I give classical technique classes in the department of contemporary dance in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.My students have all different backgrounds of dancing (folkloric dance ,private ballet schools, jimnastic and classical ballet education in the conservatories).

This past season was my first year  with them.When the weeks were passing by I was realizing that they were having lack of interest. I had feeling that they were slipping away from the class.

They always complained about the music.I gotta be honest, if you don't have a pianist ( a good one preferably) who accompanies the classes it  working with CD's,it could get really boring.And it's quite difficult to find some good recordings.

I sensed that I had to do something about keeping their concentration high.So, since their biggest  excuse  was the music that didn't give them enough insporation, I come up with and idea of using other style of musics such as pop,R&B,jazz & electronic etc...

I know, it's been done before, I know I'm not re-inventing the wheel.But only with little difference I re-edited the songs back again.

I reconstructed the songs as as the tracks of classical ballet class music.

In my  student years when I was in the workshops or classes it always kind of annoyed me the teachers fade out the music or abruptedly stopped the music when exercise is over.I always had the feeling something was uncompleted or cut suddenly.

That's why I adjusted the songs.

For example,

If my classical class was plie in 4/4,I found a music in beat of 4/4.

Or in grand allegro in center if the track was a vals I would  find a song  in same beat and feeling. You will find some examples in the soundtrack that I will upload.

In my quest finding the right track for an exercise I had nice experiences as well.You can make very nice fondu exercise with a raggae song or very powerful grand battement exercise with rap song.

Also all the tracks started with a preparation music and the end as it supposed to end in classical music structure.I always fit the exercises not only to the count but also  to the musical phrases in the song.

I believe that making the tracks this way in the lesson I could keep them in certain 

frame classical ballet technique demands.

My first "Pop Class" was a surprise one, my students didn't know about it.But it seemed like from my observations they liked it.

Sometimes working with R&B songs or jazz music gives better results than on the students   than the classic ballet class cd's.Students could relate themselves easier to the dynamics of the exercise. Specially for example doing a grand allegro with cheesy Whitney Houston song ,I let them go, do crazy, exaggerate the movements was really fun for them . 

It was a great feeling seeing them leaving the class with smile on their face.

 In the file that I uploaded you will hear respectively excerpts from;

Plie ,slow tendu, fast tendu,jete,rond de jambes,frappe,fondu,adagio and grand battement.