Category Archives: Playing for ballet class

Posts about the work of ballet pianists—including stuff that might not seem immediately related (like historical dance, character, musicology, and so on)

Institutional Racism & Swanilda’s Friends

Posted on February 5, 2005 8:01 pm by Jonathan Still

Another day at the University of London Library [see earlier post on Czerny], this time, to retrieve some dances from Tchaikovsky’s opera Cherevichki which were used in Cranko’s Onegin. I only know that because on a recent trip to Westminster … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Playing for ballet class | Tagged Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Italian ballets

Posted on October 12, 2004 7:28 am by Jonathan Still

That old party game ‘name five famous Belgians’ is a little unfair on the Belgians. A more difficult game is ‘name five Italian ballets’, I’ve discovered. Until, that is, I found this wonderful catalogue of Italian Ballet Plot Synopses, 1816-1933 … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Skip, change of step

Posted on October 11, 2004 12:35 am by Jonathan Still

I often feel extraordinarily privileged to have such illustrious friends in the ballet world, particularly when I want an answer to a simple question, and can just pick up the phone and ask someone whose knowledge and experience is of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The joy of libraries and my Czech mate Czerny

Posted on October 3, 2004 9:02 am by Jonathan Still

It’s not often that I get goosebumps sitting in a library, but I came pretty near to it yesterday on a trip to the University of London Library. I have been looking for months for the Czerny piano studies on … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Czerny, Dance, Etudes, IT, Music, Riisager, Senate House Library, ballet, ballet accompaniment, books, libraries, research | 5 Comments

Magic and Mazurkaphobia

Posted on September 30, 2003 8:07 pm by Jonathan Still

You’d think I made it up, wouldn’t you? Well I didn’t. Taming a Tartar; or, Magic & mazourkaphobia, “an operatic, romantic, magical, semi-burlesque, terpsichorean burletta, in two acts, founded on the grand ballet spectacle, called ‘Le diable à quatre’” is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Personal | Leave a comment

History of a song & Vejvodova Zbraslav

Posted on September 28, 2003 12:26 am by Jonathan Still

Amazing what you can turn up from a simple question. Is Roll Out the Barrel still in copyright? Like me, you may have thought it was one of those diehard Edwardian music hall songs that everyone knows, but nobody can … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Personal | 3 Comments