After-words!

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, 2012, Lakeview Films, released in 2019 as a DVD on docudrama films label. Recommended. History of the company plus clips of some of their many new ballets with contemporary music.

Included on this DVD as an addition is a rehearsal of The Green Table choreographed originally in 1932 by Kurt Jooss to two-piano score by Fritz (Frederick) Cohen (1904-67). A timeless and emotional response to all wars, it won a choreographic competition in Paris as performed by his German company (all of whom fled Germany). In this film of a rehearsal from the 1960s, the role of Death was given an extraordinary portrayal by the dancer Max Zomosa. For now,

there is also an online mounting:  https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/joffrey-video-archive-the-green-table-rehearsal-1967/2373/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5kYC8jpUk   A later filming of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, in costumed studio performance of The Green Table. More clear if you can see the Kultur DVD, as staged by Anna Markard, daughter of Kurt Jooss. Role of Death was performed by Davis Robertson. The two-piano score was played by May Sofge and Fiona Boznos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Cohen Some brief information about the composer, who wrote ten scores for Jooss and worked as the Jooss company’s music director and pianist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Joffrey
Brief biography of the choreographer/director (1930-1988).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Arpino  (1923-2008).
Biography of the co-founder/dancer/choreographer/later artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet. Includes list of his ballets with an extraordinary range of composers’ music.

https://arpinofoundation.org/
Official site for information about licensing etc. for the late choreographer’s works. Brief video clips, plus brief bio and report on the centennial celebrations involving many ballet companies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joffrey_Ballet
Includes brief history of the company, which suffered several dreadful financial periods, including the raiding of his trained dancers by formerly patroness Rebekah Harkness. Their dancers and their repertoire were most unusual—and most “American.” Musical choices were tremendously varied and sometimes daring—as in the decision to present music by the pop/rock singer Prince. Eclectic especially for a company so rooted in classical ballet technique. And a reminder: this is the company that revived repertoire from the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, including Afternooon of a Faune and  Petrouchka with Rudolf Nureyev in the lead roles; The Rite of Spring; The Green Table choreographed by Kurt Jooss with music by Frederick Cohen; Léonide Massine’s outstanding ballets Three Cornered Hat and Parade.

The Green Table as performed by the Joffrey Ballet is available on a 2013 Kultur video. Highly recommended! The 1998 VHS tape of the Joffrey’s Tribute to Nijinsky with Rudolf Nureyev is still available—for a price, but unique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboards_(ballet) Info about the ballet to music by Prince.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpBgLc5gIo Comments about Billboards by Gerald Arpino and clips with the dancers. https://vimeo.com/331697405 Performance of Billboards. 1 hour 15 minutes. Warner Bros. released a VHS tape, but there is currently no DVD. At the time of its premiere, the ballet was subject of some controversy precisely because of its joining classical ballet technique inherited from past traditions with popular music of the time. Certainly an example of relating past and present!

 http://www.joffrey.org/about Current information about the company, now located in Chicago. Fall 2020 as with many companies, the virus forced cancellations, but in a welcomed announcement for their 2022-23 season, the Joffrey Ballet introduced programs titled Beyond Borders—“a celebration of the company’s maverick legacy.”

Sasha Anawalt, The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company (Scribner 1996 edition). Covers the company from its inception until the death of Robert Joffrey in 1988. The artists involved, both choreographers and dancers over time, offered an extraordinary range of musical styles. Complete listing of works included with names of composers and titles of music, and indications of commissions.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/music-and-dance-in-real-t_b_1972487  article “Music and Dance in Real Time: The Joffrey Ballet’s music director Scott Speck” comments on how the orchestra and dancers prepare for performances together.

Challenges for Contemporary Conductors

Previous essays in Appreciating Ballet’s Music were focused on the creative phase and efforts involved in mounting European ballets in the past. But of course the role of conductors was always crucial to the success of what happened onstage with dancers.

This has continued to be true, and it seems pertinent to touch on what happened subsequently in the United States because whether new works or revivals are staged, conductors can either make or break a performance. Some of the articles in the endnotes discuss specific situations and offer general observations about how a conductor can contribute to overall excellence in a ballet performance.

* * *

In 1916, when Vaslav Nijinsky headed up a Ballets Russes cross-country tour of America, he was in charge of 65 dancers and 60 orchestral musicians. What an expense! But there were no recordings of their repertoire in those days, and the advantage obviously was that the conductor and musicians delivered the same music for the dancers in location after location. For the company’s prior U.S. tour, Ernest Ansermet conducted, and as reported in Lynn Garafola’s book, all conductor salaries were paid by Diaghilev. For the tour under Nijinsky, Pierre Monteux conducted, except for performances of Till.  The Metropolitan Opera guaranteed the transportation and salary costs of the orchestra.

Subsequently, such an expense would have been unthinkable for other companies, and so what happened is that touring ballet companies would take their conductors along, but hire musicians as needed in each city. Obviously the rehearsals and artistic sympatico and quality of instrumental performance could not always be counted on. Certainly this added to the challenges for the conductors and influenced the quality of the stage performances.

As the 20^th century progressed, recordings came to be frequently used to lower costs but also as a way of getting around the uncertainties involved with ever-changing instrumental orchestral players and lack of adequate rehearsals.

* * *

Extolling the difference that live music and good conductors can make to a ballet performance, (while acknowledging the expense), writer Geoff Fallon commented:

Far more than recorded music, live music brings greater depth, intensity and emotion from the dancers and, indeed from the performance as a whole. By definition live music is in the moment, and under the baton of an experienced ballet conductor with a well-rehearsed orchestra, may be instantly adjusted during the performance to allow the dancers to more fully express themselves, or at other times, may push the dancers to the edge of their abilities. Live music produces a richer artistic experience for the dancers and, of course, an enhanced experience for the audience.

Observing the different demands upon ballet conductors in comparison with those in the purely symphonic world, Fallon pointed out  that to reach a level of excellence in collaborative artistry, “the ballet conductor must not only know the music, but must also know the choreography as well as the abilities and personalities of the individual dancers.”

At New York City Ballet

One company that has been fortunate in having its own ongoing orchestra and a history of excellent conductors is New York City Ballet. Following the eras of Robert Irving and Hugo Fiorato came Andrea Quinn and Clotilde Otranto. Since 2015, Andrew Litton has been the principal conductor.

To gain an impression of what Litton does in his role, an enlightening program to watch is the Guggenheim “Works and Process” online. (See notes). Speaking with Theodore Wisprud, and with admirable live dance segments by members of the New York City Ballet, the conductor recalled his very first (and amazing) professional work with dancers. As an 18-year old Juilliard student, an opportunity fell into his lap to appear on Broadway as a pianist accompanying Rudolf Nureyev! Subsequently he did a program with Natalia Makarova. And it seems that his familiarity with the specific repertoire of New York City Ballet was gained simply by attending many performances around that time.

Then came 35 years conducting strictly symphonic concerts. Listings of his overwhelming credits for live performances as well as recordings can be accessed online. (Again, see notes.) But after guest conducting Coppélia  at New York City Ballet, he was offered the top position. Describing the duties that entails, Litton outlined a typical day: a three-hour morning rehearsal with the orchestra followed by attending all-afternoon studio rehearsals during which the dancers are accompanied by pianists only; and in the evening a full theater performance. For ballets long in repertoire, the onstage rehearsals are usually accompanied only by piano—so for many dancers, the first time they will hear the orchestra will be during the public onstage performance! With brand new ballets, however, there are typically several days of onstage rehearsals with orchestra.

Perennial among conductors’ concerns is tempo. “For 35 years I’ve decided the tempo,” commented Litton. Transferring from being on the podium during symphonic concerts to being in the pit with ballet, the conductor found sometimes tremendous differences. Notably, he spoke of recent scholarly findings that have led to faster tempos for Baroque pieces, while for dancers the tempos may be slower.  And together with dancers he demonstrated the different impression made with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue when he performed it on the piano at his preferred tempo—and then at the slower speed chosen by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon (more suitable for the dance). “Yes, I win!” Litton exclaimed gleefully after the fast version. There was a tremendous difference for both dancers and audience. Litton referred to the fabled saying of conductors asking dancers: “Tonight do you want it too fast or too slow?”

The conductor spoke with enthusiasm about the enormous musical repertoire at New York City Ballet: how, for example, so many more works by Stravinsky are heard there than in purely symphonic concerts, where the repertoire sometimes seems to get in a “rut” with audiences hearing certain classical favorites season after season. For New York City Ballet’s “Here and Now” festival, as an example, the orchestra and dancers presented 43 different pieces in two weeks!

And finally, Andrew Litton spoke with admiration about the musicality of the dancers themselves and the way they know details of the music. For example, he cited how the ballet mistress Rosemary Dunleavy would sing or hum any passage where she wanted dancers to pick up during a rehearsal. Typical!

The notes below offer a link to this intriguing program plus some sources for information about how other conductors work with ballet dancers.

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notes:

Ballets Russes tours:

For financial details of the company’s tours in America, see Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (Da Capo Press edition, 1998 reprint of the work originally published by Oxford University Press in 1989) p. 206:

The Metropolitan assumed responsibility for all administrative, travel, and orchestra costs, along with Nijinsky’s $60,000 salary, and the cost of two new productions, Till Eulenspiegel  and Mephisto Valse, both to be choreographed by the star. Diaghilev’s financial commitment was limited to salaries of the dancers, conductor, chief machinist, and company managers….

Unfortunately for Diaghilev, the tour was a fiasco. Despite generally good notices and occasionally good houses, the Metropolitan lost a quarter of a million dollars.

In a personal email dated August 28, 2020, Lynn Garafola kindly took the time to clarify some facts about the conductors:

The Ballets Russes made two tours of the U.S. in 1916.  The first began in New York at the Century Theatre on January 17, was followed by a tour of sixteen cities that began on January 31 and, finally, a season at the Metropolitan Opera House that began on April 3.  Diaghilev led the tour, with Ansermet as the conductor.  (Nijinsky rejoined the company at the Met.)  The second tour, which was under Nijinsky’s direction (Diaghilev had elected or was forced to remain in Europe), opened at the Met on October 16 and was followed by a very long tour that ended in Albany, New York, in February 1917.  When Monteux arrived in New York in September 1916 he announced that as someone who had fought in the trenches he would not conduct “Tyl Eulenspeigel,” which had music by Richard Strauss.  Anselm Goetz was thus hired to conduct “Tyl” in New York.

By Nijinsky’s granddaughter, Kinga Szakats Nijinsky Gaspers, Nijinsky in America: The American Tour of the Ballets Russes, 1916-1917. (Biblio, 2013). p. 200 includes a review from Pittsburgh indicating that the conductor H. H. Heidelberg conducted Till Eulenspiegel. It seems he also conducted in at least San Francisco and St. Louis.

Another source suggested by Lynn Garafola is Nesta Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States 1911-1929 (New York: Dance Horizons/London: Dance Books, 1975). p. 208 mentions that Monteux did—apparently on an emergency basis—conduct Till once, in Cincinnati in February 1917. The book traces tours in the U.S. and England, with reproductions of programs, photographs, and a multitude of critical reviews from regional newspapers. Nijinsky’s tour, pp. 199-212.

A related  CD is Ansermet and the Ballets Russes, on Decca/Eloquence label. With a booklet by Francois Hudry that mentions that on the American tour, Ernest Ansermet conducted 105 performances in 105 days.

Later in America:  

A disheartening but very interesting article about what happened later in the 20^th century in America is this report by John Rockwell. The critic suggested that “you can’t have a really great overall performance of most ballets without a genuine collaboration between pit and stage,” and concluded that “great music is a prerequisite for great dance.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/why-are-ballet-orchestras-bad-why-are-ballet-orchestras-bad.html

A more positive story is that of San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. For information drawn from interviews with the conductor Denis de Coteau, see report  of how he changed the quality of the orchestra, in Katherine Teck, Music for the Dance, pp.127-132.

For a succinct article about the history of San Francisco Ballet’s Orchestra since de Coteau took the baton in 1975 up to the present (including their recordings of ballet music) see https://www.sanfranciscoballetorchestra.org/about/

New York City Ballet:

The New York City Ballet Orchestra is often held up as an example of good ongoing support for the dancers. Again, for an interview with the late conductor Robert Irving, see Katherine Teck, Music for the Dance, pp. 124-127.

https://www.nycballet.com/discover/our-orchestra/andrew-litton/ Brief profile of conductor for New York City Ballet since 2015, Andrew Litton. A longer bio plus covers of his more than 130 recordings and reviews of orchestral concerts. https://andrewlitton.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrjYdjfmxGs The Guggenheim Works and Process program.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/arts/dance/25sulc.html A 2006 article by Roslyn Sulcas, “Dance Conducting: Good for the Nerves if Not for the Career,” drawing on interview with Andrea Quinn, who for five years conducted the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Several other conductors were also interviewed for the article.

Widely applauded as an exceptionally “musical” dancer, former New York City ballerina Suzanne Farrell offered some pointed observations about tempos and conductors, in her memoir Holding On to the Air (2002 University of Florida edition, pp. 152-153):

It is perhaps only a personal truth, but I believe that a dancer who tries to analyze the music, to interpret every note physically, to accentuate the obvious climaxes, will bypass what music is really about. It is a definition of time, and that can only be spontaneous. Moving with music is not an intellectual feat; it is an emotional, physical, sensual response to a given moment of time. Tempo, the speed with which the score is played, is not a stable element of musical production and therefore can never be relied on in performance. To me, being able to adjust to the tempo of each separate occasion is essential to one’s sanity as a dancer, because no two conductors are alike. Expecting one tempo guarantees you won’t get it.

I have danced fast Symphony in C’s and slow ones and hundreds in between; no two have ever been alike, and that is what is exciting about tempo. It is open to interpretation by the conductor (within certain confines), and it is the dancer’s job to respond appropriately. One of Balanchine’s most important innovations in dance was to declare—and insist—that music be the first priority to a dancer.

This law was truly revolutionary in a craft where so often the tempo is established by the dancers while the conductor merely tries to follow their needs and adjustments. In Balanchine’s world the dancers were in service to him, but everyone, including him, was in service to the music. Even today this priority more than any other single element separates the New York City Ballet from other companies.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

About other conductors:

For a slice-of-life with the freelance orchestra for American Ballet Theatre preparing to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1986, see Katherine Teck, Music for the Dance, chapter 7. Chapter 6 focuses on  instrumentalists themselves.

For a current roster of orchestral players and profiles of the ABT conductors, go to https://www.abt.org/the-company/orchestra/

From 2015, “What are Ballet Conductors For” by Joe Horowitz, about U.S. performances by the Marinsky Ballet (which brought its own orchestra all the way from Russia), conducted by Valery Gergiev.
https://www.artsjournal.com/uq/2015/01/what-are-ballet-conductors-for.html

From the danceus website, here is a good article by Geoff Fallon in which he asks “What does the ballet conductor really do?” and then gives a reply, after first commenting on what regular symphony orchestra conductors do. Comments on advantages of live music. Quotations are taken from this source:
https://www.danceus.org/ballet/ballet-conductors-enhance-the-artistic-dance-experience/

Here is an appreciative article by Sarah L. Kaufman from The Washington Post of April 29, 2020 about what conductors and their musicians can do to adjust to what is happening onstage. “Ballet conductors are the hidden heroes of the art form,” she wrote in connection with classics like Swan Lake and Giselle.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/in-ballet-conductors-are-the-dancers-guardian-angels/2020/04/28/5b42b2be-7b48-11ea-9bee-c5bf9d2e3288_story.html

And finally, this is a very long hyperlink but here is a spread of images of ballet conductors. If you click on each picture, online sources pop up. (Including information about Robert Irving, Constant Lambert, John Lanchbery, Barry Wordsworth, Riccardo Drigo, Emil deCou, Pierre Monteux, and Nicolette Fraillon of the Australian Ballet.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFE-8KFo_ZE  Fraillon explains what she does.
https://www.google.com/search?ei=PPoqX521EKqLytMP9KGb4AM&q=ballet+conductors&oq=ballet+conductors&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjoECAAQR1DhW1jhW2DtZGgAc AF4AIABN4gBN5IBATGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6wAEB&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwidw6jG2ITrAhWqhXIEHfTQBjwQ4dUDCAw&uact=5

Paul Taylor’s Music Director:

Although considered a “modern dance company,” and his dancers performed barefoot, yet it is not misplaced to pay tribute here to the late choreographer Paul Taylor (1930-2018) and his music director Donald York (1947-2021). Taylor ranged far and wide in his choice of music, and valued live musical performances whenever finances permitted.

Donald York had a rare talent for collaborating with dancers as both composer and conductor for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. As their music director for decades, he led the orchestras that performed for the eagerly awaited spring seasons in New York City.  On tour the company usually had to use recordings, but York did conduct some out-of-town engagements with live orchestras.

The original scores that York composed for Paul Taylor include Polaris; Diggity; Lost, Found, and Lost; Snow White; Last Look; Syzygy; Of Bright and Blue Birds and the Gala Sun; and House of Joy. In addition, he arranged many works for the company, and for some dances performed as pianist (for instance for Taylor’s Rehearsal, set to Stravinsky’s two-piano version of The Rite of Spring). His versatility extended to arranging music for shows and conducting on Broadway, including a revival of Sweet Charity and Bette Midler’s Clams on the Half Shell.

The musician was also a warm and imaginative human being. I had the pleasure of interviewing Don York for my book Music for the Dance: Reflections on a Collaborative Art (see pages 69-72 and 95-99).  He participated in the unusual conductors’ panel presented by the International Guild of Musicians in  Dance, at Marymount Manhattan College, saying goodbye by declaring “California, Here I Come!”

And indeed, York based his subsequent career on the West Coast, though he continued to work with the Taylor company. Additionally, he did national tours as conductor for major musicals including Chicago, Beauty and the Beast, The Producers,  and Fosse, and of course dance was an important part of such shows. Closer to his new home in Temecula, California, he was music director and musical performer for a show called Songs for a New World, and performed with the musical Bandwagon presented at the Old Globe in San Diego.

As an arranger, early on Don York had done work for children’s television specials, and during his career he had various interesting projects. One, in 2000 was to both compose and conduct his “Song of Old” for the lighting of the national Christmas tree when Bill Clinton was there as president, with the Navy band accompanying singers from the Fosse touring company. Near the end of his life he composed The Quarantine Quintet for the American Brass Quintet. It was premiered at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2021, with the three movements titled Loss; Grief; and Hope. And it seemed that York never stopped making music. He left unfinished a musical he was working on about a child prodigy.  (He himself had in fact been a child prodigy, going on to become quite skilled as a jazz pianist). 

But it was as a conductor that endeared Donald York to many colleagues. Instrumentalists who worked with him in various pits would remark not only about his collaborative theater skills, but also about his appreciative and considerate way of dealing with musicians.

Some years ago, speaking with me in a private interview, Paul Taylor had remarked:

Don is the best conductor I have ever worked with. His sense of timing is absolutely marvelous; it’s a miracle. He has a God-given sense for what is right. He knows what our tempos should be; we’ve decided on that. He doesn’t usually vary his tempos unintentionally. But for some evenings, just for the night, it might be better to move things along more, not drag or take time here, because it’s working for the audience, or for the dancer. With Don, there are intentional  variations.

https://paultaylordance.org/discover/repertory/taylor/ See repertoire at the company website.   The music is listed for each work, and for some there are audio samples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyGWsGl7Ezo an old recording, but with Donald York conducting Bach for Paul Taylor’s Esplanade performed by his then very young company! This link is part 1 of 5; the rest follow one after the other.

Highly recommended is the Docurama DVD Paul Taylor Dancemaker, a film by Matthew Diamond that was nominated for an Oscar. Provides glimpses into rehearsals, touring in India, the hard work and incredible artistry of the dancers, with clips of repertoire, including two with scores by Donald York: Polaris and Last Look. Also suggests variety of music used—by Bach, Handel, Offenbach, Astor Piazzola, plus surprising mix for Cloven Kingdom (Corelli, Cowell, Miller). One stellar dancer, Patrick Corbin, is filmed remarking “You completely lose yourself and become part of the music.” Another is heard referring to the dances as “ballets,” and they certainly do impress one as the highest “art” possible! Donald York was listed as music director at the time the film was made (1998). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K07lVisGJSw This is an upload of the DVD.

Unfortunately, there seems to be currently only one other available DVD of the company. Paul Taylor Dance Company in Paris was filmed in 2012 and is on Bel Air Classique label. It includes an exhiliarating non-stop performance of Brandenburgs set to Bach, and the deeply emotional Beloved Renegade, set to Poulenc’s Gloria and offering a general tribute to the American poet Walt Whitman. Michael Trusnovec gives a stunningly beautiful sculpted portrayal as the lead; Laura Halzack is the guiding angel.

See obituary of Donald York, written by Penelope Green in The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/obituaries/donald-york-dead.html

https://paultaylordance.org/ For current information about the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Michael Novak is artistic director; David LaMarche is music director. And since 2015 the company has partnered with the St. Luke’s Orchestra based in New York City, now conducted by Bernard Labadie.

For Paul Taylor’s essay “Why I Make Dances,” see Katherine Teck, Making Music for Modern Dance. pp.244-47.

https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/cue-the-protest-musicians-union-objects-to-taylor-dance-companys-use-of-recorded-music/  A report from 2012 of the difficult decision the dance company had to make to use recorded music. Those audience members who objected, however, apparently did not help enough to raise the half-million or so dollar cost of hiring union musicians. Some conductors in other dance companies have suggested the solution of ear-marking some fund-raising for the option of live music. An ongoing challenge.

https://www.local802afm.org/allegro/articles/dancing-to-live-music-together/ The viewpoint of union Local 802. Reports the solution found for funding live music was that Paul Taylor himself  provided a sizable amount personally by selling some of his art collection, and then his board chipped in.

Instrumentalists in the Pits

Now for a few words about the performing orchestral musicians directed by all those conductors! Until the latter part of the 19^th century, if you were an instrumental musician in the United States, you were pretty much on your own when it came to economic and contractual arrangements. You didn’t even have any associations the equivalent of those medieval guilds.

Generally considered the first musicians’ labor union in the U.S. was the Musical Mutual Protective Union formed in New York City in 1860 by what was at first a social club of German musicians. A national organization was formed in Philadelphia in 1871, and it is interesting that one of its thrusts was to counter the competition from traveling musicians and road shows—a concern seen previously among the medieval guild members! By 1896 the American Federation of Musicians was chartered for “any musician who receives pay for his musical services.” And in 1921 Local 802 of the AFM was chartered for New York City professional musicians. Their initial admission requirement was a two-dollar fee. Other locals were formed throughout the U.S., and nowadays anyone who wishes to may join online (and subsequently pay the going rate of dues depending on which local is involved).

Unlike the requirements of the medieval Paris guild, aspiring AFM members do not have to audition or serve years as apprentices. It is considered that anyone who wants to join is already a competent professional performer—and most likely one who has had years of music lessons. Competition for the highest-paid positions (for instance with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra or Radio City Music Hall) is fierce—and instrumentalists may have to audition for specific organizations, nowadays often behind a screen to insure there will be equal opportunity focused on talent alone. For ballet orchestras, arrangements differ:  auditions may be required for more long-term positions; in the case of a basically free-lance orchestra, the orchestra’s contractor may simply recruit union players considered good for the open positions, perhaps only for a single season.

The AFM is mainly focused on financial matters and working conditions, yet the union affirms some fundamental values in its mission statement: working so that members can live and work in dignity and find their work compensated fairly; recognizing the importance of members having the opportunity to develop their talents and skills. They also assert commitment to treating each other with respect and dignity regardless of ethnicity, creed, age, gender, citizenship, disability, marital status, family status, national origin, or sexual orientation.

This last standard is a welcome change.  Earlier on, women and African-American musicians were subject to enormous prevailing prejudice. There were social barriers as well. At least one fine 20^th-century musician for American Ballet Theatre left the company precisely because on a tour of the South, she could not stay in the same hotel with the white dancers because of segregation.

Before that, there was a noteworthy report that had an unexpected outcome. The very popular ballroom dance artists Vernon and Irene Castle had a favorite musician: James Reese Europe (who had an enormous reputation not only with his dance orchestras but also because of his stellar Army band that served in Europe during World War I). During one Broadway engagement, the Castles found that union rules then did not allow black musicians to play in the pits of Broadway theaters. They got around that by having Europe and his instrumentalists perform onstage!

