Accompanying ballet classes

[rnu]

I am interested in accompanying ballet classes. Do I have to improvise or just read the music given by the ballet teacher?

[elspeth]

Depends on the class. If it's a children's group they may like to give you music to play so it's stuff the children know. If it's a show rehearsal, they'll obviously want the music they're using in the show. If it's classes at a higher level, improvising is fine.

However... the single most important thing is something with nice strong beats. You usually have to hammer out the strong beats in every bar - you are primarily there to help the dancers keep in time, they're not really interested in what tune you're playing. Equally pick pieces that lend themselves to that. Syncopated jazz rhythms without 'obvious' beats are bad.

Learning a few of the basic ballet terms wouldn't hurt so you have a vague idea what they're doing. Most experienced teachers will give their class the exercise and the most direction they'll usually give you is how many beats in a bar they want.

I work in theatres and know a few ballet pianists... they play all sorts of stuff. Carols at Christmas, nursery rhymes, songs from musicals, famous classical pieces, TV themes, pop songs... I have a very fond memory of seeing a professional ballet company working out to the strains of 'Skippy the Kangaroo'...

There are books of 'suitable' ballet music available... but once you've got bored of that, as long as the teacher's ok with it you can make it up as you go along.

[pianowolfi]

I once had to substitute a ballet pianist at the Theatre. It was a complete desaster. This is a very specialized job, at least when you do it for professional dancers. I would have needed to improvise EVERYTHING. Most important is to always play 8 beat phrases. Then they are happy. And you have to do this in EVERY speed and EVERY stile. I showed up with a bunch of music under my arm and they already looked very irritaded. I asked the coach what they would do and he just said " We move". that was all. Then he started to count on 8 and I was supposed to play. I had NO clue at all. It was just a nightmare. I will NEVER do that again lol. 

[rnu]

Thank you both for sharing helpful information and experiences. As far as suitable ballet music, any books that you may recommend? I think I need to equip myself a lot more than I thought.

[pianowolfi]

here you can listen to some very beautiful short samples by Miro Magloire, a famous dancer and ballet pianist


http://www.gardetanz-musik.com/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.gardetanz-musik.com/501210968a0b3510e/50121097030d4bf04/50121097030d5e519.html


I love to listen to this music even though I don't want to play for ballet classes again.

Here

http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/catalog/pianoscoresclass.asp

you can order some particular sheet music for ballet classes if you wish. I have bought three books of music there but at the moment I can't find them so I can't tell you which ones

This is a random blog I came across while searching. It might be interesting in relation to your subject but only in parts

http://musicphotolife.blogspot.com/2007/01/ballet-pianist-anyone.html

Ok I hope this helps a bit

[elspeth]

If you're lucky enough to live in a town with a theatre which has touring ballet companies you can often go to watch them do their daily class. At the theatre I work in, we offer it either free if you also book to watch the show, or for a nominal fee otherwise - about £5 or so. It'd be useful for you to go watch a few classes - I assume you're familiar with dance or you wouldn't be thinking about this so maybe you already have - but go and concentrate on the pianist rather than the dancer. And if the company are accessible enough - and many are, you'd be surprised what people will say yes to if you ask nicely enough - it may be possible for you to get to have a chat with the pianist about their class music, or with the coach about what they as a teacher want from their pianist.