GRMUS P639 — Accompanying Dance

2 credits
Fall
David LaMarche

The worlds of dance and music have always been intertwined. This course will focus on rhythms, tempos and quality of music as an integral aspect of successful dance training. Improvisation and collaboration will be emphasized as pianists learn first-hand how musicians work in partnership with dancers in their classwork and in performance. Students will be coached largely in piano accompaniment for ballet by a conductor and pianist on the staff of American Ballet Theatre and with the Dance Division at Juilliard with the goal of exposing students to the professional possibilities for musicians in the dance world and giving them real-time experience in a ballet class. Piano students will be responsible for learning basic ballet vocabulary and the structure of a ballet class in order to support the dancers’ artistic and technical training. A brief exploration into modern dance will also be introduced.