Search - Steven V Mitchell/Various :: Between...Tot and Teen

This recording was featured in the ballet class scene in the movie 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.' Among all the dance classes I accompany, I very much enjoy playing beginning level ballet classes. The musicality of the children becomes my responsibility; my opportunity to help them develop a musical sense at this age that may continue through their dancing experience. In this project I had a chance to focus on those beginning level classes where appropriate recorded music is very difficult to find. I teamed up with Mignon Furman, a teacher from South Africa who has a great reputation in Europe and who has vast experience teaching ballet to young children. Now living in New York City, she runs the American Academy Ballet and its various programs. The barre exercises come in short, compact, exercises for the teacher to truly be able to break down the steps enabling the students to learn them precisely. The barre exercises are repeated on the same track; the travelling exercises are fairly long. The pieces chosen are also very interesting melodically, ranging from my original melodies-to classical-to "fun" (Too Much Mustard, The Clarinet Polka, and Who Stole the Kishka). Several exercises are repeated at different speeds. An accompanying DVD with of same title can also be found on Amazon.com.