The Hungry Harlequin, a Pantomime

Inspired by Jacques Callot at the court of the Medici Family

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Even Nicki Minaj sees the 18th Century as a time of Beauty and Grace  (Photo by Francesco Vexxoli for W Magazine).

Don’t miss the Sarabande at the Dance of the Month this Saturday, April 13, MMDC.   Ani Udovicki will be teaching the Sarabande and Leah Gale Nelson will bring her expertise on the Baroque violin and accompany the class.  Come to the Mark Morris Dance Center  this Saturday, 3 to 4:30pm, only $15 for this rare experience.

Have an early dinner after the class and then catch the world premieres of Mark Morris at his performance space in the MMDC. Don’t miss this rare appearance of Baryshnikov dancing!

Join us the first Saturday in May and learn excerpts from the Sarabande Tancrede taught by Gregory Youdan.

This Week ‘s News with the NYBDC, very interesting…

1. Our office received a call from the Radio City Hall Rockettes wanting to know if we would like to sign up for a workshop with them.

2. Catherine Turocy’s “Spinning Spheres” is Chapter 2 in the newly published book,

Creating Dance: A Traveler’s Guide published by Hampton Press. http://www.hamptonpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1-61289-112-5

3. Beatrice Massin’s beautiful choreography for Que ma joie demeure http://vimeo.com/17284780  includes the talented dancer, Bruno Benne, who will be joining us at the Santa Barbara Historical Dance Workshop this June.  Benne is a young up-and -coming- choreographer in his own right and will be demonstrating some of his neo-Baroque works for us.  Dorm rooms are available on a first come first serve basis so please register today!

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Study with Baroque specialist Catherine Turocy this summer at the Santa Barbara Historical Dance Workshop June 28th through July 2nd on the beautiful UCSB campus.  Please click to our webpage for information on the international faculty, description of classes and registration forms.

For vocal students and young professionals, study with Ms. Turocy at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival

Baroque Opera Boot Camp

Handel’s “ORLANDO”: led by renowned Early Music specialists Stephen Stubbs, conductor [Boston Early Music Festival] and Catherine Turocy, stage director/choreographer.  Juliana Gondek, Program Director [Met Opera/UCLA].

Students are cast in our Handel’s “ORLANDO” productions (two staged and choreographed productions of extended segments from Baroque operas), and can expect classes and training in:  Baroque style and repertoire, Ornamentation, Secco recitative, Historic dance and Baroque gesture.

All students receive a minimum of six private voice lessons and six private coachings during the festival, as well as instruction in acting, diction, and audition repertoire selection and presentation. Visit this Link for more detail:

http://hawaiiperformingartsfestival.org/vocal-summer-program.html

 

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Come and Join Us for our Multi-era Workshop in Santa Barbara, California!  santa-barbara-historical-dance-weekend page/

Let our internationally recognized faculty take you through your paces and give you a treasure of resources, knowledge and contacts.

Where else in the United States can you learn the dances of Camargo and Cassanova from a Knight (Chevalier Catherine Turocy, decorated by the French Republic  in 1995)...

“Nobody today seems more qualified to reconstruct the French dances of the 18th century than this American and her New York Baroque Dance Company.“ Le Figaro, Paris, France

Or learn dances from Richard Powers, dance historian for the Tony Award-winning musical, Titanic…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv07o8Xa1W0

“With Richard Powers, you really are dancing with a star.” Alyssa Wisdom, The Stanford Daily

Why not learn early ballet from the dancer/author/historian Sandra Noll Hammond who wrote the book on basic ballet technique.

“Sandra Noll Hammond, after her work in NYC with American Ballet Theater, will be coming to our workshop to instruct students in the graces of early 19th century ballet…where else can you find open classes like this in the world?”  Catherine Turocy, Director of NYBDC and the SBHDW

Discover the application of historical thought to contemporary creations with the emerging and talented choreographer, Sarah Edgar.