The restrictions due to racial prejudice have changed considerably by now. Similarly, in regard to women musicians. For one example: Julie Landsman has been widely recognized as one of the outstanding hornplayers in the world. For 25 years she was principal horn with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra—considered the highest accomplishment for an orchestral instrumentalist. The way she made her “breakthrough” was by playing behind a screen during the audition so that the opera committee could not see her. As a finale, she played the long call from Wagner’s opera Siegfried (one of the most difficult passages in the repertoire), and when she came to the final last high note, she held it and held it beyond what anybody ever expected. Putting down her horn, she could hear the committee gasping—and she knew she had won the position. For a quarter of a century she performed beautifully with the orchestra to accompany not only singers but also the dancers onstage.

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notes and explorations:

https://www.local802afm.org/history/ brief history of New York City AFM Local 802, written by Bill Rohdin.

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/vernon-and-irene-castle This includes report that the Castles were the first popular dance artists to hire black musicians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Reese_Europe Brief bio of leader of Harlem Hellfighter’s Band in World War I, later of the Clef Club orchestras that played for social dance engagements and dance performances.

Reid Badger, A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). A must-read book about this remarkable musician, especially for those interested in the history of professional African-American musicians for dance.

Brief profile of the late outstanding accompanist Marjorie Landsmark-DeLewis, in Katherine Teck, Movement to Music: Musicians in the Dance Studio, pp. 31-35. Includes her comments on playing for American Ballet Theatre, and their tour of the South.

The AFM did not and does not enter into contractual arrangements for studio pianists—who are considered soloists who accept individual financial arrangements in professional companies. Similarly, in colleges and private dance studios, pay for accompanists is considered an educational matter, with arrangements made by each school.

For information  about the Met horn player, see http://www.julielandsman.com/ By clicking on her “Music” section you can hear her play the long call from Siegfried and a number of other excerpts plus the entire beautiful Brahms trio with piano and violin.

The International Guild of Musicians in Dance

Unlike the AFM union which has a primarily economic purpose, the International Guild of Musicians in Dance does not enter into contracts or become involved in financial arrangements. Rather, as highlighted in its mission statement, its goal is to “promote artistic excellence and develop education in the field, cultivate and encourage increased communication between and within the worlds of music and dance, and create a forum for the sharing of ideas, information, and resources among its members.”

This unique organization was founded in 1991 by the late William Moulton—then director of music in the dance department of SUNY Brockport, later at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Membership has never entailed any requirement other than the desire to learn more skills and share information about how musicians and dancers can collaborate successfully. No apprenticeship is necessary, and membership is open to musicians and dancers in many styles, to students, teachers, and professionals alike.

Here is a sampling of experiences at Guild conferences.

Workshop sessions

The Guild has held conferences that have included formal public dance concerts. But also highly valued by members have been the workshop sessions: musicians accompanying dance students in studios; outstanding dance artists lecturing and dancing in improvisatory performances; experienced collaborators sharing their insights into composing and teaching; dancers explaining the music and instruments used in styles from various cultures around the globe; teachers giving tips about how to structure courses in music for dancers.

Conductors’ panel

As just one example of conference offerings, for its 1995 workshop in New York City (hosted by Saul Spangenberg at Marymount Manhattan College), the Guild threw a spotlight on the important role of conductors who are more usually down in the darkened pits. The experienced panel included Donald York of the Paul Taylor Dance Company; Stanley Sussman of the Martha Graham Dance Company as well as the Cleveland/San Jose Ballet; David Briskin of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company; David LaMarche of the Dance Theatre of Harlem; and Robert Sirota of the Carlisle Project and Peabody Institute.

Summarizing his appreciation of this unique opportunity for specialist collaborative musicians to gather and talk about their work, Donald York wrote in a thank-you note:

It was wonderful to be a part of your conference. Inspiring to be in a room where everyone shares in the same madness. The Guild represents a small corner of the universe, but a wonderful, magical corner where the spirit can soar. I’m glad to have been there.

Musicians who dance and dancers who are also musicians

Participants at Guild conferences over the years have featured artists with multiple talents. Particularly outstanding was Maria Tallchief, considered “America’s first prima ballerina” when she danced for Balanchine. Later director for ballet at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, as a young girl she had studied piano and at one point had even considered becoming a concert pianist. She gifted a Florida Guild gathering with recollections and opinions about music for dance.

Among many others who have shared their talents in talking and performing and demonstrations, here is a sampling:

• Ben Hazard, not only a composer and dancer with the Atlanta Ballet.
• Lou Harrison, composer of many scores for ballet and modern dance.
• Musician/dancer Andrew Warshaw demo of motor movement and kinetics.
• Viola Farber, pianist then dancer for Merce Cunningham; then choreographer.
• Vernon Windsor, musician/dancer for 15 years with Co’ Motion troupe.
• Marcello Cofini, musician from Italy not only lecturing about tarantellas but also giving a breath-taking performance as a dancer!

Outstanding collaborative musicians

• John Colman, former pianist for Balanchine and Kurt Jooss,
• Jess Meeker, composer/pianist for Ted Shawn.
• Lucia Dlugoszewski, composer for Erick Hawkins.
• Gladys Celeste, pianist at American Ballet Theatre.
• Pianist/composer Larry Attaway former music director for Bella Lewitzky.
• Philip Hamilton, jazz singer, percussionist, and studio accompanist.
• Douglas Corbin, pianist/associate professor at Florida State University; formerly in New York pianist for David Howard studios, American Ballet Theatre, Merce Cunningham, the Ailey School.

Musicians playing varied instruments

• Ron George, with his unique percussion setup.
• Cellist Gwendolyn Watson from Stanford University.
• Khalid Saleem, master drummer for the Chuck Davis Dance Company.
• Pianist Galina Bezouglaya of the Maryinsky ballet in Russia.
• Elina Lampinen of Finland leading a group demonstrating “body percussion.”
• Christopher Landau, pianist for Martha Graham’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” performing.
• Marjorie Landsmark-DeLewis, pianist for Agnes de Mille and other artists. accompanying class and also performing her arrangement of  “Balm in Gilead.”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-z6oST1zi8&list=PL2JEqamV5dOuM0VpPK3meITXXGuEBjh4U

Unusual performances and events

• Modern dancer Sara Rudner performing to the sounds of her own heartbeat.
• Choreographer Donald McKayle talking about his life in dance.
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/obituaries/donald-mckayle-87-broadway-and-modern-dance-choreographer-dies.html  Obituary of Donald McKayle (1930-2018).
• David Karagianis, from Loyola Marymount University in his “Dance Scorathon” presentations offering a number of alternative, and generally highly contrasting, scoring approaches to illustrate musical possibilities for original choreography by his students. “I almost always attempt to score or rescore these dances with a variety of contrasting meters and tempos,” he emphasized.
• In Urbana, host musician John Toenjes exploring multi-media methods and impelling often sedentary musicians to get up and improvise physically.
• Showings of video interviews with choreographer/musician Alwin Nikolais and Ruth Lloyd, pianist from early days at Bennington dance summers.
• Natalie Gilbert (music director of the American Dance Festival) leading a demonstration of instant vocalizing techniques.
• In Tempe, Robert Kaplan spearheading a performance leading  people around the beautiful campus of the Arizona State University.
• In Florida, a dancer from Ghana demonstrating  and a dancer from India  explaining the tala method of teaching rhythms vocally.

In dance studios

• In California, pianist Alan Terriciano improvising for class of dance students..
• Norman Beede, another master of pianistic improvisation.
• Master accompanist John Childs from New York.
• In Florida, Ray Brooks and Greg Presley demonstrating “This Sound Always Works!”

Among the favorite sessions of attendees have been “round robin” studio classes in which dance students keep moving while musicians slip on and off piano benches to show how different styles can appropriately accompany the same movement combinations. And then there were sessions where one musician would choose another at random to improvise duets together for the first time.

Lecture/demo highlights

• Janet Soares, author/dancer, assistant to Louis Horst (musician for Graham).
•  A panel of leading arts managers spoke about fund-raising.
• Guild president Bill Moulton and Alan Terriciano of the UNC at Irvine suggested ways to improvise impressions of historical musical styles.
• Stephen Rush of Michigan explained how with state-of-the-art equipment he could literally overnight present audio and print samples of possibilities that could be expanded for a choreographer’s work in progress.
• Manjunan Gnanaratnam described his innovative Open Source Dance project in Minnesota where artists could come together to explore multi-media trends.

These are only a small sample of the topics and variety of music and dance events open to attendees at the Guild conferences. In recent years, the Guild has held joint conferences with the National Dance Educators Organization (NDEO), which has enormous membership and enormous conferences.

Related efforts and materials

For a number of years, Suzanne Knosp of the University of Arizona was unflagging in her efforts not only as president of the organization, but also in initiating a masters degree in accompaniment of dance as well as hosting workshops in Arizona and arranging  for gatherings at other  locations.

All the Guild conferences from 1991 through 2021 are listed in notes below as well as on the organization’s website, and the complete articles for the first seven years of the Guild’s published journal are also available online. The Guild’s archives of documentary films, interviews, recordings, and writings are in the process of being assembled, with some materials planned to be digitalized.

Current information:

Under leadership of Jeff Zahos, the Guild had initiated enhanced online options: Zoom meetings and online discussion groups to share questions and information about their specialized skills and concerns, as well as to post announcements about performances, recordings, technology, and various employment positions.

Moving on, in 2023 Mariana Palacios of Spain became president of the Guild and has already expanded participation internationally. One of her first presentations was for Il Corpo nel Suono, a project begun in 2015 at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza, Rome. Their conferences and journal have as a focus the interaction between music and dance in training, choreography, and performance—exploring aspects of the past, present, and future. The latest symposium was in Glasgow, Scotland in April 2023, with the International Guild of Musicians in Dance represented by current president Mariana Palacios, Bill Patterson (vice president) and Suzanne Knosp (a former president). For information about the Italian conferences and publications, go to https://www.ilcorponelsuono.com/

_______________________________________________________________

notes and explorations:

For both information and membership in the International Guild of Musicians in Dance, go to https://dancemusician.org. For information about the current Guild president Mariana Palacios and her online videos and training for pianists, go to marianapalacios.com

For information about the Minneapolis project innovated by Manjunan Gnanaratnam, go to  http://www.opensourcedance.org/

Conferences to date, International Guild of Musicians in Dance:

Date, Location – Host

1991 Brockport, New York – Bill Moulton

1992 Brockport, New York – Bill Moulton

1993 Miami, Florida – Natalie Gilbert, Max VanderBeek

1994 Tallahassee, Florida – Greg Presley and Ray Brooks

1995 New York, New York – Saul Spangenberg

1995 Sibelius Academy, Finland – Elina Lampinen

1997 Tempe, Arizona – Robert Kaplan and David Karagianis

1998 Stockholm, Sweden – Lars Dahlman

2000 Columbus, Ohio (Meeting) – Natalie Gilbert

2001 Columbus, Ohio – Natalie Gilbert

2001 Salzburg, Austria – Elina Lampinen

2002 Columbus, Ohio – Natalie Gilbert

2004 Irvine, CA – Alan Terriciano

2007 Urbana, Illinois – John Toenjes

2009 Tallahassee, Florida – Doug Corbin

2010 Tucson, Arizona – Suzanne Knosp

2011 Minneapolis, Minnesota (concurrent with NDEO) – Suzanne Knosp and Manjunan Gnanaratnam

2012 Los Angeles, California (concurrent with NDEO) Suzanne Knosp

2013 Brockport, New York – Tamara Wilcox

2015 Phoenix, Arizona (concurrent with NDEO) – Robert Kaplan, Suzanne Knosp

2018 Durham, North Carolina  (Summer retreat) – Natalie Gilbert

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information on some of the featured artists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Tallchief bio of America’s first prima ballerina.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_McKayle bio of the dancer/choreographer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Farber bio of Viola Farber.

https://archives.jacobspillow.org/Detail/entities/2234 Jess Meeker’s bio at the Jacob’s Pillow Archives.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/11/obituaries/john-colman-dies-pianist-was-82.html Obituary of John Colman.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/13/arts/lucia-dlugoszewski-68-composer-directed-hawkins-dance-troupe.html Obituary of Lucia Dlugoszewski, written by dance critic Jennifer Dunnning.

Women Collaborators in Modern Times

A common concern nowadays in both academia and the professional world is to draw attention to accomplished women artists of both the past and our own times. For those interested in learning more about women who worked as accompanists and composed scores for  20^th century ballet, modern dance, and musicals in the United States, here are a few starter suggestions for exploration.

