Dear Friends,
2013 has been a year of expansion for The New York Baroque Dance Company and we would like to share this exciting news with you.
Sarah Edgar has been appointed Associate Director of The New York Baroque Dance Company. Based in Chicago, she is overseeing the company’s activities in the Midwest. She is the resident choreographer at the Haymarket Opera Company in Chicago, and adjunct professor in dance at Northwestern University. Performing with NYBDC since 1999, we are very happy to welcome her in this new relationship with the company. For an update on her activities, please visit this link: bio.
The pensive Fire, Caroline Copeland
Caroline Copeland has been appointed Director of Touchstone. Performing with the NYBDC since 1996, choreographer with the Boston Early Music Festival, adjunct professor in dance at Hofstra University, we are happy to welcome the creative guidance of Caroline in this new project of the company. For an update on her activities, please visit this link: bio
Touchstone, a new project of the NYBDC, is in development. Its mission is to bring free live performances to historical sites in New York City and the Hudson Valley such as Federal Hall, Fraunces Tavern, battlefields in Brooklyn and the Bronx, the Morris-Jumel Mansion as well as The Clinton House, The Creek Meeting House, Montgomery Place, Long Island historical sites… in addition to museum collections. Combining dance, music, poetry, costumes and letters from the past, Copeland and artists of the NYBDC will bring these sites to life for today’s public. Seeing the past as “prologue” to the present and future can inspire feelings of community, preservation and pride of place. We hope to inspire, re-invigorate and grow our audiences by bringing our work to the streets and historical sites. In addition to traditional concepts of live performance, we also intend to use modern technology, video/sound installations and contemporary/historical performance art as the opportunities present themselves.
The Dance Program at Hofstra University, chaired by NYBDC member Rachel List, performed Catherine Turocy’s choreography for Mozart’s only ballet, Les Petits Riens, set by Caroline Copeland. This ballet served as an introduction for the students to early ballet. The video clip below reveals the importance of our work on the college level. Recent residencies have included Cornell University, Indiana University, Ohio State University, and the University of California in Los Angeles.
Santa Barbara Historical Dance Weekend PLUS covers dances from the 17th to the 20th century with the goal of giving a fresh perspective to historical dance. The mixed student body of professional performing artists/ teachers and Vintage Dancers creates a vitality conducive to new creative thought .Our international faculty provides tools needed to extend students’ knowledge into the past. With the future in mind, experimental choreographers wishing to build new constructs based on historical works learn to realize their individual visions. Dances and lectures of the workshop are recorded and uploaded to the internet making our studies available to the students for further reference as they help to expand the reach of early dance exploration. This summer we are inviting Bruno Benne as our guest instructor from France to teach classes in Baroque dance as well as classes in the New Baroque experimental choreography currently the rage in Europe. Link to 2014 Weekend
Dance of the Month at the Mark Morris Dance Center held every first Saturday of the month continues to introduce and develop further study in historical dance. The general public and professional artists from ages 13 and up attend the class taught by members of the NYBDC. This is our seventh season offering these classes.
Benjamin Millepied, most recently appointed to direct the Paris Opera Ballet beginning in 2014 (bio) and Edward Villella are two of the most well-known choreographers who have used the NYBDC as a resource for their historical research. Catherine Turocy and members of the company have been providing services for the community at large since 1976. The company archives and videos of past performances have been studied at the Dance Collection at Lincoln Center by Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown and Karole Armitage, among others. Link to the young Karole Armitage in NYC with an interview and an excerpt from her Watteau Duet at 33 seconds in: video link
In the last season Artistic Director Catherine Turocy has been an invited guest artist at the Early Dance Circle in London, Le Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, l’Association pour un Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Spectacle aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Le Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles with the support of the University of Paris-Sorbonne and has directed operas at the Astoria Music Festival in Oregon, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and the University of Miami in Florida. In addition, her essays have been published in 2012-13 in Early Music America Magazine as well as two new books: Creating Dance: A Traveler’s Guide published by Hampton Press and Dance on Its Own Terms: Histories and Methodologies published by Oxford University Press.
In the Future the NYBDC is working to offer its documentary video on ITunes and Ms. Turocy has recently been notified that books with her writings may soon be available to download on Kindles and other reading devices. The 2014-15 season includes plans for a Jean Philippe Rameau opera-ballet in collaboration with Opera Lafayette directed by Ryan Brown with the Seán Curran Company and Anuradha Nehru with her group, Kuchipudi Kalanidhi as well as a new production of Julius Caesar for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
Given the amount of activity and the responsibilities The New York Baroque Dance Company performs, we would like to expand our administrator position to a full time post.
Please think of us in this season of giving and donate online through PayPal (look for PayPal Donate button in right sidebar on this page). If you prefer to mail a check, please make the check out to The New York Baroque Dance Company and mail c/o Rachel List, 141 East Third Street #2D, NYC, NY 10009. The New York Baroque Dance Company Inc. is a non-profit corporation under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue code. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Thank you in advance for your interest and support which is deeply appreciated. We treasure your presence.
Sincerely,
Catherine Turocy, Artistic Director
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