“The Tragedy of Echo & Narcissus” (Sarah Edgar) was packed with polarities, mixing touches of historical costuming, punk rock music, high-energy contact improv-style movement, and recitation of text, to evoke this ancient story.”  Juliet Neidish from ballet-dance.com

Learn more about Baroque music and its close relationship to dance structures with Maestro James Richman of New York City’s Concert Royal Orchestra and the Dallas Bach Society (also decorated as a Chevalier).“…but personally I think that the present performance by James Richman and Concert Royal is at least the equal of any of them – and for some listeners it may even have the edge thanks to James Richman’s thorough preparation and outstanding direction…” Stephen Midgley

Catch the latest news on Catherine’s residency at UCLA last week, January 13-20th: http://artsmeme.com/2013/01/21/catherine-turocy-goes-for-barocco/    from Debra Levine

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For those students who joined Ani Udovicki at the Dance of the Month on January 5th,  you will have a fresh appreciation for watching the Minuet, Sarabande Tancrede, Entree d’Apolon and Gigue pour femme at the APAP showing this Saturday, January 12, 2013.  Here is the link with address, ticket info and a list of the other artists being presented by GEMS: http://www.gemsny.org/apapshowcase2013.html

Dancers Carly Fox, Amanda Salituro, Alexis Silver, Olsi Gjeci and Gregory Youdan with Concert Royal’s James Richman and Sandra Miller will be performing a 20 minute set as part of the GEMS Octagon Project. which is available to presenters for the 2013-14 season.  So look ahead to what is new in our coming season and do not miss this potpourri of talented artists!

 

Catherine Turocy begins her residency at UCLA on January 13 and will be in California through the 21st.  Be sure to catch her January 17th lecture,  Vitruvian Man Goes Baroque: The Renaissance Legacy and Baroque Dance, click here for details: UCLA Lecture

Other open classes will soon be listed in this post.

 

Registration is now open for our 2013 Santa Barbara Historical Dance Workshop June 28-30 for the Weekend  and June 28-July 2 for the Weekend Plus which offers more detailed work with the teachers.  Just click the link in the sidebar to the right for more information.

 

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December has been an amazing month.  I taught a workshop at The Place in London sponsored by the Early Dance Circle on December 15^th which was attended by Ann Hutchinson Guest (http://www.lodc.org/about-us/dr-ann-hutchinson-guest.html) and her husband Ivor Guest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Forbes_Guest)  Exploring ideas of the microcosm and macrocosm from the Renaissance and ending with concepts of Le Mouvement as described in 18^th century sources, we danced and improvised to Playford’s music. I was delighted to have coffee with the attendees afterwards including Barbara Segal  (who organized the workshop), Mary Collins, Moira Goff among others.

The next day I flew to Paris and took the train to Versailles for a conference on early dance sponsored by Le Centre de Musi­que Baro­que de Versailles, l’Association pour un Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Spectacle aux XVII^e et XVIII^e siè­cles, Le Centre de Recher­che du Châ­teau de Versailles, with the support of the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

It was an honor for me to present my ideas on choreography to Mozart’s ballet music, especially Noverre’s ballet, Les Petits Riens, to such a prestigious collection of early dance artists and researchers.

  Indeed, this was one of the most interesting conferences I have attended.  It was exciting to hear the latest thought on interpretations of notation and treatises as discussed by American and European experts with dance practitioners in attendance from Japan, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, USA, France, England, Germany and Italy.  It was also a joy to see friends/colleagues Deda Cristina Colonna, Ana Yepes, Jennifer Thorp, Yoko Ichise and so many more.

