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.
Tamara Karsavina on music
In "Theatre Street," Karsavina makes several references to the soundworld of her dance training and rehearsal. Here is a collection of them.
“Ballerinas in the church hall”—Virginia Taylor’s thesis online
Joyce Kilmer thought she would never see a poem as lovely as a tree; well, I’m pretty sure I will never see a thesis as lovely as Virginia Taylor’s “Ballerinas…
Judith Espinosa, the fishermen’s wives and the waltz
As allegro was about to begin during a ballet class yesterday, I started to smirk thinking about something I’d read in Derek Parker’s fascinating book, The First 75 Years of…
Tchaikovsky’s hairpins
The secret life of hairpins In The Secret Life of Musical Notation, Roberto Poli examines a number of notational conventions—hairpins, sforzandi, rinforzandi, pedals, stretti and rhythmic values—that have perplexed him…
Ballet pianists on film
Film clips of ballet pianists playing for class are so rare. There are films (such as the World Ballet Day online classes) where pianists play for a class that is…