Accompanist

Job Summary
Tanner Dances accompanists are responsible for providing inspiring skillful improvised piano and/or percussion music during our dance classes for children at the Tanner Dance building on the U of U campus and/or at elementary schools throughout the Salt Lake area. The musicians improvisations are expected to follow and respond to visual cues and verbal instructions from the dance teachers they work with. In other words our musicians must be able to creatively modify their music from moment to moment to mirror the observed energies tempos accents cues and counts that the dancers are exploring in the class. The accompanists role is a parttime position with various weekly shifts available starting in August 2024. Depending on our needs and your availability to commit to certain weekly class times you could be scheduled to accompany anywhere between 2 hours/week and 19 hours/week. The following two programs are the primary source of work hours available for Tanner Dances musicians: 1. Tanner Dance Studio program This program offers weekly creative/modern dance classes for dancers ages 218 at the Tanner Dance building on the University of Utah campus. Every Studio dance class is taught by one of our experienced teaching artists and assigned a musician to provide live accompaniment each week. Studio classes take place on weekdays mostly between 3:45 PM and 9:00 PM and on Saturdays between 9:15 AM and 1:15 PM in other words mostly outside of the hours when children would be in school. Musicians for this program may sometimes be expected to memorize and be ready to play several traditional childrens songs for the younger classes in addition to their regular improvised accompaniment. All weekly classes in the Studio programs 202425 session will begin the week of August 19 2024. 2. ArtsinEducation AIE program Throughout the school year Tanner Dances AIE program provides weekly dance classes in elementary schools throughout the Salt Lake area offering K6 students a chance to experience an ageappropriate semesterlong or trimesterlong class with one of our teaching artists accompanied by one of our musicians. As such all classes that are part of the ArtsinEducation program take place during the school day 8:15 AM at the very earliest to 3:45 PM at the very latest). Musicians will be responsible for arranging their own transportation to the schools where they play; compensation is available for using ones own vehicle to travel between two or more schools in the same day. Weekly classes in the AIE programs 202425 session will begin in late August / early September 2024. Whereas our Studio class schedules remain consistent over the course of the academic year AIE class schedules can sometimes change at the beginning of the trimester or semester at our partner schools.

Responsibilities
1. Accompany dance classes workshops and rehearsals with improvised music in a variety of genres and styles. 2. Find creative ways to match your musics energy accents phrasing etc to the dancers movement. 3. Take cues from the dance teachers movement and voice allowing them to shape and inform the musics tempo accents phrasing energy shifts starts and stops etc. 4. Maintain and continue to develop musical versatility and improvisation skills. 5. Musicians are always expected to be punctual reliable professional courteous and willing to assist teachers if needed with other basic duties essential to the functioning of the classroom.

Minimum Qualifications
Several qualifications are essential for this role: A comfortable proficiency in musical improvisation (creation of spontaneous original music) on the piano hand percussion and/or drum set. Proficiency on additional instruments may be considered. Ability to improvise flexibly in various musical styles creatively modifying the music to respond to visual / verbal cues. Ability to play music continuously for long periods of time while remaining alert engaged and attentive. Ability to take direction work well with others and communicate effectively with adults and children.