Musicians

The history of the RAD has been as much about music as it has about dance. Every time a new syllabus is created, teachers and musicians have got together at the earliest opportunity to develop the concept as a joint enterprise. Back in the early 1920s, Caroline Bedells, the mother of Phyllis Bedells - one of the five original founders of the RAD  -  compiled books of music for the first ballet examination syllabi, and we have been developing, publishing and recording music for ballet ever since. 

As a result, many dance accompanists around the world got their first introduction to the craft of playing for class directly from working with an RAD teacher, or indirectly from the techniques, styles and conventions evident in the music published for the syllabus.  We'd like to think that we'll continue to play that role for many years to come, finding new ways to work with music, exploring new partnerships and possibilities between dancers and musicians, and nurturing an international community of musicians with a shared interest in of dance.

In addition to providing specialist music for syllabus and examinations, the Academy also has a range of resources to assist teachers and musicians in their work. The music catalogue has includes, for example a series of  CDs of piano music for ballet classes, Studio Series: Intuition (six volumes and growing) two how-to guides to playing for dances classes, A Dance Class Anthology and A Dance Class Tune Book and two CDs of classical instrumental music for relaxing or dancing to, After Class 1 & 2 . With the Alternative Music for Grades 1-5 we published two entire guidebooks in place of inlay cards, which are now available on line. For more information, see our page on Music Resources.

In response to the queries that teacher members and pianists often ask us, we have a created a series of Music Factsheets. These deal with the sometimes quite complex matters that are part of everyday dance teaching: copyright and licensing, buying a keyboard and learning your trade as a pianist. We are always interested to hear your views and questions, so if there's something you think we've left out, let us know.