To gain a sense of what it was like to accompany classes and compose music for performances at the seminal modern dance summers at Bennington College in the 1930s, highly recommended is Elizabeth McPherson, editor, The Bennington School of Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2013). Quite a few were women and are introduced by name, the classes they accompanied, and the scores they composed. Especially in the section drawn from the  unpublished memoir by pianist Ruth Lloyd, one can glimpse both the creative work and excitement of the collaborating musicians then. Additionally, McPherson assembled Facts and Figures sections to indicate not only the faculty, but also individual dance students and what they did! A few of the summer students were coached to provide music for dance.

Further information about accompanist musicians in the 20^th century can be found in my  book Movement to Movement: Musicians in the Dance Studio.  In chapter 3, I drew from a personal interview with Ruth Lloyd (whose career had continued for 20 years working with dancers at Sarah Lawrence College). She shared details such as the fact that in the early years, wages for musicians ranged from 85 cents to $1.25 per class hour! Other sections in the book offer reports about both women and men who served dancers doubly—as  accompanists and composers—including Ruth Lloyd’s husband Norman Lloyd.

More collaborators who will be introduced briefly here pursued a variety of career paths. Some got their start as accompanists in dance studios, but later on their careers encompassed roles as music director for professional ballet and modern dance companies; commissioned composer for  symphony orchestras; journalist writing newspaper reviews as music critic; composer and arranger for Broadway shows; producer of operas and purely instrumental concerts;  administrator with not-for profit organizations; and as teacher in colleges and universities.

*****

Vivian Fine (1913-2000). Her notable collaborations included composing for Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, and José Limón. To read her own essay on “My Scores for Modern Dance: Tragedy and Comedy,” go to Katherine Teck, Making Music for Modern Dance, pp. 64-68.

https://www.vivianfine.org/  The composer’s family has kept up this dedicated website that includes a brief biography plus extensive listings of her compositions by category, plus information about scores and recordings. The website offers a complete article on “The Music of Vivian Fine” by Wallingford Riegger (a composer also known for his outstanding dance scores), from American Composer’s Alliance Bulletin.

Trude Rittmann (1908-2005) was outstanding as a composer/arranger for dances within Broadway musicals.  Much in demand, she worked with Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Hanya Holm, Joe Layton, and other choreographers for Broadway shows—including The King and I (for which she wrote original music for “The Small House of Uncle Thomas”). Her collaborations involved creating dance music for Carousel, Brigadoon, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and other highly successful productions. After her retirement, I interviewed the composer for my book Music for the Dance (pp. 45-49).

Rittmann, who had studied with Ernst Toch and Philipp Jarnach, fled the Germany of her birth in 1933, when Nazis were persecuting Jews. In England she began dance collaborations at the Kurt Jooss School of Dance. By 1937 she was in the United States working first as concert accompanist and then musical director for Balanchine’s American Ballet Caravan—also composing scores. But the heart of her career began with her association with Agnes de Mille, and I recall how the composer declared with enthusiasm how much she had loved working in the theater!

For an obituary of Trude Rittmann that is informative about her main credits, click on https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/theater/trude-rittmann-an-arranger-of-broadway-favorites-dies-at-96.html

For an extensive listing of Trude Rittmann’s collaborative work for Broadway, go to https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/trude-rittman-12294  [Here and in listing below, spelling Ritman is used.]

https://archives.nypl.org/mus/20167 Overview of the materials in the archives for Trude Rittmann held at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts.

Betty Walberg (1921-1990) was another bright light for both Broadway and college dancers. Born in Nebraska, she was among those Bennington students and professional musicians who had early experience with the likes of modern artists Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, and Hanya Holm. Later she lent her talent to the world of ballet, serving as company pianist for Jerome Robbins and his Ballet USA. She was the first piano soloist to be onstage for the premiere of his revised version of his comic ballet The Concert, and in later years she was crucial to both the stage and  film productions of West Side Story.  Her credits included composing dance music for Fiddler on the Roof, and doing arrangements for Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and other hit shows.

An excellent article written in 2021 by Spider Kedelsky provides an overview of “Betty Walberg: the One and Many.” It can be found online at: https://www.ohio.edu/news/2021/11/betty-walberg-one-and-many

The writer also describes Betty Walberg’s contribution to student choreographers who attended her workshops at Ohio University, and her work at The Juilliard School, where she developed the curriculum related to music for dance. In her later years, Walberg taught in California.

Though she suffered illness toward the end of her life, Betty Walberg was still able to contribute her thoughts for my book Movement to Music: Musicians in the Dance Studio (pp. 112-14). The comments that she made then are very worthwhile thinking about now, especially for her advocating that aspiring composers play for technique classes. Touching upon that in a 1968 panel for Impulse, she emphasized: “That is where I got my inspiration for my life’s work, playing for dance classes. I didn’t just jump into composing for dance.”

https://archives.nypl.org/mus/20303 An introduction to the archive for Betty Walberg’s scores held at The New York Public Library for Performing Arts.

https://oralhistoryportal.library.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4074780 About the Columbia University Library’s Oral History project for Betty Walberg, including both a recording and a transcript. Done in 1979.

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/09/obituaries/betty-walberg-69-a-musical-arranger-for-choreographers.htmlObituary written by Jack Anderson.

For information about other musicians who worked as arrangers (including for the dance sequences) a fascinating source of credits and brief biographies is Steven Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations (Oxford University Press 2009).

Norma Reynolds Dalby Freestone (1923-2006). Born in Sanford, Colorado, she studied composition with Karel Husa and the specialty of music for dance with Louis Horst. A pianist/percussionist/composer/teacher/accompanist,  during the course of her career this musician collaborated with over 200 dance artists, starting with being music director and composer for the Repertory Dance Theatre in Salt Lake City. Later moving to New York she was on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and composed scores for multitudes of student performances as well as for professional choreographers including Lucas Hoving, Don Redlich, and Kei-Takei’s Moving Earth.

The record of artists with whom Norma Dalby worked as a musician in both ballet and modern technique classes reads like a list of who was who in  dance at the time, including Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, José Limón, Pearl Lang, Alwin Nikolais, Glen Tetley, Dan Wagoner, Jennifer Muller, and Todd Bolender.

Norma was my mentor in improvising for studio dance classes, and I also had the unusual experience of performing on horn in a small ensemble for one of her performances, sitting precariously on top of a very narrow lighting bridge looking down at the dancers!  She suggested “It would be interesting to know how other people do this—compose music for dancers.” So later I interviewed her formally for my books Music for the Dance: Reflections on a Collaborative Art (pp. 52-55) and Movement to Music: Musicians in the Dance Studio  (pp. 192-98).

A brief article by Norma Dalby is “Rhythm Lies in the Seed,” Dance Observer, December 1963.

This composer was featured at professional conferences and festivals. British writer Judyth Knight wrote her report “Norma Dalby at The Place” for Dancing Times (Spring 1974) and commented on the musician’s teaching a Sound and Movement workshop at the London School of Contemporary Dance:

Indeed, she pursues relentlessly the cohesion of these elements, and although she is first and foremost a musician, she never allowed the perception and analysis of sound and movement to become separated….

Although Norma Dalby obviously possesses a vast knowledge of the technical resources available to the contemporary musician, whether in a creative, interpretative or teaching situation, it is equally certain that her interest is focused on an unceasing search for original means of expression, and that she constantly seeks to stimulate a similar open-mindedness and imaginative response through her classes….

I would even venture to suggest that to some extent it was Norma Dalby’s unquestionable artistic integrity and the rich human qualities which so entirely pervade her professional outlook that were the most highly valued features of her visit to The Place; and which accordingly made her such a warmly welcome guest.

https://www.deseret.com/2006/5/9/19750834/obituary-norma-reynolds-dalby-freestone  Local obituary in Utah.

https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv89804 Information about the composer’s archives now in Utah, including papers and original scores.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990) was born in Melbourne, Australia, where she grew up and attended the conservatory. She continued her training in London with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Constant Lambert, then subsequently in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Later the composer moved to New York City and became a U.S. citizen. She had a wide range of projects—including composing some beautiful and dramatic ballet scores for choreographer John Butler. Also known as a music critic, she wrote for the  New York Herald Tribune for eight years, and was active as a promoter of contemporary music by other composers, notably in her work with Composer’s Forum. Seeking a calmer less expensive  place to live and work, she made her home on a Greek island, yet still pursued contacts and projects with outstanding artists and patrons in other locations.

As Deborah Hayes observed in her listing for Oxford Music Online (accessed in 2008):

As a composer she had an affinity…for tonal music, consonant and often non-diatonic harmonies, and modal melodies such as are heard in traditional or folk musics. Her melodic writing is distinctive, as are her clear textures and rhythmic patterns, often reinforced by a variety of percussion instruments.

These very kinetic attributes can be noticed in her ballet scores such as for Butler’s Jephthah’s Daughter (preserved in a b&w film available at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts) featuring the dancer Carmen de Lavallade.

Biographer Suzanne Robinson (on the faculty of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music) offers results of her detailed researches in Peggy Glanville-Hicks: Composer and Critic (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2019). She chronicles the life and career of this artist, who found challenges in simply supporting herself especially as a woman composer. Though Glanville-Hicks did garner crucial fellowships, grants, and commissions, she had quite a few years of fragile finances, as documented in one of her letters quoted by Robinson [p. 138]:

There [is] no composer of even half my ability who has not had  backing at critical points in his career, (men too, most of them) and when I think how it’s a  hundred times more difficult for a woman to make a way alone with NO help from anywhere, I must say that I think it unspeakable that I’ve been left to struggle with it all this time.

https://glanville-hicks.info/about/  Suzanne Robinson’s online blog that includes a sampling of pictures and intriguing documentary information about the composer, her family, and colleagues.

A book that focuses on the creative output and style of the composer’s works is Victoria Rogers, The Music of Peggy Glanville-Hicks (Farnham,UK: Ashgate, 2009, available through Routledge). The author met Glanville-Hicks, played cello in the orchestra for a recording, and later had the opportunity to interview the composer.  At the time of writing, she was Honorary Associate Professor at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.

Though Victoria Rogers gives a chronological introduction to the styles of the composer’s specific compositions, unfortunately the collaborations with Butler and the ballet scores themselves are not discussed. Just a few paragraphs about Drama for Orchestra (p. 183), a reworking of the tense score that John Butler had commissioned in 1958 for the Spoleto Festival for his ballet Masque of the Wild Man. Also  (p. 179) a few words about Tapestry for Orchestra, the reworking of the 1959 score for Saul and the Witch of Endor. Similarly (p. 234) about Tragic Celebration, the reworking of the score for Jephthah’s Daughter. However, the author’s commentary on the general aesthetic views and practices of Glanville-Hicks is of interest (pp. 87-96), emphasizing the composer’s sparse textures of melody and rhythm (with harmony subsumed), and the influence of non-Western traditions. Rogers makes the telling generalization (p. 244):

Where the music of the dissonant avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s was never seriously intended for concert-going audiences and has survived largely as an intellectual relic for connoisseurs and musicologists, Glanville-Hicks wrote music directly for an audience.

To hear music by this composer for yourself, CD recordings are available via amazon—including songs, orchestral works, and instrumental pieces. Her operas Nausicaa,The Transposed Heads, and Sappho are all available now (with the last one not even performed during the composer’s lifetime).  A  sampler of vocal scenes from the Athens premiere of Nausicaa starring then-young soprano Teresa Stratas was conducted by Carlos Surinach, reissued in 1995 by CRI.

http://www.soundslikesydney.com.au/reviews/cd-review-sappho-the-opera-by-peggy-glanville-hicks/10360.html  An enthusiastic review of the premiere recording of Sappho in 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46BxEwavto  A 1960 recording of Drama for Orchestra (the composer’s reworking of the 1959 ballet Saul and the Witch of Endor) with Alfred Antonini leading the NAACC Festival Orchestra.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/13/obituaries/john-butler-74-choreographer-and-a-versatile-dancer-is-dead.html  An obituary of choreographer John Butler.

https://glanville-hicks.info/john-butler/ Brief online information about the collaborations between John Butler and Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

Choreographers might explore whether some of the purely instrumental works by Glanville-Hicks (such as the kinetic outer movements of Etruscan Concerto, plus its lush  Meditation) could offer attractive possibilities and be available for grand rights performance. Here is a link to the fine performance of the four-minute first movement with Keith Jarrett as piano soloist and orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjSQ8qHzR3M There doesn’t seem to be a CD, but Jarrett’s 20^th Century Piano Concertos is available as MP3 from amazon. Or for something a little different just to hear, the harp sonata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3rJqdSMCR4

*****

Lucia Dlugoszewski (1925-2000). Although far from traditional ballet styles, yet the collaborations of this Detroit-born composer  with modern choreographer Erick Hawkins (1909-94) should be spotlighted as outstanding among 20^th century partnering of sylized music and theatrical dance. And it can be noted that Hawkins himself had not only performed at Bennington, but also taught some classes in ballet there. After a short marriage to Martha Graham, he found a life-long love and collaborator in pianist/composer Lucia Dlugoszewski.

