Interaction with musicians in performance

[moreilly]

Is it common for dancers to ask the musicians in a performance to change the tempo of certain pieces of music to accommodate how they want to dance?

 

I have a friend who played the celeste in our local ballet company's production of The Nutcracker, and he was miffed (to put it pleasantly) that the dancers kept asking him to change tempo on different sections of the music. I was just wondering if this is common practice and the sort of dilemma that naturally comes when you have two different types of performers working together (ie dancers and musicians).

[Clara 76]

The conductor and the AD/choreographer should be the ones who discuss tempos, hopefully prior to the show going up. We invite the conductor to rehearsals and therefore, the tempos can be set for the musicians ahead of time. If there seems to be a difficulty, my advice would be for the dancer to go directly to the AD or conductor- not the individual musician.

[loohoo44]

I agree that seems strange to ask an individual musician, that is something the conductor would handle. I spent quite a bit of time in the orchestra pit before I started dance classes, I know I've seen tempo disputes but it was always between the conductor/dancers.

[moreilly]

That's interesting. It makes sense to me for communication of that nature to run through the conductor; I wonder why it doesn't happen that way when he plays. He has commented in the past that he hates playing for ballets because of the way the dancers speak to him and the types of requests that they make of him, and I'm curious now if he has only played for this particular company or if he has experienced similar behavior with different dancers.

[Mazenderan]

Evelyn Cisneros, who co-wrote the 'Ballet for Dummies' book, says that there are only two tempos according to dancers: 'too fast' and 'too slow'

 

I was a musician long before I started dance classes, and I suppose I would get a little cross if I kept getting requests for 'faster' or 'slower'; it would seem a little dismissive of what I was doing. I suppose the relationship between musicians and ballet company would be fairly unique.

[Hans]

Yet another reason ballet dancers need musical training.

[loohoo44]

Moreilly since your friend is playing the celeste it might be a solo part and the conductor may even stop conducting while he is playing, in which case he would be much more responsible for the tempo but even so, I'd expect the communication to still go through the conductor.

[Mel Johnson]

At any rate, as a celesta player, his contact would be limited only to the dancers dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy, so he at least didn't have order and counter-order coming in simultaneously from an entire corps!

[lovemydancers]

Yet another reason ballet dancers need musical training.

Clicking the "LIKE" button!

[moreilly]

At least he gets paid for the gig; he'll just have to accept that it's part of the job!

[luceroblanco]

It should go through the conductor, as others have said. Part of the problem I think, is that some dancers are used to practicing with a recording so they get used to a certain tempo. I was in a show once (primarily as a singer--although some dance) and there was a corps of professional dancers to do most of the specialized dance. They had quite a few problems with tempi since they had learned and practiced the dances for months with a recording before we started rehearsing the actual show.

[Hans]

And this is why live music for classes and rehearsals is important! I just don't think I'll ever understand why so many ballet dancers--and therefore artistic directors, second-rate teachers, etc., seem to think music is there to serve the dance. It is a marriage of two art forms, and recordings are not adequate. In a pinch, they are useful, and certainly there's reason to use them if the school cannot afford to use live music, but when dancers will be performing to live music, it's essential that the conductor be involved pretty early on so the conductor and choreographer or AD can iron out tempi.

[lemlemish]

Maybe it's because the dancers are used to have live piano accompanists in class, who are forever adjusting their tempos to what the teacher would like. Thus the dancers are used to "being accompanied" as opposed to working in a true partnership. Of course, that still says nothing about not approaching the conductor versus and individual musician.

[luceroblanco]

^^ I think you are both right. I am a singer and we have been taught from the beginning that we must "follow the stick" (meaning the conductor's baton) and that the orchestra CANNOT follow the singers. There are too many instruments. We do learn that a pianist will often follow the singer and can, since it is just one instrument, but that we have to be able to adjust our tempi when it comes to singing with orchestra, and that the conductor is the one that leads everyone. Even though we would be perfectly fine discussing with a pianist who accompanies us, we would never go to an individual musician and discuss tempi if there was a conductor involved in the piece. But this is something that was definitely addressed in our training. I doubt that it ever is in some dancers' training.

[Mazenderan]

Actually, the more I think about it, I've noticed some students in class have a horrible sense of tempo - even some who have been dancing for several years. Are young dancers taught anything about tempo?