 On December 20^th  I attended the dress rehearsal in Paris at the Opera Comique for the Noverre ballets choreographed by Marie-Genevieve Massé and danced by her company, L’Eventail.  The lavish and well-performed production underscored the support early dance enjoys in France for the revival of Noverre’s work on a scale much larger than what is possible in the United States.  Review:  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/48b687e8-5011-11e2-805c-00144feab49a.html#axzz2GP9qw3St   and another review from a musicologist: http://www.musicologie.org/publirem/ballets_de_noverre.html

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Thoughts from Sarah Edgar

“I’ve been dancing my reconstruction of Anthony L’Abbé’s “Passacaglia of Venüs &Adonis” (1725) for three years, and I’ve developed an intimate relationship to the choreography. After performing it many times in a more “authentic” form with the original music played on period instruments, I decided to find out what would happen to the choreography if I took it out of its original musical context. I asked the new music and jazz composer Florian Rynkowski to work with me to create a new composition to accompany the dance. Florian worked closely with the structure of the original music as well as with the emotional landscape that I created for this dance. This is an experiment and an effort to discover more within choreography and to hopefully encourage the audience to look at baroque dance in a new way.”        Link to tickets: http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Event/Baroque-Ball.aspx

 

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Description: You are invited to join The New York Baroque Dance Company in a presentation of works the dancers have created in the Baroque style or reconstructed from period dance notation.  This will be an exclusive look at the inner talent of the company, the personalities shaping the future of Baroque dance and the intriguing process of exploration behind our work.

7:30-8:30 Our evening begins with an optional  Baroque Dance instruction for the beginner. We would like to “reconstruct the 18th century audience” by familiarizing our attendees with social dance and etiquette from the European courts of Louis XIV of France and Queen Anne of England. Whether you participate in dancing or watch from a chair, this event will be informative and entertaining as Catherine Turocy takes you from bows to bourrées. Class instruction will be slanted towards the evening’s dances by the general assembly at 9:30pm.

8:30-9:30  The NYBDC is perhaps the only professional dance company where all its members read and use a dance notation system.  Some dancers are more accomplished than others, but all are trained in the notation system and encouraged to do their own reconstructions.  This tool empowers our performers, helps us mount dances quickly and contributes to the spontaneity and discussion crucial to the creation of art.  We are happy to share this process with you as members of the company perform dances being reconstructed for performance. Company member Rachel List will also bring her student dancers from Hofstra University to give a preview of Rachel’s period choreography to be premiered at the university the following week.

9:30-10:30 The performance  will be followed by optional general dancing (a ballroom duet and Contredanse) with members of the NYBDC joining the audience in the pleasure of the dance.  Specific works will be announced on the website with links to the notation for those members of our audience who read the notation.  The 7:30 class instruction will be slanted toward the evening’s dances.

Please join us at the Baroque Ball and tell your friends about this most unusual event!  We anticipate a large crowd so please purchase your tickets in advance .

Tickets: $20 at the door

$15 when purchased in advance

Link to Buying Tickets online  http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Event/Baroque-Ball.aspx

From Dancer Carly Fox speaking of  her work on the Passacaille

“ I am creating a Passacaille for four,  taking my inspiration and much of the footwork from the notated “Passacaille pour un homme et une femme” by Guillaume Louis Pécour, and sprinkling in some solo work from the “Chaconne de Phaeton pour un homme” (also choreographed byPécour).  The challenge and the joy of working with this material is both adapting the choreography to four dancers  and to different music, a beautiful Passacaille composed by Francois Couperin. The music is twice as long as that of the original music for the notated Passacaille, so there is plenty of room for exploration.  Up to now, we have been working entirely on learning the footwork and experimenting with the spatial patterns that I have been imagining. The dancers are patient with me as we try different approaches to the same figure and find out what is possible with four bodies instead of two. Next we will be taking inspiration from paintings, sketches, and figurines to explore the use of our upper bodies, our arm movements, and possibly some props. There is so much to discover, I only wish we had more time!”

