For the last 2 weeks I’ve been working on a summer school with teachers who I know as friends - however have never played for in the studio. This changed this week and after over a decade of dance accompaniment - I was asked to play a Tendu on a 3/4. Instantly my ears pricked up and I was thinking - ‘This is new’! As I couldn’t remember a time when a ballet instructor had asked me to play this particular exercise on 3/4.
I remember thinking about Jonathan Still’s article ‘The Rareness of a Truly Triple Waltz’ and instantly referred to the great old waltz ‘Ich Weiss Nicht Zu Wem Ich Gehöre’.
This truly fitted the exercise choreography brilliantly and had me then had me asking the question ‘why don’t more teachers use this idea’. The possibilities of using a 3/4 seem endless - especially for a tendu. Given the many different variations of waltz from truly triple to Viennese to jazz, there is surely a way to make this work for your tendu exercises and educate your students that counting to ‘3’ is possible and natural.
Attached below is the sheet music for ‘Ich Weiss Nicht……’ For this particular Tendu I was just playing the chorus through a few times (where it goes to G Major approx half way through) whilst also adding in the odd key change (nothing too ridiculous!)
