Jump to content

Music for ballet class


Glissé

Recommended Posts

I am doing classes with Christina Mittelmaier on Zoom, and the class is accompanied by Chris Hobson - he is superb! And the 2 of them together are a funny & endearing double act. I learn so much in Ms Mittelmaier's class, and love the way Chris Hobson improvises and changes pace & tempo in response to the combination Christina sets. 

 

Their classes are the highlight of my ballet week, and one of the wonderful silver linings of the situation we are all in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had 2 different teachers appear to use an album entitled "Pop Hits for Ballet vol 2" by Nate Fifield which I quite like as it amuses me to try and work out what the tune is supposed to be. My third teacher uses something involving more show tunes and I can recognise those more easily.  

 

I have only done a class with a live pianist once (a workshop at ENB) and I loved the addition of live music to the experience.  

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A really good ballet pianist can lift the level of a class by several ... levels, I suppose.  We're fortunate to have one, but I can't see that she's made her music publicly available yet.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Tango Dancer said:

I've had 2 different teachers appear to use an album entitled "Pop Hits for Ballet vol 2" by Nate Fifield which I quite like as it amuses me to try and work out what the tune is supposed to be. My third teacher uses something involving more show tunes and I can recognise those more easily.  

 

 

Nathan Fifield was the assistant music director at Northern Ballet for several years and often used to play for class on a Saturday when Friends were watching.  He was fabulous and we used to have a competition amongst ourselves to "Name that tune".  We used to joke with him about producing a playlist for us!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Nathan Fifield was the assistant music director at Northern Ballet for several years and often used to play for class on a Saturday when Friends were watching.  He was fabulous and we used to have a competition amongst ourselves to "Name that tune".  We used to joke with him about producing a playlist for us!

 

Janet that's fascinating.  I had no idea who it was and as a Yorkshire person I'm so glad it was someone from NB.  I do really like the album and enjoy the music quite a lot although I also like the more traditional ballet music for centre time.  

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I adore David Plumpton's CDs and although we normally work with pianists, my students are always delighted when I use his discs!  He actually plays at Yorkshire Ballet summer school.  I went to watch there and the music sounded familiar so when the teacher called the pianist David, I realisd that it was actually him!.  I felt like I was in the presence of royalty!  It was fantastic to hear him play live!  I particularly like his West End to Broadway series.  He has a lot of stuff available on Youtube if you want to check him out.  His CDs are great because they give you several pieces for each type of exercise aand they are generally long enough for both sides at the barre and for a number of students to take turns doing exercises in the centre.

Edited by Dance*is*life
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In our last Zoom class, our teacher had arranged for their pianist to play live for the class which actually worked well. I did need to fix the screen onto my teacher so I could see what she was doing as otherwise it flicks back to where the sound is i.e. the pianist but once I sorted that it was great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Zoom, you can 'Pin' a particular window - I find it really useful when I'm trying to pick up the combination, but I really like switching to Gallery view once I know the choreography, so I have a sense of dancing with others!

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...