A most welcome recent biography is by Amy C. Beal, Terrible Freedom: The Life and Work of Lucia Dlugoszewski (University of California Press, 2022). The author set out to present her researched focus on the life and cultural times in which the composer worked, including mentioning some of the obstacles needed to be overcome by women composers in general.

Drawing on the extensive personal papers, letters, diaries, and scores of the composer now in the Library of Congress, the biographer introduces a student of wide-ranging interests who was considering medical school; the subsidized gestation of a self-described  “brash” young artist immersed in the avant-garde New York City scene of the 1960s; her long personal and professional collaboration with choreographer Erick Hawkins (with their romance beginning in 1951, their marriage in 1962, and intertwinings extending until his death in 1994—and actually beyond, when Dlugoszewski took over as director of his dance company and also presented choreography of her own).

The biographer brings together for readers some near-ecstatic reviews of both Dlugoszewski’s collaborative scores for dance and of her purely concert works especially from the 1970s on, when she received major commissions from the New York Philharmonic and the National Endowment for the Arts, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, and other outstanding presenters.

A sampling of reactions include a Village Voice critic calling Dlugoszewski’s music “dazzling examples of American music here and now” (p. 111). And on p. 123 the composer Ned Rorem is quoted as calling her “The Queen of the Dance,” and claiming that she was only one of two American composers—Leonard Bernstein being the other—to have come up with memorable ballet scores in thirty years.” Beal also quotes the composer Virgil Thomson (p. 121):

Calling her “an artist of great originality, of very high musical and intellectual powers,” he made the extraordinary claim that “there are very few composers of her quality anywhere in the world.”

And San Francisco Chronicle critic Heuwell Tircuit is quoted (p. 118):

There is intelligence and originality in her work…astoundingly balanced in form….Clearly, this is one of America’s most commanding composers, one you should know.

Amy C. Beal’s book helps us precisely to know more about the composer as a person, but importantly, also about the specifics of her dance collaborations, her touring and performing with the Hawkins dancers, her methods of notation, her musical styles and exploration of varying timbres with her invented percussion instruments, plus her aesthetic outlook as often presented in her concert program notes.

For easy access to two essays by the collaborators, see my collection Making Music for Modern Dance, which includes Lucia Dlugoszewski’s early 1957 article “Notes on New Music for the Dance: Choices Open to Collaborators at Midcentury” and the essay by Erick Hawkins: “My Love Affair with Music” written a decade later, in 1967.

Online at   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enl_G5Oq8rk   is a recommended presentation by Libby Smigel (dance curator at the Library of Congress, where the composer’s archives are preserved) and Kate Doyle (then a student at Case who was researching music by Dlugoszewski) discussing the collaborations between Dlugoszewski and choreographer Erick Hawkins. Filmed at the Library of Congress in 2017, the program includes samples of scores and charts.

https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2021/04/erick-hawkins-lucia-dlugoszewski/  A 2021 note about the new materials for Hawkins and Dlugoszewski now in the Library of Congress.

The American Dance Festival released a DVD filmed in 1988 titled Erick Hawkins: Poet of the Modern Dance, which includes both his eloquent thoughts and Lucia Dlugoszewski’s observations about creating music and dance for the theater. It can still be seen in some libraries.

To hear samples of music by this composer,  do an online search for Lucia Dlugoszewski You Tube. Among the works available online at this time is Disparate Stairway Radical Other performed  by the White Oak Ensemble (a string quartet) at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdYxYf5TcJU

And for viewers today the good news is that you can now purchase the Dance Horizons sampler film Erick Hawkins’ America, on DVD. Go to https://www.dancehorizons.com/product-page/erick-hawkins-america

For current event information as well as some stunning photographs and videos of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company (which is continuing to perform under the direction of Katherine Duke), go to https://www.erickhawkinsdance.org/  Included is a film of Cantilever with music by Lucia Dlugoszewski, performed for the American Dance Guild in 2009.

*****

Tania León, (b. 1943). This Cuban-born composer/conductor was chosen as one of the prestigious Kennedy Center honorees in 2022. She came to the United States in 1967, settled in New York City, became an American citizen, and carved out a wide-spanning career working with theatrical dance, composing and conducting concert music, teaching at the college level, and spearheading festivals of contemporary music. Her many notable achievements are listed on her website at https://www.tanialeon.com/ and include a 2021 Pulitzer Prize for her composition Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in celebration of the 19^th amendment granting women the right to vote.

But for our purposes here, the important thing to know is that she was the first music director for Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem. Her first score for ballet was Tones, for piano and orchestra, which was among the first choreography that Mitchell presented with Dance Theatre of Harlem, in 1971. Her musical projects for the company included working with Geoffrey Holder on Dougla (1974) and Belé (1981); arranging Judith Hamilton’s music for The Beloved (originally choreographed by Lester Horton) for a new staging by DTH; and an original score for Haiku choreographed by Walter Raines. For the Dance Brazil, she wrote Inura in 2009 for choreography by Carlos Dos Santos.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/arts/dance/dougla-dance-theater-of-harlem-geoffrey-holder-carmen-de-lavallade.html  Writing about rehearsals for a 2018 revival of Dougla under the direction of the choreographer’s son Leo Holder, and coached by his widow Carmen de Lavallade,  critic Gia Kourias referred to “Tania León’s shimmering, percussive score, created with Holder” and quoted de Lavallade as saying that “the music is just divine and it’s very exciting.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD1pWqMQTxQ  Dance Theatre of Harlem’s stunning performance of Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla in 2021. Even the curtain calls were choreographed! The musical instrumentation by Tania León was mostly percussion, but also featured several flutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqG3P80NOOU  Dougla through the Years, filmed in 2020, a Zoom discussion between generations of Dance Theatre of Harlem performers.  Dougla refers to people in Trinidad of both African and South Asian descent, and the onstage story depicted a traditional wedding.

https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/mitchell/dance-theatre-of-harlem–compa/repertory-list  Repertory list for Dance Theatre of Harlem, 1969-2004 with details of credits, compiled by Lynn Garafola for an exhibit at the Columbia University Library. The range of music used for dances performed by DTH under the leadership of Arthur Mitchell was just extraordinary.

Over the years León’s work with dancers included conducting ballet and dance music by a number of composers–including for the Broadway hit musical The Wiz (directed by Geoffrey Holder, with music by Charlie Smalls and choreography by George Faison). And for the  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater she prepared musical reconstructions and conducted the full-evening program “The Magic of Katherine Dunham.” More recently, she conducted a new score by Jessie Montgomery, commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival for Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Passage, choreographed by Claudia Schreier to mark the 400^th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans to arrive in Virginia in 1609. And in 2012 Pedro Ruiz choreographed a work for Dance Theatre of Harlem to Tania León’s Homenatge, which was dedicated to the pianist Adam Kent, who performed live for the dance as well as for the earlier musical premiere in Carnegie Hall. The music can be heard on the 2022 Albany CD titled Teclas de mi piano, on which Kent offers virtuoso performances of this piece plus Tumbao and nine other works by León.

For brief information about Tania León’s earlier professional involvement in dance (and her thwarted desire as a girl to take ballet lessons), see my write-up based on a personal interview, in Music for the Dance (pp. 72-75).

Now considerably more well-known in the concert world, Tania  León has numerous recordings available, and there are many clips of performances of her music if you do a search on You Tube.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/arts/music/tania-leon-new-york-philharmonic.html   William Robin presents fact-filled profile of Tania León.

A most informative and fascinating 2021 “Chat with Tania León” is available for viewing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p48FXcSaE4  with Sebastian Danila for The Orchestra Now of Bard College.

In the filmed interview, the composer describes her youthful musical training in Cuba as focused totally on classical piano repertoire. Her conducting experiences began for DTH at the Spoleto Festival in Italy! She went on to study conducting formally (including with Leonard Bernstein at his Tanglewood workshops), and in addition to study composition with Ursula Mamlock; to earn academic degrees; and to teach composition herself. Toward the end of her career in college academia, she was named a Distinguished Professor at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.  At present she continues her advocacy of contemporary music as director of the organization that she founded in 2010: Composers Now.

Regarding her own styles of new music, Tania León recalls that when her late father heard some of her early composition (created under academic influences including 12-tone techniques), he said it was very interesting, but asked pointedly where was she in the music. Subsequently she became much more free and diverse in how she arranged sounds. And touching upon how physical movement can inspire even concert music, she recalls how her father walked, and her composition titled Tumbao.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk0JBu_ryAw   Full 14-minute performance of Ácana by Tania León, performed by The Orchestra Now at Bard College, conducted by Leon Botstein in 2021. This is the piece discussed in the “Chat” above, and the title refers to an ancient kind of tree that is particularly strong. Not one of her dance scores, but very inviting for anyone just to listen to as a sample of Tania León’s concert music.

For those who want to know more about this composer, there is a highly recommended recent biography: Alejandro L. Madrid, Tania León’s Stride: A Polyrhythmic Life (University of Illinois Press, 2021). The author was, at the time of his writing, professor of musicology at Cornell University and subsequently joined the music faculty at Harvard University.

Of particular interest are chapters 3 (dealing with her dance collaborations and earlier composition of concert works) and 4 (which presents information about Tania León’s conducting). Summing up his own emotional reaction to this aspect of her musical work, Alejandro L. Madrid commented (p. 98): “León’s conducting style is sober and pragmatic, yet breathtakingly precise, elegant, and communicative.” And generalizing about her artistry, he wrote (p. 180);

Tania León’s music is more than the wonderful aesthetic beauty she has created; it is her deeply personal statements about tolerance, openness, fluidity, and the power of freedom and dreams. The story of her life is an example of love, integrity,  determination, independence, and struggle to succeed against all odds.

*****

The only English directory of women concert composers in the Western world seems to be The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel (New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995).There are listings and brief biographies for 875 women composers through the ages, and out of these you can find 64 with at least one “ballet” indicated in their works. Most entries do not include information about choreographers or performances. Indeed, for a large number of the brief biographies, there are no listings of “Works” at all. Obviously in this older book you won’t find entries about composers of newer theatrical dance scores that we may hear in our own times. But the directory can be at least a place for those interested to start exploring.

Subsequently, for information about how some unusual late 20^th century commissions for collaborations came about (involving both men and women), see my related journal article: Katherine Teck,  “Meet The Composer’s Composer/Choreographer Project: A Bold Vision with Far-Reaching Results,” in the Journal of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance, Vol. 1, 1991, pp. 4-16. This project—which was spearheaded by John Duffy—included 45 nonprofit dance companies, 60 composers, and 46 choreographers! With funding from both the Ford Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts, grants totaled $1,200,000. My  report can be accessed via the Guild’s website at https://dancemusician.org/

*****

Despite the success of some primarily concert-oriented musicians (both men and a few women) it can be pointed out that the number of their scores for choreography may seem limited in comparison to the collaborative output of music directors nowadays within college and university dance departments. Over their academic careers, a number of such specialty musicians have created dozens of soundscores (some even upwards of a hundred) for student performances, dance faculty, and professional choreographers.

As mentioned already, quite a few contemporary composers dedicated to theatrical dance started out learning their craft simply by accompanying studio classes in ballet or modern styles. And that aspect of collaboration will be explored next.

