Ballet pianists

[Tash]

hey i was wondering if anyone here has had some experience playing for ballet classes? i'm considering doing it at my sister's old ballet school to earn myself some money and get some experience but i'm wondering if i'm capable of doing so. you have to have quite a large repertoire for open classes, and i don't know the difficulty of the set music for graded ballet though it shouldn't be too hard. so can anyone offer me any advice in this area of piano playing?

[thracozaag]

hey i was wondering if anyone here has had some experience playing for ballet classes? i'm considering doing it at my sister's old ballet school to earn myself some money and get some experience but i'm wondering if i'm capable of doing so. you have to have quite a large repertoire for open classes, and i don't know the difficulty of the set music for graded ballet though it shouldn't be too hard. so can anyone offer me any advice in this area of piano playing?

  I haven't played for a large class, but I have played for dancers.  Playing as steadily as possible (within reason) and above all, knowing the choreographer completely are the key, I've found.

koji (STSD)

[faulty_damper]

I know that it is very important to have very good sightreading skills.  You will probably be given stacks of music to learn and be able to play any of them at sight if you can't remember them.  Because the music is for dance, the tempo must be very steady.  If you have to sacrifice the treble or bass just to read through some parts of the music, sacrifice the treble.

[anda]

depends on what kind of school it is and on why they need a pianist:

1. the dancers learn new variations? then you will be given scores for those variations and everything is pretty easy - just play the score.

2. the dancers learn classic ballet, you are needed to play music for their exercises. now, you probably could find/ask the ballet teacher for scores for each type of exercise (and believe me, there are many types - depending on how advanced the students are), or - and if you can do this, then you have no problem - you can ask the teacher what kind of music s/he needs for each type (what kind of beat, rhythm, auftaktic or not, etc.), write this down, and then improvise every time. if you choose to improvise, it's also good because you won't repeat yourself and it won't be boring. and you don't have to improvise complicated stuff because they need the music to be simple.

best luck

[Tash]

thanks all. i think the hardest part is getting the suitable repertoire and say if you're playing for an open class picking a piece of the right length and stuff. i think i shall have a nice listening fest of my sister's million cds she owns of piano music for ballet classes, and talk to her old ballet teacher and get some info. thanks heaps!

[Floristan]

I knew one ballet pianist who was also a dancer for Joffrey.  He had phenomenal sightreading skill, plus, being a dancer, he knew the entire repertoire.  I've never known anyone who could sightread like him, and always in tempo, first time through.  He'd fudge some stuff in really fast pieces, but mostly he was dead on.  Since he was devoted to dance, he didn't think his abilities as an accompanist were anything special, as though he was just driving a car.  Uncanny!  And he was just their fill-in pianist when the regular accompanists didn't show.  It sure looked like hard work to me!

[Nina_too]

I've played for ballet classes before.  Rhythm and tempo are important, and you also need to keep an eye out for the teacher, as she will tend to cue your stops/starts, including stopping in mid-exercise.

I've only played for two ballet schools, and both had their own music.  One school (Russian-based) simply chose "standard" classical music that they liked--Chopin waltzes, etc.  The other was based on the Royal Academy of Dance, and they had a very specific curriculum with specific music that went with each exercise and dance.  You can even buy CDs of the RAD music, which many studios use in their classes.

You should ask the ballet studio what specifically they want, and practice a few times with a metronome.  There's very little opportunity or desire for rubato and the metronome will help you locate the spots you are speeding up or slowing down.

[piano88]

Im a pianist for the Royal Academy Classes in London. Its hard work but the money is excellent. Don't be fooled, the graded music is very hard, be it RAM or otherwise. Your sightreading skill must be excellent also, and improvisation is a very attractive ability here. The most important thing is that you put the music to the dancers and not the other way round - you have to follow their every step!

[mnmleung]

I would recommend taking some dance classes yourself as well.

[Bob]

I wonder what ever happened to Tash.  She's been out for 5.5 years now.

[faulty_damper]

I wonder what ever happened to Tash.  She's been out for 5.5 years now.

I wonder what's happened to a lot of the old PF members.  Remember Koji?  And Da SDC, Alkan-obsessor who thought he had madz skillz but didn't?  I wonder if he ever got those madz skillz for Christmazz. 

[Bob]

The teenagers grew up.

Koji is a piano professor somewhere, isn't he?

I think I sent Tash a PM on here a few years ago.  Didn't hear anything back.

Such is life.