In 1940, Louise Brooks self-published a 36-page instruction booklet titled The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing. In this slim, 50 cent publication, Brooks outlined the fundamentals of ballroom dancing as it was then practiced. The foreword states that the booklet is a review of “the essence of good dancing wherever discriminating people gather.” Additionally, the foreword notes, “The steps and principles outlined are those taught and practiced in Miss Brooks’ own school and those generally recognized by the leading exponents of ballroom Dancing.”
Brooks knew of what she wrote. In the mid-1930s, Brooks toured intermittently as a ballroom dancer, performing in nightclubs, ballrooms, theaters and other venues in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, Miami and elsewhere. [Two related pages can be found on the LBS website: one is a CHRONOLOGY of known engagements, and the other is a SCRAPBOOK of Brooks’ ballroom dance career.] In the late 1930s, she and a partner opened a dance studio in Los Angeles, and Brooks danced occasionally in Southern California, most notably in Palm Springs. It was during her time in Los Angeles in the late 1930s that Brooks penned a series of advertorials on dance for a local paper. These advertorials, written in the high Brooksian style, were a sort of rehearsal for The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing.
In one memorable passage from her booklet, Brooks writes, “The fundamentals of good dancing are not dictated by a stodgy social order. . . . You do not refrain from the mad excesses of the jitter-bug just because Mrs. Snob-Awful glares at you, but because such styles easily become coarse. Neither do you refrain from kicking your feet in the air because so-and-so says it isn’t correct; it’s simply because there is no room to spare on the average floor, and most people don’t like to be kicked unexpectedly. . . . If you can pick up your partner and whirl her around your head gracefully, you are privileged to do so — providing you are in a vaudeville act, in the movies, or that every other dancer on the floor has been paid to stay out of the way.”
The picture of the cover of the booklet, taken by Charles Barlett, shows Brooks in her Wichita dance studio.The contents of the 1940 booklet include chapters on “Dancing Positions,” “Movement and Direction,” “Following,” “Leading,” “Dance Floor Etiquette,” and more. There are, as well, chapters devoted to specific dances popular at the time such as the Fox-Trot, Waltz, Tango, and Rumba.
In the chapter on “Following,” Brooks offered four basic rules for ballroom dancing:
- Never take your feet off the floor.
- Move on the Ball of the Foot, always coming to rest on the whole feet.
- Toe Straight Ahead. Always keep your feet parallel to the direction you are moving
- Men especially: Keep Times. There is no such thing as “out of rhythm” dancing!
A final chapter, “Recommended Records,” highlights music to look for when buying records for dancing. This final chapter states, “For practice, pick out records that are not too fast and have strongly accented rhythms. ‘Hot’ music makes better listening than dancing.” It goes on to note, “Many waltz recordings are played far too fast. That old-timer, ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ Wayne King (Victor 25501) is a good practice waltz. Xavier Cugat’s ‘Siboney’ (Victor 26522) is a well timed Rumba; likewise his Tango, ‘Caminito’ (Victor 24387).” (See video’s below.)
Brooks’ booklet didn’t make much of a splash. It was available, like a magazine, on local newsstands, as well as by mail order. Hoping to sell some copies, Brooks took out a handful of classified ads in the Wichita Eagle in November and December of 1940. The first shown below dates from November, the second from December. Tellingly, the price dropped in the second ad from 50 cents to 25 cents..
Brooks managed to get a bit of press. On November 27, 1940, a Wichita Eagle writer named Jane included a bit on the booklet in her column, which was aimed towards women. “And while we are on the subject of publishing books. . . . Louise Brooks has recently published a little book, with the help of her brother, Ted, entitled, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing. . . . The book is a complete outline and review of basic fundamentals for dancing generally recognized by the leading exponents of ballroom dancing. . . Who knows if we read ours enough we too might be the life of the party.”
Another article appeared in the Wichita Eagle on December 17. This anonymous piece, titled, “Has a Manual on Dancing Art, Louise Brooks Writes a Comprehensive Booklet,” describes the “popular priced publication” as a “contribution to the field of ballroom dancing literature.” It summarized the purpose of the book, and ended with an endorsement of a kind. “Miss Brooks’ experience as a star of the stage and screen and an exhibition dancer who has performed in the leading social resorts of two continents lends to her composition the authoritative touch gleaned by her cosmopolitan life and her association with the world’s finest ballroom dancers.”
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| Wichita Eagle, November 24, 1940 | Wichita Eagle, December 23, 1940 |
A long time ago, when I first read about The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing in the Barry Paris biography, I thought I would never see a copy. It is very rare. The booklet was privately printed in an edition of about 750 copies. According to the Paris biography, at one point in 1987, some 500 unsold copies were thrown away. By all accounts, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing was a bust. Brooks’ privately printed booklet remained elusive until Barry Paris gave me a surprise gift, a color scan of his canary yellow copy.
Today, The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing remains little known and even more of a rarity. However, anyone interested in reading the booklet can do so thanks to Louise Brooks’ heirs. The copy that once belonged to Theodore Brooks (Louise’s brother) was scanned by the Kansas Historical Society and put online. It can be found HERE. To conclude, here are a couple of vintage articles about The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing.
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| excerpted from a local column by Jane November 27, 1940 |
“Has a Manual on Dancing Art” December 17, 1940 |
Want to hear vintage recordings of the three dance numbers Brooks recommends in The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing? Check out these three YouTube videos of recordings by the artists mentioned by Brooks.