Ned Wayburn(néEdward Claudius Weyburn; 30 March 1874 – 2 September 1942) was an American choreographer.[1]
Career
Edward Claudius Weyburn was born on March 30, 1874 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Elbert Delos Weyburn and his wife, Harriet Landon Beach.[2] He spent much of his childhood in Chicago where he studied theatre and classical piano. At the age of 21, he abandoned his family's tradition of manufacturing for a teaching position at the Hart Conway School of Acting in Chicago.[a] There, faculty members C.H. Jacobsen, Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery and elocutionist Ida Simpson-Serven, disciples of François Delsarte, influenced him and inspired his growing interest in dance and movement.
After leaving the school, Wayburn spent many years in theater staging shows for producers Oscar Hammerstein I and his son William Hammerstein, and the theatrical booking agency Klaw and Erlanger. In 1906, he began his own management group called the Headline Vaudeville Production Company. Through his own firm he staged many feature acts, while collaborating with other producers such as Lew Fields, Florenz Ziegfeld and the Shuberts. In 1915, he began working with Ziegfeld and became the main choreographer of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Wayburn’s choreography was based on five techniques: musical comedy, tapping and stepping, acrobatic work, toe specialties, and exhibition ballroom. As a child, he was captivated by Minstrel shows and recreated them in many of his works. Formation symmetry was common in minstrel shows, as well as parade. Wayburn used Minstrel style costumes and makeup in his show Minstrel Misses (1903).
His choreography was influenced by social dances of the time. His dancers moved in units of two or four, following popular trends. He took dances such as tangos, the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, the Black Bottom, and the Charleston and recreated them for stage performances by using strong exaggerations of movement.
Wayburn was married three times – first, from 1897 to about 1905, to Agnes Wayburn (née Agnes Lillian Saye; 1876–1949), who had been one of the two original "Florodora" sextets. He then was married, from 1908 to 1916, to Helene "Smiles" Davis (né Helen Sylvia Davis; 1890–1981); and then, from 1916 until his death, to Marguerite V. Lee Kirby (maiden; 1890–1978). Agnes Wayburn was married again, from 1913 until her death, to José Campodónico (born about 1882), a textile manufacturer from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Notes and references
Notes
^The Hart Conway School of Acting – the namesake of its founder, Hart Conway (1840–1919) – became a part of the Chicago Musical College in 1898.
^Blaisdell, George (19 January 1924). "Box Office Reviews: The Great White Way". Exhibitors Trade Review. 15 (8). New York: Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation: 19. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
External links
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