Advanced Dance Musician — Live Accompaniment & Leadership

St. Olaf College; Connecticut; On-site; USD 17,000 - 18,000; Part time

Job summary

St. Olaf College is seeking a Dance Student Musician Tier 3 to provide musical accompaniment for dance classes in the Dance Department. This student employee role requires at least 4 terms of live performance experience and the ability to lead accompanists and improvise across genres.

The position emphasizes adaptability to different dance styles, keys, and time signatures, with the responsibility to recall and craft musical phrases for varied routines while collaborating with instructors.

Qualifications

• Musical proficiency required for accompanying dance classes.
• Strong improvisation skills are essential for live dance accompaniment.
• Ability to adapt music to energy, tempo, dynamics and style of dancers.
• Minimum of 4 terms of experience playing live music for dance technique classes or similar.
• Must be able to provide solo accompaniment.
• Must be able to provide musical leadership to accompanists in dance classes.
• Ability to provide accompaniment in multiple dance genres.

Responsibilities

• Provide musical leadership to dance students.
• Play fluently in all keys and time signatures.
• Keep track of form and phrases for extended sections.
• Provide solo accompaniment.
• Improvise individually and lead group improvisation.
• Adapt music to dancers' energy, tempo, and style.
• Create new phrases for routines.
• Recall phrases per instructor request.
• Pay attention to appropriate payment across multiple genres.

Skills

Musical proficiency

Improvisation

Adaptability

Live performance experience

Solo accompaniment

Leadership to accompanists

Multi-genre accompaniment

Job description

St. Olaf College is seeking a Dance Student Musician Tier 3 to provide musical accompaniment for dance classes in the Dance Department. This student employee role requires at least 4 terms of live performance experience and the ability to lead accompanists and improvise across genres.

The position emphasizes adaptability to different dance styles, keys, and time signatures, with the responsibility to recall and craft musical phrases for varied routines while collaborating with instructors.