The New York Baroque Dance Company www.nybaroquedance.org founded in 1976 by Catherine Turocy in collaboration with Ann Jacoby will have company member Caroline Copeland join our Summer Intensive as a Guest Artist and Teacher. She will be teaching dances the Commedia dell'Arte actors performed in Northern Italy in the late 1500's. Caroline Copeland has performed in mask the roll of Arlecchino along with other rolls in productions with the New York Baroque Dance Company for 10 years.

Caroline Copeland received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Goucher College in Baltimore, M.D. Her love of history and dance led her to the New York Baroque Dance Company under the direction of Catherine Turocy where her featured roles include the title role in Handel's Terpsicore, Euridice in Gluck's Orphée, and the Galant in Mozart's Les Petits Riens. Ms. Copeland has acted as assistant director to Ms. Turocy in her productions of Rousseau's Le Devin du Village with Antoine Plante and the Mercury Baroque Ensemble, as well as Handel's Atalanta with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Additionally, she researches topics on social and theatrical history for company productions and interprets Feuillet notation, a form of 18th c. dance notation. Ms. Copeland has also performed as a guest artist with the Boston Early Music Festival in their productions of Lully's Thésée and Conradi's Ariadne and she has appeared with numerous other companies and contemporary choreographers in the New York City area, including Company Rindfleisch and The Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Copeland's dancing has been described as "sublime", "alluring", and "enrapturous" earning her mentions in the Wall Street Journal, Backstage Magazine, and Show Business Weekly. Ms. Copeland has held classes and workshops for various groups including the Aquila Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, the Strasbourg Institute, and SUNY New Paltz. She has also studied period fencing with Maestro Ramón Martínez and stage combat with Joseph Daly at HB Studios in New York City.

The New York Baroque Dance Company …bringing forgotten masterpieces to new audiences in what The Guardian has called "a whirlwind of desperately needed fresh air."

A personal note: Catherine Turocy, New York Baroque Dance Company was one of the very first companies to order Commedia dell'Arte masks from Stanley Allan Sherman when he first started making them in the mid late 70's. Some of the female masks that we use today were originally designed for Catherine Turocy's company. It is a pleasure to have a member of her company join RCCU as a guest artist and teacher.