Waltzing Matilda: Correspondences of Gesture in Three Modern Waltzes for Solo Piano and Dance
George Fisher and Carl Paris assisted by Aparna Reddy and Tom Sullivan

Although music and dance have enjoyed a long partnership in Western culture, questions about their relationship have usually been outside the realm of music-theoretic discourse. This paper moves those questions to the center of that realm by identifying gesture as a primary feature of musical organization and expression. It then explores how the gestures conveyed by a musical score are linked to the physical gestures of an instrumentalist involved in its dance performance, and how the physical gestures of the two kinds of performer ­ musician and dancer together ­ are related to each other.

The paper will document the process and present the outcome of the collaboration among a musician , a choreographer, and two dancers involved in setting three waltzes for solo piano to dance. The pieces to be performed are by Andrew Imbrie (1977), Roger Sessions (1978), and Seymour Shifrin (1977). The primary presenter, a pianist/theorist, will be assisted by faculty and graduate students from the Program in Dance an d Dance Education of the host institution.