Playing for ballet class tips #12: have a repertoire of weird stuff
Repertoire for ballet class: the problem of threes A ballet teacher friend asked me a question at a party about an exercise that he’d set in a class that day…
Playing for ballet class tips #11: Play from memory
Playing for class without music on the stand is a totally different experience to working from a score. Only when you put the music away do you realise how much…
Playing for ballet class tips #10: Phrase clearly
I always used to think how amazing it is the way that dancers pick up exercises so quickly: a teacher rattles through a list of steps in ballet shorthand, says…
Playing for ballet class tips #6: Focus on your outside fingers
One of the occupational hazards of playing for class too much is that you can end up playing in a way that only uses three fingers in each hand. After…
Playing for ballet class tips #1: Listen to yourself and the room
If you play for class a lot, it's easy to get into a habit of being so focused on what the dancers are doing, and what the teacher wants, that…
Ernesto Nazareth site
Thrilled today to have stumbled across www.ernestonazareth.com.br/ a site celebrating the work of the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth. Amongst other things, it’s got piano scores of just about everything he…