Exploring Professional Opportunities

For pianists who may be wondering how their talents could be put to use professionally: there is still a place for the traditional studio dance accompanist. Basically the same role filled as in ballet studios going back a long time. (Although for centuries, a solo violin was used in teaching dance—usually played by the dance master.) As an example of the skills called for nowadays, here is an excerpt from a posting made by the Richmond Ballet in 2019, and this is how many musicians for dance get started in the field. It should be noted that for studio musicians accompanying modern dance or jazz dance, perhaps the most important skill is being able to improvise in many styles. But for ballet, this is typical:

The School of Richmond Ballet is seeking to hire a part-time accompanist for weekly ballet classes as scheduled.  Accompanists support The School faculty in presenting ballet classes by providing inspirational accompaniment for dance classes. Pianists with prior dance accompaniment experience are preferred…Applicants need to possess a strong classical piano technique, good musicianship, and have the ability to follow musical direction.  A ready grasp of classical repertoire is essential and sight-reading, while not entirely necessary, is very helpful….Requirements include choosing music with appropriate rhythms and tempos by observing the movement of the dancers, having the ability to adapt/improvise in order to support the quality of the movement, always being prepared and consistent in the studio. Must be diligent, reliable, and maintain cooperative working relationships with faculty, staff and students.

Online classes to view:

Especially for those who have never seen a ballet class, the following websites from the annual “World Ballet” events provide some excellent examples of what pianists are expected to play in the studio class. Professional dancers do not want to hear repertoire when they are working out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SurwomMzEI4 From the World Ballet Day 2021 here is the Dutch National Ballet in a full company class taught by Charlotte Chapellier, accompanied by pianist Paul Lewis. Viewers thought this especially beautiful—both dancers and music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8zytT-8uuI  Royal Ballet for 2019 taught by Brian Maloney with pianist Robert Clark. A number of viewers particularly appreciated the pianist, one saying that “The main thing of ballet class is an accompanist!” Another viewer remarked on the fact that Clark did not use music—but with professional accompanists, this is normal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FySuVhmb-OY And this is 2018 class taught by Olga Evreinoff and with again pianist Robert Clark, identified further by words like “fantastic.” Witness to how in touch the musician must be with the teacher and class, here is an amusing comment by viewer Stephanie C: I love how the teacher basically says “ok so you’re going to bfisbalfbkfofhwiwbfkfownwos got it?! Ok let’s go” and the dancers are like yup ok got it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TYUCUcT41I  Artistic director Carlos Acosta introduces soloists and principals of the Birmingham Royal Ballet showcasing their onstage class for World Ballet Day 2020. Ballet master Dominic Antonucci sets the combinations for the  dancers, and Mathew Drury is the pianist—starting out with his variations on “Amazing Grace.”  A particularly nice class to watch, since the ballet master provides tempos and style with his voice plus some physical demonstration,  and at times the camera films from above. Then there are the extraordinary dancers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfCdj-jYso Bayerische Staatsoper class, taught in English by Yana Zelensky. Pianist, Natalia Rysina. 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIYn7W0mfuE Paris Opera Ballet class led by Andrey Klemm (partly in English). Pianist, Nanko Tsuji (partly some repertoire).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoF3xeWObD4 Staaatsballet Berlin, 2020. Yannick Sempey teacher; Nodira Burchanowa, pianist. She includes some music from ballet repertoire—just another  example of different ways of playing for class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-gz55Gdi0M Joburg, South Africa class. Viewers found this awesome! Teacher is Thabang Mabaso.  Unfortunately no live pianist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-7Fjb1Jdo Hong Kong Ballet, 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBqr9nyIRc Scottish Ballet 2019. Teacher: Oliver Rydout. Pianist, Brian Prentice. Especially nice! Lovely progression from gentle plié music to warming bodies further at the barre. Teacher is terrific in giving the expected rhythms and meters and tempos by the way he vocalizes the exercises. Pianist tastefully injects some jazz sounds now and then, beautifully supports dancers doing slow arabesques etc. up to men’s vigorous turns in second and ladies’ leaps. Good example of dancers’ amazing abilities to remember complicated center combinations immediately! One viewer commented:  “Great class! Great teacher! Fab pianist! Gorgeous dancers!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxGXQhc_4E Australian Ballet. Included practice for little swans from Swan Lake, excerpts from Cinderella, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Z-7_aIhQU Wendy Whelan guest teaches the trainees at Ballet Met. Tyrone Boyle is the pianist.  Unfortunately Ms. Whelan’s voice can barely be heard, but still worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGN9O0NFyM0 Artistic director Peter Boal leads three dancers of Pacific Northwest Ballet, May 2020 during time of virus, in an hour class. Pianist is Natasha Pinelis.

training for accompanists:

https://markmorrisdancegroup.org/community/professional-development/mark-morris-dance-accompaniment-training-program/Highly  professional intensive workshops in accompanying dance, at the Mark Morris studios in Brooklyn, NY.

https://www.postgraduatesearch.com/royal-conservatoire-of-scotland/52670842/postgraduate-course.htm  The Scottish Ballet in conjunction with the Scottish Conservatoire offers a program in Piano for Dance

http://www.ilcorponelsuono.com/home.html  International conferences at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome. Journals. Focus is on many aspects of collaboration, including both practical explorations of music for studio and performance, as well as scholarly research.

https://www.esbq.ca/en/accompaniment/ Another workshop—week-long, in Quebec.

https://www.nbs-enb.ca/en/professional-development/musicians-mentoring Canada’s National Ballet School mentoring for musicians program.

https://marianapalacios.com/ballet-pianist-course/  A unique online course in ballet accompaniment, by the Spanish pianist Mariana Palacios (who has worked in ballet studios for over 15 years, including for the Swedish National Ballet School and the Royal Danish Ballet). As a young girl, she studied both ballet and piano; as a teen she focused on piano—eventually combining her talents to accompany ballet classes and write a Masters thesis on the subject. So she has been developing her understanding of this demanding art for many years.

After traveling around Europe to observe other musicians and after working in different venues herself, Mariana can offer a sense of what is going on in the continent. In addition, she is president of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance and has already expanded the interchange of experiences and ideas of collaborating musicians from different parts of the world.

The course offered by Mariana Palacios is recommended for pianists curious to know what is involved in ballet accompanying, but it is also informative as training for novices and inspiring for those who have been at it for some time. Though her focus is on classes for advanced professional dancers, she also explains  what musicians may expect to experience in other levels of classes. She presents the French terms, the purpose and character of specific exercises, suggests what musical characteristics are appropriate…then offers demonstrations by two different dancers, followed by segments of her accompanying. In downloadable pages, she analyzes what is involved for each exercise: the meter, tempo, structure, character, and plays musical examples to go along with the videos.

Perhaps especially helpful for classically-trained pianists is the section demonstrating how musicians could begin to practice improvisation in not only classical styles, but also jazz and modal veins–starting with left hand patterns alone, and then adding new melodies based on motifs. Also provided are links to entire classes that viewers can see online, plus advice about protocols and challenges that ballet teachers face in studio classes. As part of her package,  Mariana Palacios offers one-on-one coaching for those who have further questions after completing the course on their own. Finally, she points out that there can be variety and many possibilities of style in musical accompaniment that can help dancers to execute difficult movements and repeated exercises.

https://www.dancemagazine.com/dance-accompanist-2569116256.html a light-hearted article from Dance Magazine May 2018 by Jonathan Mathews-Guzmán about what it was like to start out dancing and then turn to accompanying.

academic positions:

As an aspiring musician gains skills, another career possibility might be as a full-time (ten-month) “principal musician,” at a college or university, with responsibilities such as the following (taken from several actual calls for employment ):

Accompanying dance classes in ballet, modern, and jazz; hiring other musicians and scheduling part-time hours to cover all studio classes; mentoring less experienced musicians; composing original music for faculty and student performances; securing legal “grand rights” permissions if extant music by other composers is used; maintaining pianos and percussion instruments; maintaining sound systems; teaching students how to use sound systems; teach classes in fundamentals of music within the dance department; teach classes in history of music, including not only European works but also “world” and popular American styles; sight read music; provide sheet music for particular works requested by dance teachers.

In my article “Rosenella, or the Princess Musician” published in Attitude: The Dancer’s Magazine, I reported (with only a few exaggerations) about academic calls for employment, in order to point out just how much was expected and demanded of musicians who filled higher level positions as directors of music for dance:

Qualifications: MFA in music composition; demonstrated excellence in accompanying ballet and modern dance classes; strong classical piano technique and personal library of ballet scores; ability to improvise in all contemporary jazz, medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, Baroque, Classical, and world music styles; extensive experience in collaborative composing of music for professional dance productions; creativity in teaching music courses for dancers; excellence in performing at public concerts; technical expertise in state-of-the-art theatrical sound and recording equipment; thorough knowledge of dance technique and styles; proficiency with Latin, African-American, and Asian percussion instruments; means of transport and personal collection of drums; expertise in keyboard synthesizers and computerized composing; working knowledge of arithmetic and sewing; ability to count the right way.

Duties: teach undergraduate dance department courses in musical theory and musical literature; develop related curriculum; play 20 hours a week of accompanying studio classes in ballet and modern dance plus sessions in choreography and improvisation—using piano, percussion, synthesizers, recording equipment and other available instruments; audition, train and supervise staff accompanists; consult with faculty and student choreographers; serve on department committees; serve on university committees; supervise junior student choreography projects; supervise senior dance student choreography projects; supervise graduate student choreography projects; compose original music for dance projects; rehearse evenings and weekends; provide all aspects of sound production, including editing and mastering of performance master tapes; supervise musicians for performances; negotiate with musicians’ union; maintain sound equipment; maintain library of recordings; maintain activity in scholarly writings to insure tenure; maintain personal professional activity in performance, research, and composing; maintain sanity. [Attitude, Spring 1993, pp. 68-70]

Hats off to the professional collaborating musicians who in reality add so much to the efforts of dance students and teachers!

Musicians in Professional Ballet Companies

 For any music student or aspiring musician who is even thinking about a possible career with a professional ballet company, highly recommended is Matthew Naughtin, Ballet Music: A Handbook (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Though it has been published for some years now, this book is informative as  background, and also offers observations that may be of practical use. It briefly covers the history of this collaborative art; defines technical terminology; suggests the common structure of professional ballet companies; and explores finances plus  legal concerns. Speaking authoritatively as a long-term music librarian with the San Francisco Ballet, the author offers brief descriptions of what the technical staff does, and what the daily schedules of dancers are like.

More pertinently for musicians, there is a chapter about the specific skills needed for behind-the-scenes studio and rehearsal pianists. Then the author outlines the duties and concerns of  conductors, composers, and music librarians—which are so different from those of people in positions with symphony orchestras.

Following this very practical information, Part Two presents an alphabetical guide to most-performed repertoire, with brief remarks about each ballet, and indications of current sources plus lists of the usual order of dance sections for each theatrical work (and in some cases, for alternate choreographed versions). Included is a useful listing of ballet companies around the world, with websites and emails (also the 2014 music directors, though obviously one would have to check on current names). And finally, there are sample letters of request for performing rights.

To give a taste of the author’s insights, here from p. 80:

Of all the unglamorous behind-the-scenes tasks that go into facilitating the smooth functioning of ballet companies and the creation of great dance performances, that of the company pianist is perhaps the most crucial—and the least visible. Occasionally…pianists enjoy a fleeting moment onstage in the spotlight and a solo bow, but the daily reality is one of physically and mentally demanding work rewarded by the gratitude and affection of the dancers and the satisfaction of participating in a vital creative process.

The author goes on to speak of conductors, on p. 81:

Ballet conductors are a uniquely specialized species within the luxuriant flora and fauna of the musical landscape. They must serve three masters with equal dedication and concentration—the dancers on stage, the composer’s score, and the musicians in the orchestra pit—and they must keep dancers and musicians in perfect unity while giving the score its best chance to shine.

And as a composer of ballet scores himself, Naughtin observes (p. 87) that:

…the experience of “seeing” one’s music translated into movement has kept composers coming back to the ballet studio….The response of a choreographer and dancers to music does reveal hidden possibilities and wonders the composer, submerged in the minutiae of the score, rarely envisions.

Finally, in chapter 7 Naughtin offers insights from his own experience as one of that “rare breed,” about what music librarians do if they work with large ballet companies. All in all, the book can be a helpful reference for musicians in professional ballet or anybody even thinking of becoming one!

Teacher of Music at SAB

 Affiliated with New York City Ballet, the School of American Ballet (SAB) located in New York City has long been considered the apex of professional ballet training in the tradition of Balanchine technique. Obviously the hope of many students there is that someday they might be accepted into the corps of New York City Ballet—and from there, who knows?

