Madge Gillings and Mrs Bagot Stack on record
The Women's League of Health and Beauty Exercises—music from the early 1930s, and a beautiful documentary, all online.
Kostrovitskaya’s career as a plasterer
In these days when artists are insulted by the idea of having to retrain as something else, let's take a moment to remember Vera Kostrovitskaya, famous pedagogue—and plasterer, restorer of…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #25: 9/8
I was tempted to put the ballet-class equivalent of the Holy Family on the 25th of this advent calendar, to finish off the series with a heart-warming sentimental twist that…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #24: Happy birthday
Special occasions make me nervous. Take birthdays, for example. It’s someone’s birthday, and so one of the dancers comes up before class and says “Can you play happy birthday for…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #23: Metre-less counts
An absence of metre is kind of cool. It’s like decorating a room white, having no books or furniture, and hanging Malevich’s White on White on the wall. You have…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #22: Inappropriate music choices
When I say inappropriate, I don’t mean in 4/4 rather than 3/4, or a barcarole instead of a mazurka. I mean inappropriate in the sense of “Oh no. Let the…