The New York Baroque Dance Co.

Dance of the Month celebrates Bachtoberfest, with each class in October illuminating the dance in Bach’s music. How does the dance cadence guide the music cadence and phrasing? How can the body move in visual harmony with the music? These are just some of the questions to be explored this Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern Time.

Class 1: Saturday, October 2nd, from 3:30 to 5pm NYC time, we will look at Bach’s Orchestral Suite #1, the Passepied. Catherine Turocy will briefly talk about the music and her original choreography for 6 dancers in the NYBDC repertoire. Then she will share an adapted choreography for the class. Bach’s first playful passepied is based on a common structure nicely fitting the proportions of a dance. The second passepied uses the melody of the first passepied in the bass while an oboe duet with a complementary melody is played on top. Experience the architecture of the dance in this imaginative choreography as one returns to Passepied I. This class is of interest to dancers and musicians.

Class 2: On Tuesday, October 5th, from 11am to 12:30 NYC time, Julia Bengtsson will teach her courante from Suite #5 in C Minor for Cello by Bach, a dance she created for Julie Andrijeski’s Atlanta Baroque’s “Bach in Motion.” The courante is in period style however the rest of the creation blended Baroque and contemporary as witnessed by critic, Gillian Anne Renault in ARTS ATL:

“Bengtsson’s solo combined baroque and contemporary dance vocabulary with high extensions, a flexible, expressive torso and drops to the floor. She used a long piece of off-white silk as a prop, at one-point gesturing as if writing on it, at other times holding it aloft like a bridal veil or bunched in her arms like a baby. Based in New York, she dances and choreographs with Winters’ Bach Cello Suites Festival Project. Her intent in Friday’s solo was to question whether Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer’s wife and copyist, would have made different choices if she lived today and didn’t have to choose between family and career. Bengtsson gave an emotional performance, beautifully articulated, and wore a long, period-inspired dress.”

From Julia: “The courante of the 5^th Cello Suite is the only one in the suites which Bach wrote in the French style, the other ones being in the Italian style. So, I took the opportunity to dig into the courante tradition, looking at many different dances. Some were heavily ornamented, others not. I surveyed period English and French choreographies and then turned to Taubert. ”

Class 3: On Tuesday, October 12th Catherine Turocy will look at the Aria (theme) from the Goldberg Variations through the lens of dance, using James Richman’s new recording of this work. In the program notes to this recording Richman argues the aria is not a saraband as some artists testify. However, there is good reason for this confusion and the aria is beautifully danceable. Join Catherine in her new solo choreography to the aria!

Class 4: On Tuesday, October 19^th, Caroline Copeland will look at  Bach’s Sarabande from French Suite #5 in G Major, which she performed with Jory Vinikour in a concert in Carolyn Winter’s series in Washington D.C. Gain insight into Caroline’s choreographic process!

Class 5: On Tuesday, October 26^th, Julia Bengtsson will focus on the Gigue from the 5th Cello Suite (her favorite movement!) From Julia: “ It’s SO fun to dance and is a great contrast to the Courante, as I am playing with the theatrical style and mixing in some contemporary ballet elements.”