Posture Lady

The potbellies of the ladies-in-waiting of the last German imperial court always annoyed Kaiser Wilhelm II. In an effort to appease him, whenever they stood at attention in his presence they folded their hands over their bulging abdomens. This posture made them look like fantastic beer-mugs, a sight which vexed Wilhelm further. Hearing that a sturdy little blonde U. S. esthete named Bess M. Mensendieck taught men & women how to stand and move gracefully, by means of what she called "functional exercises," he summoned her to do the same for his court. Cried the Kaiser: "They are the most awkward women in the world. One never sees women at the courts of London, St. Petersburg or Rome stand about in the graceless attitudes I see at mine."

Bess Marguerite de Varel Mensendieck, a sculptress and a coloratura soprano with an M. D. degree from the University of Zurich, set up a school for exercises at Potsdam. By-&-by she had similar schools all over Germany and in Austria, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands. She became the best known physical culturist south of Sweden. Eventually she returned to the U. S. and. though her vogue has been quieter here, her system of functional exercises is being used at eminently respectable schools like Finch (Manhattan J, Greenwich Academy, Stoneleigh-Prospect Hill (Greenfield. Mass.), Laurel (Cleveland), Ogontz (Ogontz, Pa.) and at Yale. Her main U. S. school is a large, sunny room filled with full-length mirrors, at No. 36 West 59th St.; Manhattan, where last week five important businessmen and 25 young women who hope to become Mensendieck instructors were watchfully wriggling their muscles in accordance with a finely printed new illustrated manual of the Mensendieck System of Functional Exercises.*

The nub of Dr. Mensendieck's system is her conception of the body as a collection of muscle-bound bones. She calculates that the head of a 150-lb. individual weighs 10 lb., his hands 1 lb. each, forearms 4 lb. each, upper arms 5 lb. each, trunk 70 lb., thighs 15 lb. each, lower legs 7 lb. each, feet 3 lb. each.

For the best, least fatiguing posture and movement those unit masses of flesh and bone, she reasons, should counter-balance so that the body's centre of gravity lies in the sacrum (base of the spine). When the human animal stands properly erect, an imaginary line should cut the nose, chin, breastbone and crotch. Another imaginary line should drop from the mastoid, in front of the shoulder joint, through the elbow and little finger (palm turned to the rear), side of knee and ankle. This is achieved by standing with feet together, shoulders held back, abdomen tucked in, buttocks clenched.

When a Mensendiecker raises his right hand in a stiff-armed salute, he puts his weight on his right foot and thrusts his left leg backward. The left leg thus counterbalances the upraised right arm. Because Nazis and Fascists stand with their feet together when they salute, they strain themselves (according to Mensendieck theory) and are bound to have unesthetic legs and rumps.

Mensendieckers must exercise naked between two full-length mirrors, otherwise Dr. Mensendieck disowns them. She insists on this so they can see exactly how:

To sit down. Stand with one foot slightly forward, hands hanging freely from shoulder. Rise slightly on the toes, bend the knees slowly, tilt the trunk forward as the leg muscles lower the body onto the chair. Do not start to sit down with the feet together. This "closed foot position forces the trunk into an extreme diagonality [and] brings the buttock mass into unbeautiful prominence. It protrudes as if searching for the seat."

To stoop. Start from the foot-forward, scissors position. Bend one knee until it almost touches the floor. Bend the other knee less. To pick up anything use the hand on the side of the lower knee, simultaneously swinging the other arm to the rear for counterbalance.

To iron clothes, with the right hand. Keep the right knee stiff and the body's weight mainly on the right leg. Keep the left leg slightly to the rear, bending the knee and raising the heel slightly to keep the hips level.

To don a coat. Use the arms only, keeping the head directly above the pelvis and avoiding any twisting of the trunk.

To walk. Dr. Mensendieck is proud of her analysis of walking. There are two methods says she:

"First, after the foot is placed, pointing straight ahead, in the foot-forward position without weight, we can, by raising the heel of the backward supporting leg shove or propel the trunk weight into the forward leg. This raising of the heel of the back leg to propel the weight of the trunk forward into space, until it rests over the advanced foot, is known as the propulsive step.

"The second method by which the trunk weight can be transferred until it rests over the forward foot, is called the suction step. This suction step, which starts from the same straight foot-forward position, is not the work of the backward leg, but makes the transference of the weight the task of the front leg. The forepart or ball, of the forward foot (heel raised) must be implanted upon the floor, and must 'grip' the floor so firmly that the forward leg is able, by means of this firm 'grip,' to draw the trunk forward by gradual pulls exerted successively by the muscles of the lower leg, thigh and buttocks."

Dr. Mensendieck prefers the pawing step, because it "strengthens the legs, improves their shape and has a permanently beneficial effect on the arches," compels full extension of the knees, keeps the groin taut, and "being measured and controlled, is the flowing and beautiful step." Last week meticulous Dr. Mensendieck, 60, wearied from compiling her new manual of functional postures, shunning the kudos she expected its publication will bring upon her, rusticated in southern France. She lives alone. Once she had a husband, who died shortly after their marriage. As close-mouthed about her personal life as she is loquacious about her system, she seldom refers to her widowhood and never to the significance of the nine-strand collar of pearls which for more than 30 years has been her only ornament. Dr. Mensendieck calls the dancing legs of the late Anna Pavlova monstrously disproportioned. Likewise she scorns Tennist Helen Wills Moody's strong right arm, and Max Schmeling's entire musculature. Says she: "Tennis and basketball players coming down from their leaps resemble the comic stance of a drinking giraffe."

*Southworth-Anthoensen, Portland, Me. ($12).

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