BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE CHORUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18960, 6 January 1930, Page 13

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE CHORUS.

Training Of The Greatest Importance

(Written for the “Star” by

MAX RIVERS.)

The actor is born. The chorus is made. | I make it. The factory is my studio, the walls of which are decorated with lifesize portraits in characteristic poses of the great dancers from Taglioni to Pavlova, an incentive to the pupils to show them the heights to which they may attain if they have the will to work and the ability to dance. This is no empty statement. Facts prove that the chorus is the stepping stone on which its inmates may rise or» nimble feet to higher things—the highest things on the musical comedy stage. Thus, Mr Sonnie Hale, one of the stars in “Wake Up and Dream,” was once in the chorus of “Little Nelly Kelly”; his sister, Miss Binnie Hale, the star of “Mr Cinders,” whose income was journalistically stated a short time ago to reach £350 a week, also began in the chorus.

Ignoring the men who, choreographically, are not nearly so interesting as women, among my own pupils, Miss Madeline Gibson, w T ho worked with me for six years, began in the chorus of two or three of Mr Charles B. Cochran’s revues, and was also at the Trocadero. While still occupying that apparently subordinate position, I got her the understudy of the part played by Miss Jessie Matthews in “This Year of Grace.’’ So well did she do in it when called upon to appear that Mr Cochran selected her for it when he produced that revue in New York. Later, a New York manager picked her to play the leading part in a new musical comedy he was producing. Her salary increased from £5 a week, the wage Mr Cochran pays to each member of his chorus, to £IOO a week. What Are the Chief Requirements? What, it will be asked, are the basic requirements for those women who, fascinated by the idea that they would like a life on the musical stage, are anxious to pass through the door which leads into what so many still regard as a material fairy land? At the top of the list, of course, is health. Chorus life is a strenuous life physically, for the chorus has at least about a dozen vigorous dances to do in every production, in addition to the singing, from which it derives its name. In this respect the chorus requirements differ essentially from those when the George Edwardes type of musical comedy w r as the vogue. Then, beauty was the essential requirement, as t was the chief characteristic of the chorus—the feminine chorus—for it is in that that interest has always cen tred. This beauty was both of face and form, and to it had to be added the art of carrying clothes, for the ladies were not called on to do any real dancing—only certain pretty movements which did not need any special training. In addition to health, the would-be lady of the chorus should possess a certain modicum of good looks—or, if not that, then regular features which when skilfully made up, appear rca ly beautiful, far more beautiful than many a real beauty away from the footlights

The Method of Training. When a girl comes to me, I find out what she can do, if she can step dance, do the high kick or the “splits”. If she can do any of these, I make her show me how proficient she is. If she has had no training along these lines, and many of them who come to

me have not, I advise her to begin in the dancing school where she can “get stretched and limbered”, as we call the loosening of the muscles and getting the body fit for the strenuous dances which she will be called upon to do.

At intervals all around the studio are strong ropes in pairs reaching to within a few inches of the floor. These ropes terminate in loops. The ropes are to enable the pupils to helf themselves to stretch. They hold the ropes with their hands, place a foot in each loop and stretch their legs apart. In this way they control the movement for themselves and as soon as the stretching of the muscles begins to be painful they can stop, for the process is a gradual one, and once the art of doing the splits has been acquired, it involves no pain or inconvenience. Besides this individual work my chorus classes have a regular schedule which works along these lines every day:

11 to 12 a.m.: Stretching and limbering exercises.

12 to 1 p.m.: Acrobatic exercises to de\elop a good “back-bend” and other body movements. 1 to 2 p.m : *Luncheon interval. 2 to 3 pan.: Step dancing.

3 to 4 p.m.: Musical comedy dancing, which is a lighter and pretty kind of dancing. This schedule leaves ample time for the necessary voice production and singing lessons which have to be taken. In the ordinary way a girl who has not had any previous training will need about six months in the studio before she is fit to go into a theatre to rehearse as a member of the chorus. At the end of that half-year if she nas profited by the opportunities which have been given her I can, in the month’s rehearsals which I am generally allowed for a West End production, so mould and shape her that she will give a good account of herself when the curtain rises on her debut before the public. Advantages of Early Training. I am constantly asked at what age a girl should begin to train for the chorus. Everyone knows that to-day children begin to learn step-dancing when they are quite tiny tots. I have some very small girls in my own studio who are highly proficient before their ages reach double figures. The lack of such early training need not, however, debar a girl from gratifying her ambition of going into the chorus. She can do so even at seventeen or eighteen with the certain prospect that, if she will take care of herself and walk delicately, keep regular hours, avoid frequent cocktail or supper parties, watch her diet, and, generally, live moderately, she will be admirably efficient until .she is thirty—and she may go on beyond that age. During those dozen years, even if she does not emerge into the playing of small, if not large, parts, every chorus girl will have that stimulating pleasure in life which comes of abounding health, the result of physical fitness. It is a condition of well-being whose advantages cannot lie overestimated or overpraised.

Restrictions Imposed On the subject of diet, a wide experi ence has taught me, during many years in which I have produced the dances for over eighty musical comedies, ir

I addition to appearing myself in four productions a year, that the ideal diet for the dancer, especially the chorus, is one in which, while starchy foods are reduced to a minimum, for they tend to produce fat, plenty of milk is highly desirable, with lots of green vegetables, both cooked and raw, and fruit, but not a large quantity of flesh food. Teetotalism is likewise an advantage; certainly the more the artist abstains from alcohol the better. Personally, I advocate two meals a day as being enough for men and women | who have attained their full growth, ■ although on matinee days a cup of - tea may be taken with advantage > after the performance. It refreshes and ’ rests the artist, who is always better off if she takes nothing to eat or drink ) while the show is on.

Finally, the chorus lady who wishes to remain efficient as long as possible will be wise if she cuts out the universal cigarette, which has become the symbol of the emancipated woman.

Do the restrictions I have mentioned appear too hard? Possibly to some. It must, however, be remembered that the chorus is an arduoits calling, and its members have to keep themselves in constant training as athletes do. The public, like one’s manager, demands, as part of the reward for its presence, that each performer should give of her best, and that is impossible unless she is in perfect health. Besides, the French, who have always paid great attention to the cult of beauty, long ago recognised the arduous nature of the life of those who desire beauty, beauty of face, beauty of form, beauty of artistic excellence. They crystallised it in the phrase which is now a proverb over the whole world —il faut souffrir pour etre belle—you must suffer if you want to be beautiful. (Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)