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solo music help


joyofdance

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Hi I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice please. My daughter wants to enter a festival independently. She has private ballet lessons at the minute and isnt attached to a dance school. Her ballet teacher has agreed to set a dance but has never done it before so between us we are muddling through. Can anyone advise, how do we go about choosing a piece of music, is there a way of finding a suitable two minute piece without having to cut and chop (if you know what I mean) Can anyone suggest a nice piece for an 11 yr old. She is grade 4 and not on pointe yet. Sorry if this is too many questions but I really dont know where to begin.

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Have you been to watch any festivals yet? If not I would suggest that you go to a couple as this will give you a feel of what the norm is.

You will be lucky to find a piece of music that you don't need to edit I'm afraid (Or at least I never have in the last 12 years or so!) but you can  download software to do it yourself on the computer quite easily nowadays. we used to pay a fortune for our music to be professionally cut but now DD does it herself.

Really any piece of classical music that you like is worth considering, but I would advise steering clear of any well known ballet solos personally. I know that sounds a bit strange, but I have heard quite a few adjudicators criticise the use of music from famous ballet variations over the years. I suppose it is because those pieces of music are associated with very specific choreography, which is not going to be suitable for most young festival performers.

Personally, i think that lots of piano music lends itself to ballet solos, and there are quite a few nice fairly short pieces (eg some of the Chopin nocturnes) that can be edited quite easily. Harp music is nice too. Big orchestral pieces can sound a bit weird when cut to a couple of minutes, though I have seen (heard?) this done quite effectively on occasion. (But also badly lots of times!)

Clssic FM have a music streaming app called Composed and I think they are still offering a free trial for a month. That would be a good way of listening to a lot of pieces without spending any money, and hopefully you will find something that inspires.

Good luck!

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Many, many years since we did festivals but we used several pieces from this cd

 

http://novadanse-creativemusic.com/music-shop/show-festival-classical-stage-dance/the-orchid-suite/

 

not sure if link will work but if you google ' The Orchid Suite music cd' you should find it

 

It was quite popular and several times came across other dancers using tracks from the same cd although luckily never in the same section. Not sure if this would still be the case but all tracks are short enough not to need editing.

 

edited to say link does appear to work!

Edited by spooky
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Hi - this is always a struggle finding the best music. Try www.dancfestivalmusic.co.uk. You can choose the right length and it is reasonably priced. The guidance states the dance should include allegro and adage so you have to find music that will include that although I have seen someone dance and win to quite a slow piece of music. 

I listened to Spotify (I am also on the lookout for music when listening to classic FM) and then downloaded a few and let the teacher have a listen. We cut a piece of music and it appeared to work, it does need to be classical and I think piano music is very suitable for a younger dancer, although sometimes it can sound a bit plinky plonky - if you know what I mean. You don't want anything too grand either otherwise they look at bit lost. The Shostakovich ballet and jazz suites are lovely, my dd has done a duet to one. You will notice that most symphony pieces are broken down into smaller parts, rondos, minuets, allegro etc and some of these are the right length. 

I really liked the glow worm idyll but my dd teacher thought it a bit old fashioned so you have to find something your dd and her teacher like as they will be the one dancing and choreographing it. 

Good luck

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