While Lisa Harris set the standard for music for class, and Rob Thaller gave us the classics… There is a new wave of CDs out there for teachers to use. The biggest one right now is David Plumpton… He really does have some great CDs out there. Additionally, there is Charles Mathews who uses a lot of classical ballet pieces in class form and tempos. They are cozy. Then there are the CDs by Craig WIngrove that are really nice as well. He has a categorized his CDs really well. Actually all three of them have. I also really enjoy using Eun Soo Kim’s tribute to L. Minkus. It is really good for a slower paced class. I have discovered Debbie Parks and Norman Higgans who have crafted full ballets into class work. The only issue is that barre and center are two separate CDs… I would buy them, but not that committed to them yet. The collection consists of The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Coppelia and La Bayadere, All of these composers/ accompanists/ arrangers have mastered musicality for class and designed each CD over a musical journey. It isn’t just a hodgepodge of music for class steps. Each one is actually well thought out to capture the character of the step, timing and musicality.
One response to “Ballet Music for Class…”
I’ve really enjoyed Plumpton so far — especially the way he doesn’t over-stress his accents, which I think allows for a more varied approach and forces dancers to think and count for themselves. I have gained leaps and bounds in terms of foot articulation from working tendus and degagés with no accents, which feels very natural with some of Plumpton’s pieces.
I’ll have to give some of these others a try, too! We’re really enjoying pieces from the classical ballet repertoire with one of my instructors right now, while the other uses Plumpton’s more modern stuff a lot.