Fall Play Fight Choreographer

About San Francisco University High School:

UHS is a coeducational independent day school in San Francisco, California, with 514 students in grades 9-12. Founded in 1975, the school’s mission is to challenge each individual to live a life of integrity, inquiry, and purpose larger than the self. UHS is located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

The Fight Choreographer designs, teaches, and oversees all physical combat, physical altercations, and high-energy stage movement for the high school’s fall production. This role focuses on translating the director’s vision into safe, repeatable, and dramatic stage choreography while mentoring student actors on safety protocols, body control, and physical storytelling.

Key Responsibilities:

• Choreography Design: Create dramatic, story-driven combat sequences (unarmed or staged prop weapons, depending on the script) tailored to the physical capabilities of student performers.
• Actor Instruction: Teach actors core stage combat techniques, focus, distance control, and physical partnership during scheduled rehearsal blocks.
• Safety & Protocol Management: Establish strict backstage and onstage safety guidelines, leading mandatory daily physical warm-ups and "fight calls" before every run-through and performance.
• Collaborative Staging: Partner with the Director and Stage Manager to integrate fight beats seamlessly into broader scene work, lighting cues, and floor space restrictions.
• Maintenance & Consistency: Refine and clean up movements throughout dress rehearsals to ensure choreography remains controlled, safe, and believable every night.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience in stage combat instruction or martial arts/dance choreography for theater.
• Certification or training with a recognized stage combat organization (e.g., SAFD) preferred.
• Strong commitment to performer safety, body awareness, and injury prevention.
• Excellent communication skills and enthusiasm for mentoring adolescent actors of varying experience levels.

Compensation:

This is a seasonal, part-time position.  Compensation $2,500.00

Non-Discrimination Statement:

University High School values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty, and staff from different backgrounds. All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, color, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, creed, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law.

Application Process: 

Apply through the school’s website.