My great comfort when I was very small was a musical clock. In the shape of an orange windmill, with bright yellow spars, it played the tragic theme from Swan Lake. It seems a bit random now – why a windmill? why Swan Lake? – but that melancholy tinkle of Tchaikovsky helped lull tiny me to sleep and wound itself forever around my memory. Only years later did I realise that the little clock introduced me to one of the most famous pieces of all ballet music.

My great comfort when I was very small was a musical clock. In the shape of an orange windmill, with bright yellow spars, it played the tragic theme from Swan Lake. It seems a bit random now – why a windmill? why Swan Lake? – but that melancholy tinkle of Tchaikovsky helped lull tiny me to sleep and wound itself forever around my memory. Only years later did I realise that the little clock introduced me to one of the most famous pieces of all ballet music.

My sleepytimes music is now among the first ever Dance Gazette Top 40 – a storming selection of music for dance from nearly 20 countries ranging widely across time and place. It involves ballet classics but also hiphop, Bollywood, ballroom, funk, k-pop, jazz… and, inevitably, Beyoncé. And what is our number 1? Take a look – and please let us know your own favourite dance music.

This is part of a special music-themed issue of Dance Gazette. We also learn how music is part of RAD teaching for old and young, from a keen German class of Silver Swans to a pioneering arts centre in Iraq. We ask how problematic classic ballets with cherished scores might be reimagined. And we’re always praising dancers for their ‘musicality’ – but what does that really mean?

Turn up the volume – and sing and shimmy through your new Dance Gazette.

David Jays
Editor

Kingsley Nebechi (cover illustration) is a Nigerian-born, Italian-raised graphic designer, illustrator and artist in Herts, UK, noted for his commercial work and solo exhibitions.