Additional comments will be posted on this blog by the other dancers presenting : Matthew Buffalo, Sarah Edgar, Carly Fox Horton, Olsi Gjeci, Rachel List, Alexis Silver, Ani Udovicki, Gregory Youdan

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Review: New York Baroque Dance Company | Dallas Bach Society | Caruth Auditorium from http://www.theaterjones.com/

Having a Ball, The New York Baroque Dance Company turns contrast into drama with the Dallas Bach Society.

by Margaret Putnam

published Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dallas — When the music is sublime and the poetry achingly beautiful, should not the ballet shimmer forth on gilded slippers? You would think so. But when The Dallas Bach Society teamed with The New York Baroque Dance Company to perform Monteverdi’s “Il Ballo delle Ingrate,” the composer had something difference in mind; namely, that contrast makes for better drama.

The show was all Claudio Monteverdi, and what a range of mood and style his Madrigals — Book VIII offered. The music was intense, delicate, touching and agitated, much of it inspired by the poetry of Petrarch, Rinuccini and Torquato Tasso.

The program Friday night at Caruth Auditorium focused on four of the 22 sections of Book VIII, the first three dealing with war, and the last (Il Ballo delle Ingrate) with love.

War gets the first shot. “Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” reveals a fierce warrior maiden (Clorinda), defending the forces of Islam against the Crusaders. Her antagonist is Tancredi, who has no idea she is a woman, much less that he has long been in love with her. The two square off at a distance, circle, size each other up, and then go at it again and again. Clorinda (Alexis Silver) is tiny, in blue helmet and plume and gold tunic; Tancredi (Matthew Buffalo) towers over her in huge black helmet and plume and black and red tunic. At one point, he kneels in prayer, as though to seek advice, while she stands motionless far away.

The movement is slow and stylized, something like that of Japanese kabuki, where every gesture is enlarged and repeated. Eventually, the sword must come down on one of them, and it is on Clorinda. Tancredi slowly removes his helmet, and cradling the dying Clorinda, removes her helmet to discover to his dismay her real identity. They look into each other’s eyes; she forgives him, and in one last embrace, dies in his arms.

Their plight is sung with anguished and sometimes plaintive fervor by Fabiana Gonzalez (Clorinda), Nicolas Garza (Tancredi) and Patrick Gnage (Testo), giving the dance even more poignancy.

Although “Il Ballo delle Ingrate” falls into the category of love in the last section of Monteverdi’s Book VIII, anti-love would be more like it. The work was first performed as part of the wedding celebrations for Margaret of Savoy and Francesco Gonzaga, son of Monteverdi’s patron the Duke Vincenzo of Mantua. If your notion of baroque dance calls for grace embellished with ornate hand gestures and tilting heads, you are in for a surprise. “Il Ballo” is everything but graceful, for it depicts four women who had scorned love and marriage, and pay for it later when Venus and Cupid complain of them to Pluto, King of the Underworld. They are brought back from the Underworld to teach a lesson to the audience.

The four ingrates (Glenda Norcross, Valerie Shelton-Tabor, Ms. Silver and Catherine Turocy), with their bizarre headpieces and masks, clad in tight bodices and frayed black and red long skirts, stumble and lurch out of the darkness into sunlight. Timid and bewildered, they first hold hands for support. Soon, however, they are slapping, pushing and grabbing, only to give in to grief and dismay.

Supplying yet more drama, the singers representing Amore (Rebecca Beasley), Venus (Ms. Gonzalez) and Pluto (David Grogan) move in and around the miserable lot. At the end, Pluto envelops the cowed women with his huge cape as though to escort them back to the underworld. This short and disturbing tale only needed gloomy red flames and perhaps a lightning bolt to deepen its sense of unease.

◊ Margaret Putnam has been writing about dance since 1980, with works published by D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Playbill, Stagebill, Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.

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Come to our performances with the Dallas Bach Society on September 14 in Dallas or September 17 in Alexandria, Louisiana.  Go to DBS website: http://dallasbach.org/

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