rest of their lives
wondering what they might have accomplished if they had persevered.

To these too easily discouraged persons the message of the dance is:
"What others have done you can do. You have the physique, or at least
it can be developed. You have the intelligence to accept instruction.
You have the patience needed for the continued repetition of movement
that makes perfection. You have an individuality that can be expressed
in the subtle shadings and delicate touches that growing skill will
enable you to show in every graceful movement. You have in you the
capacity for artistic and harmonious expression of your personality.
Why not develop it?"

I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of _personality_ in a
successful stage career. Along with the actual mastering of the
dancing steps and the acquisition of health and a beautiful body,
comes just as surely the development of one's personal qualities. And
because each person has an individuality which is distinctive from
that of everyone else, all must select the type of dancing which is
best suited to their own personalities. That is why the performance of
stars like Evelyn Law, Marilyn Miller, Ann Pennington, Gilda Gray and
Fred and Adele Astaire leaves a lasting impression. Every step, every
movement is designed to drive home the characteristics of their
individuality.

Even more important than the actual dancing steps they do is the
manner in which they execute them--the individuality that they
express. It is the almost indefinable factor called personality which
lifts one out of the ranks of the chorus and makes the solo dancer. In
this book I am trying to help you develop your personality, in the
same way that I have discovered and developed that quality in so many
of today's theatrical stars.

Most emphatically I want to impress upon you that it is not "chorus
work" you are learning in my courses. It is professional and
individual dancing, that when mastered gives one that certain
something that one lacked before, a feeling of having accomplished
assurance of success.

[Illustration: AL JOLSON]

Anyone who masters the dances takes on a certain confident feeling in
time, after exercising great patience in practice. With this
confidence, the happy pupil radiates a new magnetic personality which
the audience feels--but more about this later on, when you will learn
just how one's self is injected into the dances, until they are
vitalized and b