Author: Tammy Rhoades-Baldwin

Richard Maddock, professional pianist and composer from the Toronto, Canada area, graciously sent me three of his CDs for ballet class and one called The Garden Within which is full of lovely, reflective musical selections.  Most are longer and would be great for adagio or stretching, or even choreography.  Music for Movement and Imaginations—Ballet Class & Creative Movement (for children ages 3 and up) is full of short segments that is sure to live up to its name by sparking the imaginations of young children who are exposed to it.  Some of the segments include “Run Like The Wind”, “Bounce & Freeze”, and several thematic ones like “Dance-a-Story – Schoolyard”, “Dance-a-Story – Jungle Journey”, and more.  This CD will not only grab the interest of children, it will inspire the teacher to come up with more content for creative movement class.

My two favorites are Ballet Studio Inspirations: Volume Two and Ballet Studio Inspirations: Volume Three.  I was pleased to find several 6/8 time signatures (not sure why but this is my favorite!).  I found the plie combinations to be quite slow, but most studios have variable speed players to up the tempo a bit, and I was also able to find a few other suitable segments for plies at a tempo that I liked.  Other than that, everything was to my liking!  I think teachers of dance would find these CDs to be a wonderful accompaniment to their classes.  The Volume Three has 43 completely separate musical selections, including a warm up and at least two segments for each barre combination as well as two for turns en diagonale, three for petit allegro, three for medium allegro, and three for allegro. 

You can find these and more of Richard’s CDs at his website, http://www.richardmaddock.com.