In addition to the many seasoned pianists who accompany daily classes and occasional showcase performances by students, there is one unique musician: since 2021, the composer Aaron Severini (b. 1981). The background he brings is most unusual because even before he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in composition at The Juilliard School, he trained in ballet first at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Subsequently, he himself was a student at SAB from 1995-1998  and went on to dance professionally in the corps with New York City Ballet from 1998 to 2009. Probably especially pertinent for his later teaching was his work with the company’s education and outreach programs.

Deeply aware of the  unusual musical heritage from George Balanchine, Severini  teaches courses covering the history of both classical music and dance as well as ear training and the fundamentals of music. Making the studies more personal, special attention is given to music that students may have heard in recent performances of New York City Ballet—or which they themselves may have danced to either in class or SAB programs.  Their doubly-talented mentor  hopes that this musical training at SAB will serve the aspiring dancers beyond their student years—whether they become professional performers, choreographers, ballet masters, or teachers themselves some day.

As a composer now himself, Aaron Severini’s recent projects are not limited to the world of dance. He has written scores for concert groups, television, and film—including music for the documentary Baryshnikov Arts Center: Fifteen Years +1 (“The House That Curiosity Built”). This can be seen complete online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFhBq053Gw

 To see and hear a video clip of Pom/Pom, Portrait of Man, an intriguing collaboration between Aaron Severini and the choreographer/dancer Marcus Jarrell Willis (with text by Tomos O’Sullivan), go to https://www.aaronseverini.com/   and click on the Music/Dance tab. Available also are audio samples of some very kinetic and attractive music that the composer wrote, including “R1703A” plus scores specifically for dancers: “10” for Kiyon Gaines formerly of Pacific Northwest Ballet and The Monarch for former New York City Ballet soloist Adam Hendrickson.

What Music Directors in Academia Really Do  

To learn about the wide-ranging work done by music directors for dance in colleges and universities, a good way to start is by exploring the personal website of Jeff Zahos, recent president of The International Guild of Musicians in Dance. Formerly for five years music director for dance at the University of California in Riverside, he is now based in San Jose, California. From his home page, click on “Music and Dance” and you will find squares with short introductions about designing sound, setting up instruments and musicians’ areas in dance studios, what dance musicians do, how making music for dance is different,  designing soundscapes for dance performances, playing percussion, improvising for dancers, working with technology…and more! Additionally, his online resume lists academic courses he taught as well as very specific skills now expected in relation to digital audio production. Highly recommended.   https://www.jeffzahos.com/

Profiles of a few other outstanding music directors follow here, as suggestions of what skills musicians might expect to offer if they aspire to positions at this level —as well as samples of related collaborative experiences some have had.

Robert Boston not only works as director of music for dance at Barnard College in Manhattan;  he also heads up the workshop program to train accompanists for dance, given annually at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn (where he was formerly principal pianist).  A composer and performer of jazz, contemporary classical, and electronic music, he has recorded and performed with numerous groups in addition to creating music for a spectrum of choreographers’ styles. For further specifics, go to https://barnard.edu/profiles/robert-boston

And for some fascinating soundclips sampling the variety of music by this musician, go to https://soundcloud.com/rbostonzeit

In the Mid-West, John Toenjes staked out a long-term career as director of music for dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001.  Though earlier in life he both made harpsichords and played with the San Francisco Symphony,  his more recent activities have included unusual investigations with his Laboratory for Audience Interactive Technologies—far removed from styles expected from classically-trained musicians! To see some intriguing samples of his more than 30 soundscores with dancers in action, his unusual instruments, and much more, go to his personal website at https://sites.google.com/jtoenjes.com/cv-works/home John Toenjes is a founding member and past president of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance. His website suggests some amazing possibilities that collaboration can provide for musicians in dance nowadays!

Douglas Corbin is another leading musician for ballet and modern dance. You can hear his piano music on more than 20 recordings geared for dance (with many now available streaming via amazon). Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, after moving to New York and earning degrees at Hunter College, over decades Corbin worked there with well-known professional dance artists, companies and schools, including the American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey School, the late ballet teacher David Howard, Twyla Tharp, and Merce Cunningham. In other locations, he was  at the American Dance Festival, and for many years in the dance department at Florida State University—where as Professor he also taught courses in rhythmic analysis and music for choreography.  Currently, he modestly says “I still live this work, wherever I turn up!” And that includes international workshops in dance training: in Copenhagen, Zürich, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Havana, Caracas, and Hiroshima as well as entire seasons with the Ballet am Rheim in Düsseldoft, and the Ballet Compagnie Oldenberg in Germany. An unusual way to get to see the world!  In the U.S. his talents have taken him from working with Suzanne Farrell, Lorraine Graves, the Houston Ballet, and the West Virginia Dance Festival to his current position as professor and musical director for the School of Dance at the University of Utah.

To get an idea of the rigorous courses required for degrees in ballet, modern dance, teaching, and screendance at the University of Utah’s School of Dance, go to https://dance.utah.edu/about-us/school-of-dance

Alan Terriciano  is a long-term professor and musician for dance—also associate dean—at  the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California  in Irvine, California. Creative as composer and improvising pianist, his original music in technique studios is like aural sunshine. He delivers an amazing variety of styles. Not all serious: on TV evening news he was once shown playing his original music on the spikes of cactus plants! He is among the composers in academia indicated previously who have indeed composed more than 100 scores, including for orchestras and instrumental groups in addition to his music for dance. As an indication of the esteem in which the area community has long held him, Terriciano was named Orange County’s “Outstanding Individual Artist of the Year” back in 2005! For profile and credits:  https://dance.arts.uci.edu/alan-terricciano

Christian Cherry is not only music director but also head of the dance department at the University of Oregon. An unlikely direction from his undergraduate degree in zoology! However, his career as a collaborator for dance unfolded at universities in Ohio, Florida, and Illinois prior to his  move to Oregon in 2001. An important part of his work with students is teaching fundamentals of rhythm, music and accompaniment for dance, aesthetics, and workshops for choreographers and composers. As composer and multi-instrumentalist himself, Cherry’s music has been heard at festivals around the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia. For brief info go to: https://musicanddance.uoregon.edu/directory/profiles/all/cerise  It includes a link to Cherry’s personal website, which offers a very impressive list of credits for his  earlier scores for dance. Though not yet documented here, his more recent creative output continues to grow.  So  this report also is to be continued!

For musicians speculating about working with dancers in academia, it may be helpful to consider the number of students in a department, and the overall aesthetic approaches. Here is the view of the University of  Oregon’s department, which is quite different from company ballet schools that have the major focus of preparing students technically for professional performance.

The primary aim of the Department of Dance is to enrich the lives of majors, non-majors, and the Oregon community with diverse dance experiences. Dance is explored as an art form and as one of the humanities in a liberal arts education. Study in dance as an academic discipline integrates inquiry and theory to develop skills in performance, creative practice, observation, critical thinking, problem solving, and evaluation. In addition to the academic components, dance students experience the rigorous professional discipline that is inherent in studio classes. The department explores diverse idioms in dance: African dance and drumming, ballet, contact improvisation, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, modern, partnering and Salsa.

For Karen Follett, her work as music coordinator for dance at Shenandoah University’s Conservatory in Virginia has led to having two of her scores premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC! After 30 years, she has garnered other credits for both her compositions and her live performances in concerts. Branching out as a composer, she created three background scores for films produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. And yes—she is among those who started out as accompanist in dance studios. Go to: https://www.su.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/karen-follett/

Toby Twining currently is also a music director and accompanist for dance students in a beautiful part of Virginia—at James Madison University. Though born in Oklahoma, his upbringing was split between Rockland County, NY and Texas—where he imbibed some traditions from his grandfather who was a Texas Swing musician, and his grandmother who played Gospel piano. He moved to New York City in 1987, and that is where I experienced the delight of observing him play instruments and sing for a modern class led by the well-known modern dance artist Ruth Currier. She had been a lead and subsequently director of the José Limón Dance Company. My description of that particular class can be found in my book Movement to Music (pp. 99-103). Suffice it here to mention that he threw various items onto piano strings, incorporated the radiator as percussion, played harmonica, and most unusually, sang and put a very young boy to work imaginatively as collaborator.

As a performer, Twining played for rock and jazz bands early on, but has over the years developed a remarkable range of vocal styles including country and gospel. He has composed scores for some leading dancers, and his collaboration as accompanist in New York included time with The Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, and New York University. For more recent details and information about his recordings, see the links at the university website, https://www.jmu.edu/theatredance/people/all-people/twining-toby.shtmland his own website www.tobytwining.com

 Robbie Kinter surprisingly earned his BFA in sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he has been accompanying dance on drums for more than 28 years and is now music director of dance and choreography. “My greatest joy is playing drums and watching people dance,” he comments; “It is a symbiotic relationship.”  As a composer, he has created over 40 scores for dance, nowadays mostly using computer technology. He has also choreographed some works himself in addition to teaching contact improvisation! This brief film tells his extraordinary personal story when he received outstanding faculty award in 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH35jmsLrd4

You can see videos of some works by Robbie Kinter  at: https://vimeo.com/user18609808?embedded=true&source=owner_name&owner=18609808  and for recordings go to https://consciouspilot.bandcamp.com/

Years ago I first saw Natalie Gilbert at the piano improvising fresh sounds for legendary modern dance artist Lucas Hoving (who had danced with José Limón), during a studio session at the American Dance Festival held at Duke University. Later on for 32 years she served as music director for the entire summer festivals, and continues to play for the dance department at Duke (strictly ballet now), as well as for summer intensives with the Carolina Ballet.  In the 1990s she both played and taught at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. And at the The Ohio State University she taught both BFA and MFA candidates in several music and choreography classes—in addition, again, to playing for classes  and teaching private piano students on the side.  Before all that this musician had freelanced in New York City for 16 years, in addition to being on the faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. For more information about Natalie Gilbert’s past career and the dance artists for whom she has composed scores go to: https://www.nataliegilbert.com/music/dance.html

Growing out of her unusual second career, this musician feels that her work as a massage therapist has greatly affected how she teaches piano to students of all ages. Not surprisingly, she also strongly encourages and teaches improvisation. And as I recall her own refreshingly stylized playing of music by George Gershwin for her Guild colleagues one evening, I can say Natalie Gilbert continues to practice what she teaches!

Though the Duke University campus continues to host the American Dance Festival with its historical connection to early modern dance—and though it continues to offer classic ballet technique—yet its university department offers a widened spectrum of styles.  The website introduction to their dance department quite clearly distances their current program from any exclusive focus on classical ballet or earlier modern dance styles of technique and performance:

The Duke University Dance Program focuses on dance as an integral part of the human experience and a medium for rigorous intellectual creativity. Our program prepares exceptionally aware, creative and socially responsible individuals. Our aim is to engage students in the profound potential for dance as embodied knowledge in the service of society. The Dance Program curriculum is designed to encourage the exploration of dance from interdisciplinary perspectives: historical, cultural, aesthetic, literary, technological, musical, scientific and creative.

Percussionist John Hanks is currently coordinator of musicians for the dance program at Duke, where for over 20 years he has also served on the percussion faculty in the music department. His music-making for students includes playing not only percussion but also piano and electronic instruments for studio dance classes in many styles. Since the early 1980s he has been a regular part of the American Dance Festival. To hear a brief clip of Hanks accompanying a modern class at the festival, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSDT1nty6oY For two brief bios, see https://danceprogram.duke.edu/john-hanks  and his personal website, focused on his percussion experiences that have involved international travels,  at https://drumjazz.com/index.html  His unusual recording Percussion Music for Ballet Class is available streaming at https://www.amazon.com/Pre-Pli%C3%A9-in-4/dp/B09RP85SY8  And his CD with dance music for other styles, Here Come the Drums,  is available at https://www.amazon.com/Here-Come-Drums-John-Hanks/dp/B001NH4J1A

Commenting about the dance program at Duke, John Hanks said: “I really love where the Duke Dance Program is going! It is still pretty small, but with the addition of the energy has multiplied. I started when they had just gotten out from under the PE department 35 years ago.” He went on to point out that at Duke in addition to the formal dance program there are popular dance clubs (which seem to attract members who do not have time to also take dance department courses). For a list of the impressively diverse dance courses offered at Duke, go to: https://danceprogram.duke.edu/courses

And an excellent description of what musicians in dance are expected to teach, (and what dance students are expected to learn) is this one of a course that John Hanks taught. Other musicians embarking on teaching such courses themselves at other locations might well consider these practical goals—then figure out ways to achieve them!

