James Redelinghuys, Dance Curves

I provided the piano part for a recording/video of James Redelinghuys’s piece Dance Curves. It is a piece for violin, cello and piano trio with a dancer, and includes notated gestures and deliberate ways of moving e.g. restricted arm weight for large, repetitive chords, or exaggerated bow movements. Although the movements were provided as extra instructions, I wondered if they were connected to our natural ways of moving. The restricted movement for the chords in the third movement were harsh and angular, and perhaps being restricted and stiff would have come to me naturally. There was then a break from this when being asked to suddenly move down the piano with my left hand; I was asked to add an exaggerated movement to this. My instinctive would be to be animated here, particularly as the dynamic is loud. Why I would move for this note in this way, and what is it about the notation that gives me that instinct? Is exaggerating this gesture adding anything to the impression of this sound? How will our movements then connect with the dancer?

We will be performing this piece live with the dancer at the University York in April/May 2019.