Advent calendar 2014: Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist

In 2014 I went back to being a freelance ballet pianist, and have loved every minute. Talking to colleagues on my travels, I’ve found that many of us share the same anxieties, no matter how much experience we have, in fact, some of the most experienced people I know are those who express the most anxiety about what they do. Here are some of the things that make me anxious about playing for ballet. I hope it helps: it certainly helps me to talk about it.

The full list of ballet pianist anxieties:

• Company class: Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist, day #1 (Advent 2014)
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #2: Fear of repetition
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #3: Pop songs
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #4: Classical music
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #5: Playing for the White Swan variation
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #6: Playing the Black Swan variation music
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #7: The dreaded 2/4 sissonne
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #8: The dreaded slow mazurka pirouette
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #9: Oh no! What was that?!
• Confessions of an anxious pianist day #10: The Polonaise
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #11: Getting the phrasing wrong
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #12: Wrong notes
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #13: Music for stretching
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #14: Adage
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #15: Tempo
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #16: Rehearsal marks
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #17: Why’s she looking at me like that?
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #18: Page turns
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #19: Being late
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #20: Too much attention
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #21: The grand battement “march”
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #22: Inappropriate music choices
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #23: Metre-less counts
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #24: Happy birthday
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #25: 9/8
• Happy 2015: A new year’s ramble about Black Swan and other ballet anomalies
• Confessions of an anxious pianist #26: Same or different music on the other side?
• Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist #27: Playing “Siegfried” from Swan Lake Act 3