ner in dancing went direct to the stage door
and stated his or her desire to become a dancer. The applicant was
sometimes accorded a tryout. If he or she appeared awkward or was slow
to catch the tempo, or not physically developed to please the eye,
that was the end of it. There was no time to waste in helping to
overcome minor defects, no personal interest shown whatever. He or she
was dismissed summarily without any advice of a helpful nature.

If the candidate exhibited qualities that recommended her or him to
the producer, he or she was given a stage training in chorus work
following a tryout. The training was obtained in rehearsals, conducted
for weeks, without compensation. The instructor might become impatient
at any evidence of slowness of comprehension or execution; he might
resent tardiness, absence, or slight infringement of stringent rules,
and in such cases dismissal was the usual penalty.

The young lady or gentleman aspiring to become a stage dancer in that
day and age paid a considerable price for the experience, as you may
readily imagine.

Contrast then with now. You are acquiring this needed preliminary
experience to fit you for a stage career in our courses under
conditions that recommend them to ladies and gentlemen. There are no
subordinates in our courses. All are equal. There is discipline, of
course. You will find discipline on the stage when you advance that
far. But discipline won't hurt you, not our kind. We ask for silence,
attention, practice, and the conduct that ladies and gentlemen
naturally observe. If you are a lady of social prominence, studying
for the grace and beauty and health that our lessons impart, and not
intending to favor the stage with your presence, you are accorded the
same treatment that all others receive. This is a pure democracy if
ever there was one.

By the old way of obtaining training and stage experience a young lady
was kept for years in a subordinate place, and if she at last worked
her way up out of the chorus into solo dancing, it was by "main
strength," a vivid personality, aggressiveness and untiring effort.

Our first and primary instruction in the courses takes the place of
the years of disappointing hard work that formerly prevailed. You are
not held down. Your personality is encouraged and developed. You have
to do your part, of course; we are not going to make stars of you if
you don't help us do it. But the experience you must have is ready and