ic dancing work, and for my Americanized
ballet training, including toe dancing.

Do this exercise first with the left foot, then with the right foot,
to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and practice it often, till it
becomes a perfectly natural action. It is the basis of the best "bread
and butter" dancing steps, as you will discover in later lessons.

In doing this exercise, remember that in dropping the toe to the floor
it must be placed _straight_ back, and not left or right oblique back;
straight back from the "place" where you stand. The knees should be
kept together. When you stamp the ball of your foot, the feet are
directly opposite each other.

[Illustration: _The Development of a "Tap" Dancing Step_]

I want you to note that each of the four movements of this exercise
has a distinct sound. The dropping of the toe, the stamping of the
ball of the foot, of the heel, and of the flat foot, each creates a
separate and distinct sound. I have named these sounds "taps," and it
is the various combinations of these sounds that are used so
effectively in musical comedy dances, in tap, step, and American
specialty dancing (sometimes called clogging), as well as in some of
our choicest acrobatic dancing.

Some of our pupils are apt at tap and step dancing, others are more
apt at ballet dancing, musical comedy or acrobatic dancing. Some of
our young ladies take four classes a day; some take three; others two;
and still others but one class a day. In addition to this, there are
pupils, among them a great many young gentlemen, who take private
lessons in their chosen style of dancing every day while some only
take one private lesson a week.

Try to perfect yourselves as solo dancers. It is there that fame and
fortune await you. You may not appreciate it now, but when you have
mastered the Ned Wayburn courses, you will look back with satisfaction
and realize the wonderful opportunity my simple courses have afforded
you. There is no other school in the world that teaches the five basic
types of dancing in the same thorough, rapid manner and with the same
satisfactory results.

The student who has industriously performed the essential preliminary
work as I teach it has obtained a satisfactory mastery of the body,
and has a large range of movement at command; is now able to control
the source of movement and to relax opposing muscles so that the
movement may follow through; that is, may continue from its initiative