Ballet accompaniment

Stefanie Tuurna has worked as a ballet accompanist from year 2008 at the Finnish National Ballet School. The classes range from the five-year-old beginners to vocational students and professional dancers. The variety of ages requires a lot from the pianist. Improvisation is an practical tool which enables the accompanist to be flexible and helpful to the dancers. But most of all, improvisation functions as a key element that propels playful creation and musical flow. When done right, the inspiration is reflected right back from the dancers!

A ballet accompanist could be said to represent the entire orchestra - and not only the classical one. Typically ballet pianists are expected to play various musical styles - not only ballet and classical repertoire, but practically any genre - and therefore the work of an accompanist is in fact rather pedagogical in nature. The pianist cultivates the students' knowledge of music.

The work is fun and hard - typically a ballet lesson takes around one hour and a half during which the pianist gets hardly any rest. There are a multitude of ballet movements, all different in character, and the music has to fit and support each movement. For example at the end of the class, where the dancers are doing their highest jumps, the pianist needs to support the movement with equal force and grandeur. In other words a ballet class requires the same amount of concentration and strength as giving a full classical concert - only that it's repeated every morning.