I can across an ad for accompanying at dance/ballet school. They will train you for what they want done in classes (classes are mostly for kids).

Any ideas if the pay for something like this is likely to be what one normally receives for accompanying? Or much less of a rate? Just curious. I thought I'd check it out anyway, but would prefer to know if the pay is roughly competitive with accompanying musicians for recitals, etc.

my former teacher did that, and it is considered accompanying job as i remember he mentioned, but i don't know how much he get paid for it. he majored in both solo and collaborate piano btw.

Accompanying dance/ballet tends to pay a bit less because pianists are expected to be able to read/improvise everything (meaning they don't have to practice nearly as much as accompanying a solo performance.)

Regardless, you should ask up front what the compensation is and be prepared to negotiate. If they come at you with something like $10/hour, you could counter with $15 (if you want), or simply say that it's not enough. Or if they ask you how much you charge, just pick a number ($25/hr? $30/hr?) and go from there.

There are two things at play - how much money you need to make a living and how much money they have for accompanying in their budget.

I accompanied dance for a while. I accepted a fairly low rate ($18/hour) for two reasons - first, I had no dance experience and second, the classes were during the day when I didn't have any other work scheduled.

After about a year, I got the hang of it and was having to turn down other accompanying work because I was getting more established. I asked for a raise. They offered me $19/hour so I quit. I was getting asked to accompany voice lessons, which I do for $40/hour, so I could make the same money in half the time.

Kreisler, your $40 pay for an hour voice lesson: is that money coming out of the singer's pocket, or out of the voice teacher's pocket?

That sounds remarkably high, so I'm guessing it's just for the occasional special lesson?

I never knew the meaning of the word BOREDOM until I accompanied some ballet classes shortly after I graduated from uni. I hated every moment of it (bad pay too), but more than that I hated the attitude of many (not all) of those silly prima donna dancers. They were nasty, pompous, sexually predatory, and generally condescending.

To this day, I have never felt comfortable attending any ballet production, though I do love the music sans dancing.

The lessons are just half-hour, so $20 per lesson, paid by the student.

My accompanying rate is on the high end, but I keep the same rate for all things - master classes and recitals are all the same rate, $40 per hour. A full recital usually involves 5-6 hours total work, so around $200-240, which seems reasonable.

Agerichfan is raising pertinent issues. Playing for ballet school classes injects you into a culture you might dislike, and one in which you will quite possibly be treated badly, and paid poorly.

However, if you get the hang of playing for ballet classes, there's paid work always awaiting you. You might also get lucky and find an indy dance school where the teacher actually respects and enjoys what you do.