 1 do Is to overcome their self-consciousness. tell them to imagine they are in the night clubs dancing for their own enjoyment.
 "Don't worry about the intricate steps, tell them; if you make hard work of 1t, you're going to be rotten. Relax. Hsrmonize with the rhythm of the music. Let yourself go; just sway and yield to the measures, and the hard steps will come to you easily ss.eugh.' "An audience senses at once when the chorus is Haboring' at their dancing. It enjoys a feature or so of hard, tech nical dancing, but it would not only be bored to death by whole evening of such work.-it would react to the weari- ness of the boys and girls on the stage and would feel restless and uneasy without knowing what was the matter with it.
 Every large musical comedy engages three types of chorus girls: the 'ponies,' who are from four feet eleven to five feet twol the mediums, who are from five feet four to five feet seven, and the medium showgirl and showgirl, who are from five feet to over five feet seven
 "The little ponies do tho very hard dancing, the mediums are dancers of another type, and the medium showgirls do little dancing and display gowns, while the showgirls usually move around only, and serve as ornaments.
 "Showgirls still command the highest salaries, although there are exceptional chorus girls who get equally large amounts. The difference between the showgirl of today and the traditional showgirl who was beautiful but dumb is that she must be beautiful and bril- liant-and she must have personality! It is much more difficult to get over the footlights' when you have only a thinking part than if you are in motion all the time-yet, the stiff, minimizing, odalisque type of beauty sticks out like q sore thumb when she appears in the midst of bevy of sparkling, .scintil- lating sprites."
 EE was asked what advice he would A give to parents who approved of a stage career for their daughters.
 First of all, they should teach them that sheer hard work is necessary for success. If had a daughter whom intended for musical comedy, I would have her start in when she was 10 years old. A couple of years ballet dancing might be given her in order to instill grace and poise; but that would be all. Ballet dancing is wonderfully good for lmbering up the muscles so that the body becomes supple and the upper and lower limbs move rhythmically with the least possible effort.
 However, I wouldn't send A child IA the ballet school before she reaches ths age of 10; the tender bones and muscles are not strong enough until then, Of course, if ballet career Is planned. children start in much earlier.
 "One thing which it would bs wall to keep in mind, however. Is that the star ballet dancers in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand: there is only one Genee and one Pavlowa Tn musical comedy, stardom is alwav, a possibility, but in order to reach that height the girl must be a specialist in musical comedy dancing. No ballet star could hold the interest of an audience through the whole of such a show.
 Robust health is necessary for xu.- cess. The girl who dissipates may hold her good looks for a little while but she very soon loses her pep and-her position. If she is suffering from the
 
 hangover of an all-night party, she can't put herself over on a critical audience. There is lot of glamour about back stage, all right-but there's more hard work. If employers in shops or offices tried to make girls work one-ousrter as hard as we make chorus girls work. their places of business would be empty. Beauty alone gets by in lots of places-but it no longer gets by on the stage. People want to be amu.ad exhilarated, thrilled; they want to hear catchy music and See poppy dancing. Everything and everybody contributins to this get applause-the rest is dead. wood and so is chopped out"
 So-exit the beautiful but dumb"