Dance & Choreography
Believing In The Baroque
Catherine Turocy and The New York Baroque Dance Company
January 2026
The New York Baroque Dance Company in Dido and Aeneas with Ars Lyrica Houston
Featuring Alexis Silver (Center) & Julia Bengtsson (Left), Carly Fox (Right)
Photo Credit: Pin Lim
Featuring Alexis Silver (Center) & Julia Bengtsson (Left), Carly Fox (Right)
Photo Credit: Pin Lim
By Dawn Lille
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Try saying “Baroque” to most people. They will think either “outdated” or “filled with ornate details.” Historically the term applies to a style of artistic expression in the late 17th and first half of the 18th centuries that is best understood by thinking of the palace at Versailles, the music of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel, and the paintings of Watteau, Rubens, Rembrandt and Caravaggio. But to Catherine Turocy, dancer, choreographer, reconstructor, director and dance historian, it is a vital and still revealing time with a viewpoint that is very applicable to creators of today.
Opera, invented during this period, was a mixture of everything theatrical at the time; the style on stage mirrored that of the elite society that sponsored it. Carriage, the way in which one held an upright body that was “presented” to society, was of utmost importance, as was the art of moving from place to place. And it was taught at an early age to children. There was a way to hold and move the head, eyes, hands and shoulders, and there was a rule for sitting. The use of props, particularly the fan, involved a symbolic language in which a conversation could take place without a sound uttered. Everything was ornate and elaborate, elegant and controlled, but had to appear effortless in this mannered society with its masks and hoop skirts. Clothing was created with care. |
Catherine Turocy with Tambourine in Rameau's Oper-Ballet, Pygmalion
Mercury Baroque Producer, Directed by Antoine Plante Photo Credit: Amitava Sarkar |
Catherine Turocy in Mask
Photo Credit: Mark Gillespie |
The dance, which had played a vibrant role in the social interaction and world view of the court, moved to the stage as opera ballet and maintained the same social rules. Steps became more complicated and floor patterns challenging in the minuets and gigues which became pre ballet. All dancers learned to read dances via a system of writing them known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.
Catherine Turocy, artistic director of the New York Baroque Dance Company, is recognized internationally as one of the leading experts in Baroque dance and opera. Her creativity spread from directing the dances in revivals to choreographing them to directing the entire opera. Originally from Cleveland, she spent time in New York City and has lived in Dallas, Texas, for many years, from which she commutes to all parts of the world. She is married to James Richman, a prominent harpsichordist and Artistic Director/Conductor of Concert Royal and the Dallas Bach Society, who also serves as music director of the New York Baroque Dance Company.
Catherine has written extensively and once said “I am a dancer. Ever curious, I fell down a hole looking for answers about art and dance. I may still be falling. Sometimes it feels like flying.” I asked her about her personal journey in dance and her love for this theatrical style. How did you become interested in dance and Baroque dance in particular? I just always danced. I come from a large family, and my mother would put on music and we all danced. When I was a freshman in college, Shirley Wynne, a faculty member who was an expert in period dance, asked me to be in one of her reconstructions of an 18th century opera ballet. When I started working with her, I fell in love with the style. |
How did the New York Baroque Dance Company come about?
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Ann Jacoby and I were dancing in Shirley Wynne’s company. It started at Ohio State and moved to California when Shirley got a job at the University of Santa Cruz, but the school could not sustain a professional company. So Ann and I moved to New York City, started performing with Jim’s [James Richmand’s] music group, and decided to form a company so we could pay the dancers.
How did you and Jim manage your professional and family lives? We literally met on stage during a moment when something incredible passed between us. He was a graduate student at Juilliard, and I was still with the Baroque Dance Ensemble. It was 1974. The way we were able to work and keep a family together was a combination of alternating child care and hiring a babysitter. We also shared sitters with friends. For the children it was a playdate, for us it was work time, which was never from nine to five. How did you evolve from being a performer, choreographer and stager to directing opera? Frustration. I felt the stage directors I had been working with did not really understand how dance was an integral part of what happened on stage. So, in 1984, I decided I would direct Gluck’s Orpheo in addition to choreographing and performing. These opera ballets need a choreographer to give stage directions. |
Catherine Turocy as Pierrot
Photo Courtesy: Catherine Turocy |
Example of Beauchamp-Feuillet Dance Notation Used in the 18th Century
Image Courtesy: Catherine Turocy |
What do you consider the basic characteristics of the Baroque – the period and the dance?
