words that describe the work better than these do. But my
idea in using these words is that flexibility, suppleness, grace and
freedom of movement are all covered by "limbering," while "stretching"
is intended to convey the idea of a proper fitting of the body and
limbs for the various forms of kicking that are absolutely essential
in modern stage dancing. Some people get the idea that stretching
exercises will lengthen the body or limbs. This is not so. Neither is
the result of any mechanical operation whatever. You bend your body
rhythmically, and by degrees acquire a proficiency that enables you to
"stretch" and "limber up" yourself to an extent that may surprise you.
No one was ever hurt by my exercises; you gradually limber and stretch
yourself! All who have taken the exercises and have practiced them as
directed have materially benefited. They bring health, graceful
figures and a fitness for learning dancing as nothing else does of
which I have knowledge. That is what these exercises are for, and just
what they do.

And another important fact in connection with my foundation technique
for dancers, it does _not_ bunch the muscles into unsightly shape; it
does _not_ make huge, knotty muscles in the arms and legs, as has long
been the case with certain Russian and Italian ballet methods. You
have no doubt seen ballet dancers with distorted bodies. The American
woman will not be content with any development that mars the
appearance of her figure, and she is right. You have seen the Ned
Wayburn trained girls on many a stage, and never yet saw one that was
not pleasing in figure, to put it mildly, and that is the way we
insist in developing them at the studio. Our pupils acquire agility
without angularity or unsightly protuberances anywhere. We take the
"raw material," child or adult, between four and forty, with or
without any former experience or training, proceed with them through
my foundation technique of limbering and stretching, and advance them
from there to courses in any of the various forms of dancing, with the
perfect assurance that they have the necessary basis of flexibility
and muscle control that will support them on their way to perfect
dancing success.

In conjunction with this work, all types of kicking steps are taught,
front kick, side kick, back kick, hitch kick, and the others. Since
strength for kicking comes from the abdominal muscles, a workout that
will especially exercise these muscles aro