• Develop the ability to play rhythms and improvise with the voice, body percussion, or percussion instruments.
• Inspire listening and the ability to effectively communicate observations.
• Develop the dancer’s communication skills as they pertain to musical issues.
• Create an awareness of the parameters of a dancer’s musicianship within the technique class and in choreography.
• Establish a common language between music and dance by attaining a working knowledge of music notation and meter.
• Strengthen the breath-voice-body connection.
• Develop the ability to vocalize appropriate musical accompaniment that enhances movement by bringing out the rhythmic, qualitative, and structural aspects of the phrasing.
• Become proficient in recognizing and performing a variety of beat subdivisions at different tempos.

And just for comparison, here are outlines of the required courses that musicians Thomas Cabaniss and Jerome Begin have taught in the dance division at The Juilliard School:

Introduction, full year: Overview of fundamentals of music, including rhythm, meter, texture, counterpoint, and formal structure. Introduction to musical instruments and diverse repertoire. Development of basic skills in score analysis, musicianship, and sight singing; project-based work in musical creativity.

2^nd year builds on the skills and concepts explored, with strong focus on the interrelation of music and dance, incorporating the following: developing a sophisticated vocabulary with which to speak about and collaborate with music; in-depth rhythmic training; a survey of classical music history with a strong focus on the 20^th and 21^stcenturies; listening to and analyzing musical works in a variety of genres in a way that is relevant and meaningful to dancers; developing musicality in dance by integrating musical concepts discussed in class into the dancer’s technical practice.

All that should offer a convincing suggestion that music courses aimed at dancers need to be quite different from the typical “Music 101” courses offered within liberal arts colleges and universities—or within music conservatories! So prospective musicians for dance need to be prepared with different approaches, and different materials. What I recall from my own minimal experience teaching dancers quite some years ago was the delight of seeing them improvise physically to demonstrate “analogies” to aspects of music, or to convey a sense of style with regard to various historical musical classics or contemporary genres. Not at all like “Music 101” students sitting sedentary at their seats in a lecture hall!

Decades ago I was bowled over by the hand drumming of Khalid Saleem as he accompanied the riveting presentations of the late  Chuck Davis’s African American Dance Ensemble outdoors during the American Dance Festival held in Durham, North Carolina. (See brief write-up in my book Movement to Music, pp.84ff.) Subsequently witnessing this musician with his own ensemble in several locations, one could only respond with increased admiration and deeply spiritual feelings. For some credits that have taken him around the world, see the bio on the website for the Appalachian University Department of Theatre and Dance at https://theatreanddance.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/mr-khalid-abdul-nfaly-saleem His appointment there (in Boone, NC) is indicative of how academic dance departments have expanded their offerings beyond European-based ballet and American “modern dance” styles. Nowadays, looking at Khalid Saleem’s background, it does seem that percussionists can expand their opportunities to collaborate  as  musicians for dance if they can improvise, compose, and perform for several styles and traditions.

Richard Schenk  joined the Connecticut College Dance Department in 1995. His own academic training had included a BM  in Music Composition from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and an MM in Music Composition from Ohio State University. Along the way he discovered a love for working with dancers and playing for ballet, modern and other dance classes—using piano, cello, guitars, accordion, banjo, percussion and laptop-based electronics. As a composer, Richard Schenk has composed and performed dozens of dance scores for choreographers. He served as the first Music Director for Ohio State University Department of Dance. There  he taught dance courses related to music and technology, as well as at Connecticut College, Ohio State University, and Wesleyan University. Working with student musicians who want to learn and practice musical accompaniment for dance is also an important part of his responsibilities. He invites readers who want to hear excerpts of his music, to contact him at resch@conncoll.edu

Connecticut College is historically very important to modern dance in the U.S. After the pioneering beginnings of the American Dance Festival at Bennington College, those summer gatherings and performance events were hosted at Connecticut College for 30 years. (In 1978 the festival moved to Duke University, where it continues.) For a brief indication of earlier artists involved, go to   https://www.conncoll.edu/dance/history/ For an indication of the variety of dance styles students at Connecticut can consider nowadays, go to: https://www.conncoll.edu/dance/  In addition to ballet and modern technique, students are offered courses in post-modern styles, jazz dance, ballroom, hip-hop, tap, West African styles, as well as Afro-Caribbean dance.  And the comment that the dancers explore “in the broad scope of society and the world” points us to the next topic considered in this website: Drawing From Widening Traditions.

Robert Kaplan was trained as a classical pianist but learned to improvise in various styles, and to compose for specific use. In 1984 he became Music Director in Dance at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, and has had over 70 of his musical scores performed nationally and internationally—including both works for dancers and compositions for instrumentalists alone. His department has developed in unusual ways, leading him to become professionally involved with healthcare. But early on, he worked with the national Craft of Choreography Conferences, various festivals, and growing out of his teaching, authored an interactive book to help dancers understand rhythm. He is a founding member and past president of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance. For more information about this musician, go to: https://searchasu.edu/profile/256893

Looking back on how things have changed for musicians in dance during the years of his career, Robert Kaplan mused about how “traditional” musical training for dancers in both ballet and “modern dance” used to encourage skills in fundamentals of the collaborative art, according to Western traditions. But in the 21^stcentury there was a change in curriculum, with administration trying to give equal status to other styles such as hip-hop, Bharatnatyam, post-modern contemporary and more. The university departments were also reorganized to form the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, with some dance students also being affiliated with the Herberger Institute for Studies in the Arts.

Interesting as an indication of course requirements is this description in the ASU Tempe offerings:

DCE 226
Musical and Kinesthetic Communication in Dance

Brings basic principles of rhythmic awareness and theory to life through movement and breath. Develops listening skills to ‘hear’ movement and to ‘see’ sound, providing a foundation of skills and knowledge to perform and aurally recognize beat patterns, subdivisions, grooves, textural and qualitative subtleties in different styles. Practical application of concepts and abilities for teaching dance musically–connecting to students’ personal movement practice, somatic and pedagogy classes as well as linking rhythmic theory concepts with aural and kinesthetic listening skills and life.

Also of interest is the following link that describes degrees offered that involve  interdisciplinary connections—for instance the use of multi-media for dancers.

https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/masters-phd/major/ASU00/FADANDIMFA/dance-interdisciplinary-digital-media-and-perform-mfa

As an indication of where such training might lead in our time of increasing digital technology, the website suggests:

Dance artists, educators and media specialists who complete the Master of Fine Arts program in dance with an emphasis in interdisciplinary digital media and performance are prepared for work in a variety of settings and industries, including higher education dance, digital media and arts programs, commercial dance venues, media production companies, community arts organizations, and dance production and performance settings.

Dance interdisciplinary media artists have a wide range of international opportunities for work as independent multimedia artists and performers, digital media consultants and specialists. In addition to working in traditional performance spaces and venues, dance media artists are finding employment opportunities in rapidly evolving global digital performance and entertainment spaces.

Making Music at an Independent Ballet School

Finally, here is an example of what it is like to work with dance students of all ages nowadays at an independent ballet school. Composer/pianist/teacher Bruce Lazarus has been music director at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City since 2016. The school, a private business, is no longer affiliated with the Joffrey Ballet—which is now located in Chicago and has its own Academy there. But the New York school, like a number of independent centers for dance training across the country,  offers a comprehensive program for teens and young adults that includes not only ballet technique but also contemporary dance, jazz,  hip-hop, and even contact improvisation. Their programs for children are for as young as two-year olds, and continuing youth classes emphasize ballet training. In addition, there are classes for adult beginners.

Back when he was a composition student at The Juilliard School, Bruce Lazarus had initial experiences in collaboration, with two dance students who later went on to become distinguished choreographers: Jeanette Bolding and Susan Marshall. Since then, over his more than 35 years as a professional musician for dance, he estimates he has accompanied as many as 30,000 ballet and modern dance classes! Lazarus was not only a studio musician in academic settings, but also for a time company pianist for the Dance Theatre of Harlem and music coordinator for the Mark Morris Dance Group. Subsequently he also worked at the New World School of the Arts, and with the New Jersey Ballet, as well as at various venues in New York City.

Working so closely with students in classes, Lazarus certainly became attuned to what kinds of music impels dancers to move in different ways. And working with choreographers, he has composed over two dozen works for performances. Starting in 1980 he was composer in residence at Northwestern University, where he and dance artist Mary Ittelson co-taught a course listed as Dance and Music: The Collaborative Process. In later years he taught courses in music for dance within several university dance departments—and continues to do so at the Joffrey Ballet School.

For one video sample of music composed by Bruce Lazarus and used by dancers, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWTYNC7B6w The work was choreographed by Mary Seidman and in the context of all the telescopic developments in our time, this program note is of unusual interest too:

Composed between 2004 and 2011, Musical Explorations of the Messier Catalogue of Star Clusters and Nebulae is Bruce Lazarus’ series of fourteen piano pieces based on the work of Charles Messier (1730-1817), a French astronomer who compiled a list of approximately 110 diffuse objects in the night sky, objects which in Messier’s day were often confused with comets but now are recognized as familiar objects such as as the Andromeda Galaxy, The Pleiades, Orion Nebula, and the Globular Cluster in Hercules. Recent Hubble telescope photos of Messier Objects reveal vistas of extraordinary beauty and also great variation in energy patterning – spiraling, floating, exploding, diffusing – which strongly suggest musical variations in rhythm, texture, formal design, and melodic elements.

Outside of his dance-related work, Lazarus has kept up creative composition for piano and chamber music, as well as for some interesting optical video filming with Robert Mertens, such as:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNb7fYzT5mk

Another facet of a music director’s job is administrative: hiring and supervising other musicians, and sometimes training newcomers. Bruce Lazarus says he is open to musicians with a variety of stylistic talents (including classical, jazz, show tunes and even rock) but obviously prefers those who are experienced in studio accompaniment. He says that gets easier after 20 years! But commenting on the ability to improvise, he suggests that musicians for ballet:

Be willing, able, and flexible enough to re-configure the phrasing of any piece of music to make it suitable for dance classes; play introductions of varying lengths; and be prepared to tack on extra measures or a faster piece without advance notice. The highly-trained classical-only pianist with a beautiful technique and devotion to the printed page is ideal for rehearsals and RAD [Royal Academy of Dance] type classes with a strict music syllabus, but not for dance technique classes at the Joffrey Ballet School.

And for those hoping to play for modern dance classes, Lazarus especially values “the ability to make up new pieces on the spot. This is also an extremely useful skill for ballet class as well.”

He goes on to observe:  “This isn’t make-or-break, but I like when musicians have a distinct style, the ability to bring something special into the dance studio whatever that might be.” Lazarus recalls that when he was starting out as an accompanist himself, it was helpful to sit in and observe other musicians who were “first-rate,” including not only pianists, but also guitarists and percussionists. But then he would work hard to develop his own individual style.

Beyond musical aspects, as a director Lazarus comments that it helps for musicians to be generally good-natured and be able to handle stresses that can arise in technique classes. He tries to pair musicians with compatible teachers. And for those about to work with children’s classes, the director suggests that they “find nothing demeaning in playing in an extremely simple, direct style when needed. They’re okay with playing songs like ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ over and over again for class sing-alongs.”

Regarding musicians who do not do well as accompanists, Lazarus mentions some unfortunate attributes—but something for those starting out to keep in mind. Punctuality is very important, and a professional attitude of respect (not having a “chip on their shoulder.” But speaking of those who do succeed, this music director expresses an attitude of support that obviously is important in finding and keeping accomplished musicians:

It’s hard to express how proud I am of our present music staff, an “elite squad” whose professionalism can be counted on week after week. In return, I take a keen interest in their outside activities – performances, commissions, recordings, touring, grants and awards – and have their photos and bios posted prominently in the hallway. We have excellent pianos, regularly tuned and maintained. When musicians encounter difficulties in choosing repertoire or understanding a particular teacher’s needs, I’m there to help.

 https://www.joffreyballetschool.com/about/ For information about the wide-ranging offerings at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. For further credits of the music director, go to https://www.joffreyballetschool.com/bruce-lazarus/

https://joffrey.org/education/academy/ Founded in 2010, this is the official school of the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. As they inform, they have “something for everyone,” including pre-professional training, and classes for children, youth, and adults.