Rameau and the Art of Dance

For over four decades, Tafelmusik has been an Early Music powerhouse with dynamic, engaging, and soulful performances informed by scholarship, passion, and artistic excellence. They make their BEMF début in a special side-by-side collaboration with the brilliant students of Juilliard415 in a pas de deux that bridges generations of Baroque expertise. Robert Mealy, BEMF’s Orchestra Director and director of Juilliard’s Historical Performance department, leads a celebration of the theatricality and elegance of Rameau’s music, featuring stirring overtures, brilliant chaconnes, and a parade of endlessly inventive dances. Rameau wrote some of the most kinetic dance music before Stravinsky, with rhythms so vivid that his own dancers remarked admiringly that he taught them how to dance. His music is brought to life with choreographies by renowned Baroque dancer Caroline Copeland, who is partnered with BEMF Dance Company regular Julian Donahue.