ause-getters
nowadays, and they are well worth applauding, too, for they are
pleasing demonstrations of real skill, and are acquired by the dancer
only after long and continued effort and practice. Few if any, I am
sure, fully appreciate the time and labor it takes to make a modern
toe dancer, one who shall be able to perform something new and catchy
in a clever way,--a real feat nowadays, and one that theatrical
producers are quick to see and seize when it appears.

The fact is, the tricks I have spoken of must never dominate the
dancing, but must be entirely secondary and incidental, as it were.
Otherwise the dancer becomes an acrobat. You don't care for straight
acrobatics, Mr. Public, but acrobatic dancing, or dancing with a neat
acrobatic stunt thrown in incidentally as a bit of seasoning, is
really very palatable and pleasing to you. It must remain a beautiful
dance, aided and added to by a pretty surprise in the form of a bit of
unexpected toe work--then you like to see it, so we are careful in my
courses to promote in this kind of work only that form for which there
is a demand,--and this is equally true with every other kind of
dancing that we teach.

Before any toe dancing is undertaken by the ambitious student there
must be a foundation laid to build upon that shall be lasting and
efficient. The body must be under perfect control; every muscle
immediately responsive and ready, strength placed where it is
essential. Our students who have passed through the limbering and
stretching course (foundation technique) and have advanced to the
ballet work and through that, are ready for the advanced features in
modern toe dancing. We work this way with such of our more promising
pupils as desire it, and then teach them the "tricks," as we call it,
that are so effective when properly done. Every toe dancer should have
one-hour lessons five days each week till perfected, and at least
three hours daily practice six days in the week at home.

I have already stated and now say it once more in this connection,
that children should not go on their toes in the dance until they have
taken what I know to be a necessary foundation course, to fit them to
do so without danger of permanent distortion of feet and legs,
enlarged ankles, and other ill effects. It is the parents' fault, of
course, when children are forced into toe dancing at too early an age
or without proper preparation. I simply will not consent to do it. I
have s