Using repertoire music means that the accompaniment for an exercise becomes no longer just 'the syllabus music' (or worse still, something that merely marks time while the student does the step) but brings with it a whole network of associations with the repertoire and the professional world which can inspire and enthuse everyone involved. For example, let us say the music for preparation for tour en l'air in Grade 5 will be the male variation from Don Quixote (which it probably will be). Students can see the exercise now not just as an end in itself, but something which is linked with some of the greatest male role models in ballet, and with a celebrated war-horse of the Imperial repertoire that can be seen in countless galas and dance videos. Moreover, teachers can use a recording of the full orchestral version to add even more

excitement and colour. Not only is this fun, but it is also ideal preparation for the real world, where dancers have to shift constantly between piano reductions for rehearsals, and orchestra on stage.

To take another example, let's say that the exercise for battements tendus in Grade IV will be the ‘Popular Song’ from Walton's Façade (which it probably will be), 'responding to the music' will not just mean responding to the metre and rhythm of the music, but also to everything that goes with it – Ashton's quirky choreography, Sitwell's poetry, and Walton's cheeky musical parody. The 'mood' and 'atmosphere' of this music, to take two terms from the criteria for examinations and presentation classes, is not just contained within the notes on the page, but within the whole constellation of references and resonance that the music can evoke.

Benefits For Pianists

For pianists, who tend mostly to be unfamiliar with the ballet repertoire (not least because most of it is so difficult to obtain in sheet music form), the alternative music will provide classic examples from the repertoire which can act as models for improvisation, or catalysts to further research. The ‘Blue Boy Pas de Trois’ from Les Patineurs for instance, is an example of an extremely useful dance rhythm for ballet classes which you are unlikely to encounter very often, unless you happen to be interested in the social dances of the nineteenth century. It is somewhere between a waltz, a mazurka, a polka mazurka and a minuet. Meyerbeer (who wrote it as part of his opera Le Prophète) called it a 'waltz', but it is not a waltz in any sense that we would understand or recognise today. For this reason, the teacher who wants this kind of music would be hard pressed to find a name for it that will adequately or accurately describe it. A specific piece of repertoire, on the other hand, is unequivocal.