I have to be honest with you..

I hate the phrase "use your words.", it makes me want to vomit.

Maybe I've just heard it too often. Maybe it's the farm girl in me who grew up pretty rough and tough! All that being said, it was the first phrase that sprang to mind when I was thinking about today's topic.

Here's the thing.. every dance teacher marking an exercise knows that they need to count! You know that it's important that your exercise is in phrases of 8 counts (at least the average exercises). So...

I'm not playing the piano, why do I need to know music terms? Does it really matter if I know what those 4 words mean?

Yes! Yes! and YES!!!

You NEED to know what they are so you can be clear to your musicians, your dancers and yourself when you're marking! Your total awareness and ability to express these music qualities will take your teaching to a WHOLE new level! 

Bwoop! Bwoop! Bwoop!

4 Music Terms you NEED to Know, Understand and Demonstrate

Tempo

This is the speed of music you need. When...

Do YOU know how to teach music to your dancers? Why should you?

How do you do that anyway?

Good questions that deserve an answer!

Do you know how to teach music? I have no idea, but you'll have a solid idea how after reading this blog post!

Why should you teach music to your dancers? Well, that's like asking why a home cook should learn the attributes of different cooking ingredients. If you know that you can thicken a sauce with corn starch (keeping the sauce more transparent looking) or with flour...

Adagio Triple Meter Through the music of Christmas

Exploring the adagio triple meter through Christmas music! It's the perfect season since we've got ample options with fabulous melody lines that many people will recognize.

Adagio 3/4 We Three Kings

Features:

• Accent on each dancer count
• Music phrases of 4 dancer counts
• Beats 2 and 3 of each measure are less significant than the beat 1.

Adagio 6/8 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 

Features:

• Accent on dancer counts 1, 3, 5, 7
• Music phrases of...

Time to talk..

Music for Plies

When I think about plies as a musician, my mind immediately goes to long and slow. When I was first learning to accompany for ballet, plies were a safe haven since they were the easiest to play for. Later on, as I became more confident in my ability and in my understanding of accents, rhythms, etc, it became something dull and often boring for me. Now, in my 'old' age of experience accompanying ballet, I love them.

I love the weight and elasticity of the movement. I love...

If you are a ballet teacher, you use waltzes ALL THE TIME! Whether you select them yourself for an unset class or it's set in the syllabus that you use! A waltz for your pointe class warm up, another for slow tendus, perhaps one for rond de jambes and yet another for grand battement/cloches. You've already used 4 waltzes and you're not even into centre practice yet! If you teach unset ballet classes on a regular basis, you've got your favourite recordings for each of those exercises, however, the...