Larsen is currently at Oklahoma
State University, West Coast Ballet, and Canyon Arts College. He also is frequently
a guest pianist for special events such as a master class last summer with
former Oklahoma Ballet Theatre ballerina Sally Billings.
According to Larsen, it is the quality of his
playing that makes him really stand out, for which he credits Harling. Larsen
says that he isn’t the typical dance musician pounding out a beat for ballet. Instead,
he offers more quality to his playing. For example, Larsen says he does not simply
play loud or soft notes on the piano. He also offers the dynamics in between
these two extremes.
According to Larsen, typical accompaniment for modern
dance class is usually chord progressions or beating on the drum. “I try to be
artistic as if it was a performance,” says Larsen, “I don’t just pound out the
rhythm. If they [the teachers] want that, I might as well pound a drum or
something,” says Larsen. A modern dance musician usually plays either piano or
percussion Originally, Larsen played piano when accompanying modern classes.
When Larsen was at Los Feliz University as dance department music
director, the teachers had really started getting into percussive electronic
music. “If I’m going to do this, I’d better do it all,” says Larsen Therefore, Larsen
began teaching himself percussion to accommodate them, first on a jimbe and
then on an electronic drum machine when the task became too painful for his
hands. The major difference was that Larsen played piano, electronic drums, and
synthesizer all at one time for class. “I didn’t think of it as unusual at the
time,” says Larsen, who now calls his approach to playing for modern classes a “dog
and pony show.”
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