een children of sixteen who ought to be at their best at that
age in this work, yet because of the forcing process in early years
were incapable of sustaining themselves on their deformed feet.

Many of my well-known graduate pupils have been seen in the Follies
and other first class productions. Their work is an inspiration to all
who love exquisite dancing of this kind. They secured the right
foundations on the start, and now have strength, speed, grace, and
ability to do what their dances call for. There are lots and lots of
toe dancers graduated from my courses, and I cannot think of one who
has failed to make good.

That, I think, is because their personality plus practice plus honest
and capable instruction and a knowledge of showmanship and stage-craft
absorbed from my "inspirational talks" has brought forth the natural
result.

[Illustration: NW]

[Illustration: GILDA GRAY

[Handwritten] With sincere appreciation to Ned Wayburn whose producing
genius created the record breaking "Follies of 1922" Gilda Gray]

NED WAYBURN'S SPECIALTY DANCING

[Illustration]

There is a wonderful field for the dancer who can create an appealing
dance of his or her own, or who can take some type of dance and by
sheer personality so develop it as to be identified with it as the
representative of that form of dancing.

Not everyone can be a specialty dancer of this sort, but to be one is
well worth the effort of every ambitious exponent of the dancing art.

Any kind of stage dancing may become a specialty dance. But it really
takes a person with good mental capacity as well as expert dancing
ability to develop what others may do well, make of it an outstanding
and triumphant success, and identify it with one's self before the
public as one's very own.

But the rewards are great for those who accomplish this, and I am
always glad to see an effort made along these lines, since it means so
much in the way of fame and fortune to those who make the grade.

And one may become a specialty dancer in more than one line. Gilda
Gray, for instance, in the Follies of 1922 did three separate and
distinct specialties in her work at every performance: A musical
comedy specialty, an Hawaiian dance, and her "Come Along" character
dance, which she built up under my direction into a pronounced hit.

So with these facts before us, that any dance may be made into a
specialty, taken out of the ordinary and individualized, and that no