In the 18th century, all the arts were connected by an aesthetic theory that has to do with the way the planets move and the connection between nature and God. So things like geometry and rules of proportion and beauty are shared by all the arts. My journey has been to find out how that is manifested in dance. This occurs in the patterns seen on the floor. A square represents the material world, a circle the spiritual one. The “S” pattern was once called a lunar orbit and is a line of beauty. If you look at the paintings and sculptures in the Frick museum, they pretty much express these attitudes and poses. You have said that the Baroque was lost but still has much to teach contemporary artists. Can you expand on that? I think it was lost due to the French revolution when this type of dance was connected to aristocrats. If you did ballroom dance, you might lose your head! Also, I think that after the revolution there was a new spirit regarding dance – what it should be and its way of expression. So, for a while, the Baroque was completely lost. When Napoleon came into power the social graces taught by dancing masters began to come back, but people wanted to see other people, not gods and goddesses. Plus, there was more of a separation between social and theatrical dance. Why do you think this era has much to teach dancers of today? It can liberate the performer in terms of expressivity. The use of gestures and knowing where they originate is difficult. In the Baroque a dancer has choices to make in creating a character and to make it their own. It can strengthen technique because the Baroque uses a smaller movement range as opposed to today’s athletic approach. |
You have been part of many unusual projects. Two that come to mind are the restaurant Per Se and the planetarium in New Mexico. How did you connect them to the Baroque?
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Thomas Keller was concerned that his staff at Per Se were going to be a bit awkward walking through such a big, expensive restaurant. My challenge was to teach them to walk quickly and gracefully and offer a gift, like a plate, to customers. It was important that the body stance honor the person and the food. Basically, I taught a walk that was functional, yet gliding across the floor.
We wanted to bring dance into the planetarium since Baroque dance had so much to do with the movements of the planets. We wanted to start with the Greeks who were the first to talk about this. We signed up scientists, astronomers, and digital technicians to make this a 3D experience and to bring dance to a public that did not necessarily understand it. The pandemic halted the project, and now we have to renew our connections and find some money. Future plans?
To continue to support performance and research, to create an exchange with contemporary dance, and to offer event-based experiences, like a Baroque ball, that will bring in and involve the general community. There are so many possibilities to imagine, create and dream about! And I’m an experienced commuter who can glide into an airport with a suitcase stuffed with costumes! |
The New York Baroque Dance Company in Le Temple de La Gloire
Produced by Philharmonia Baroque and Featuring Olsi Gjeci Photo Credit: Frank Wing |
Catherine Turocy
Photo Credit: Alexis Silver |
Catherine Turocy, one of today’s leading choreographer/stage directors in Baroque period performance, with over 100 Baroque operas to her credit, has been decorated by the French Republic as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters. After moving to NYC in 1976, she cofounded The New York Baroque Dance Company with Ann Jacoby.
In 2018-19, she was awarded the Center for Ballet and the Arts Residency Fellowship in New York City for her work on Nijinsky’s Bach ballet (1913). In 2018, Turocy received the IZZY Award in San Francisco for her stage direction/choreography of Le Temple de la Gloire by Rameau, which also received two first prizes in “Best of the Bay” under both stage direction and choreography. Other awards include the BESSIE Award in New York City for her production of Rameau’s Pygmalion and for sustained achievement in choreography, the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence and the Dance Film Association Award for “The Art of Dancing.” NEA International Exchange Fellowships supported research in London and Paris. A founding member of the Society for Dance History Scholars, Catherine has lectured on period performance practices around the world including the Royal Academies of Dance in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen; the Festival Estival in Paris; and The Society for Early Music in Tokyo. |
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Dawn Lille, Ph.D., trained in ballet, modern dance and Laban analysis, and has worked in dance and theater as a performer, choreographer, director, teacher and writer. She taught at Brooklyn, Barnard and City College/CUNY, where she wrote and headed a graduate program in dance, and at Juilliard. Dawn’s many publications include articles in journals and encyclopedias, chapters in eight collections, and two books. Her interest in the social ramification of the arts was seen in the 1996 exhibit “Classic Black: Black Dancers in Ballet Prior to DTH,” which she researched and curated.
