u/retanno

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place to ask this. I'm a pianist who has done some collaborative piano stuff before but have always found myself more interested in ballet scores/dance-inspired styles over the standard chamber music and opera reductions.

I've been told that ballet/dance piano is a completely different skillset (by collaborative pianists not ballet pianists, mind) and I wondered if anyone could give me tips for getting some experience in this area? The big questions I have are:

1. Are ballet schools open to being contacted- for example to ask if I could sit in on a rehearsal to see what it's like compared to say playing for an instrumentalist?

2. How do you learn to improvise for things like warm up exercises? (I'm probably envisioning things way more complicated than is actually required)

3. In a couple of training programs I've seen wording like "experience of playing for a range of dance styles" and while I appreciate this Reddit is just for ballet, does anyone know what other kinds of dance styles would require a pianist? Perhaps I'm being narrow minded but the non-ballet dance styles I can think of feel like they'd use backing tracks vs live accompanists.

Thank you so much for any help you can give :)

I'm planning on auditioning for a CP masters and while some departments provide soloists (seems setting up for a fail though because presumably the first time you play together is on audition day), they generally expect you to have your own soloist(s).

I've done a fair bit of grade exam/choir accompaniment but nothing at the required level (diploma standard). As an undergrad I did some more advanced pieces with classmates- Poulenc Flute Sonata, Debussy Cello Sonata, a couple of Trios (Beethoven String op.1/1 and Wood Flute/Viola)- but that was 15 years ago. I'm guessing most people go direct to masters from undergrad and that's where they get playing partners -_-

I could theoretically look for people doing instrumental/vocal diplomas who need an accompanist, but it's probably a bit of an ask to then say "btw would you come to my audition with me". And I've never heard of reverse (accompanists advertising for soloists)...

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated!